Introduction to Price of Water Analysis in InfoWorks WS Pro

Step-by-step guide

An estimate for the cost of water in a water supply system can be made by including a unit price for water transfer through any pipe control. A different unit price can be applied to flow in the usual direction (From Node to To Node) and the opposite direction (To Node to From Node).

To allow prices to be applied to both import and export, or the bulk sale of water, negative unit prices are allowed.

As an aid to reporting, the cost at a particular pipe can be given a category. There are built-in categories to choose from, and custom categories can be made, if needed.

A common use of this facility would be to calculate the cost of water imported to, or exported from, the water supply system. A positive price is applied on links attached to transfer nodes for all imported water, and a negative price is applied on the same links for flow out of the system.

A comprehensive estimate of the total cost of water in the system can be made by applying a cost to all links. For pumps, this cost will represent costs in addition to the electricity cost calculated from the Electricity Tariff. The Price of Water figures are then added to the electricity costs to get a total cost estimate.

For each link, the cost of water can be included in each direction to a category. For example, include the price of water in the From Node - To Node direction in the Export category.

Available categories:

• Treatment - total cost of water treatment, which may include filtration or chemical treatment
• Chemical Treatment - total cost of chemical water treatment
• Chlorination - cost of chlorine injection and dosing
• Import - cost of bulk water imported to the network
• Export - cost of bulk water exported out of the network (this cost would be negative)
• Transport - transport costs or revenue for water transfer
• Extraction - cost of well or borehole extraction
• Pumping - any costs other than electricity costs from the electricity tariff. For example, maintenance or depreciation costs
• Other - user defined

To calculate the price of water in a simulation:

NOTE: a cost associated with the movement of water within at least one pipe needs to be included.

1. To open the PoW Network and Control, in the Model Group, double-click the PoW Network.
2. Expand the Stored Query Group.
3. Double-click the PoW stored query to open it.

NOTE: For this example, a query is already populated, which assumes that the unit cost of forward and reverse transport is £2/kL.

4. Click Test to ensure the query is valid.
5. If it is valid, in the popup, click OK.
6. Click Run.

The PoW value in the Pipe Control should now be updated.

7. On the GeoPlan, click any pipe to open its Properties.
8. Under Pipe Control, check that the PoW Unit Cost is updated to 2.00 £/m3. This can also be checked using a New links window.

9. Commit the changes to the Control.
10. Right-click the Run Group and select New > Run.
11. In the Schedule Hydraulic Run dialog box, type a name for the run, such as “PoW” for this example.
12. Enable Experimental.
13. From the Model Group, drag and drop the PoW network into the Network box to populate the Network, Control, and Demand Diagram fields.
14. Click Save.
15. Click Run.

16. When the simulation is complete, expand Run Group.
17. Expand PoW.
18. Double-click the PoW Control simulation OR drag and drop it into the GeoPlan to open it.
19. From the Windows toolbar, expand the Grid windows drop-down and select Link results.

The Link Results table reports the Forward and Reverse cost of water for each pipe:

20. Export the table to Excel or a similar program to further manipulate the data.