Understand why it is important to identify critical valves and how the Criticality Assessment Manager can help.
It is important for water utilities to identify which valves affect and impact any potential water distribution system failure.
A critical valve may only affect a small section of the network if it closes, but impact a much wider area if it fails to close.
The result could be that additional valves in the wider network need to be closed.
Consequence is measured in terms of the numbers of properties (and customers) that would be disconnected or experience unacceptable levels of service, such as low pressure or loss of supply.
Reasons for failing to close a valve include:
By identifying critical valves, water utilities can effectively prioritize expenditure on solutions: maintenance, replacement, relocation, SCADA motorization, or control.
The InfoWater Pro Criticality Assessment Manager app, also known as CAM, enables water utilities to automatically carry out detailed, comprehensive assessments of the hydraulic impact of valve operations on customer-service levels.
The CAM identifies sectors—the minimum area that can be isolated—based on the valve options set. When a valve cannot be closed, sector size increases and therefore, the number of customers impacted also increases.
Access the CAM through the InfoWater Pro App Manager:
In the CAM, assess valves in two different modes.
Based on Model Elements mode—only the valves in the model (usually system valves) are taken into consideration.
Based on GIS Layer Elements mode—the valves under consideration can be those stored in a GIS layer (usually line valves).
The CAM app provides extensive output reports for listing, viewing, and evaluating the results of a valve criticality modeling run.
