Bio Resources Asset Health Assessment for Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water

Bio resources asset health assessment for Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water

Case study

Client: Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water
Scheme Value: -
Fee Value: £100,000
Start Date: December 2023
End Date: February 2024

Project Lead: Brian Hayden
Project Team: Sian Jones, Ahad Aziz, Daniel Walsh
Partners: -
Services: Project Management, Engineering

Problem / Opportunity

Aqua Consultants were commissioned by DCWW, to prepare an Asset Health Assessment for wastewater treatment plants with sludge handling facilities. The works were prepared at Ofwats request and would support the PRO9 budget prepared by the water authority in readiness for AMP8.

Ofwats Request for Information, required a report to include scoring against, condition, performance and management systems, for all equipment at the sites. A scoring of 1 – 5 for each asset was used to determine a final MEAV score, which would be used to define the plant quality and understand the level of investment that may be necessary in AMP 8 and beyond.

Solution

Aquas team was made up of a Project Manager and Process Engineers whose challenge it was to prepare a final report for the named sites within a short programme

The project was delivered in two phases

Phase 1 : Severn sites under DCWW Asset Health Assessment
Phase 2 : Twenty five sites under DCWW Asset Health Assessment

The sites are widespread across Wales and were broken down into five regions namely, Central, South West, South East, North West and North East. Phase 1 was delivered over a one month programme at the end of 2023 and Phase 2 was delivered over the first two months of 2024.

In order to deliver the works on time, Aquas Project Manager devised a fast track programme which included working closely with DCWWs Bio Resource unit to ascertain information promptly in order for the teams Process Engineers to review the condition and performance of individual process components on the sites.

The first task included identifying the key stakeholders and defining who would be responsible for key aspects of the project. It was important to identify the DCWW project team responsible for site reports, operations and final approvals of the reports prior to submission to Ofwat. Once we had a good understanding of the key personnel involved in the project, we included daily meetings to ensure actions were being processed.

Our team initially engaged closely with the Bio Resource team to understand the level of performance of key equipment on the relevant sites. DCWWs operational reports and asset logs were issued to Aqua to list the assets and understand the level of maintenance required.

The second part of the process involved site visits by operatives who were familiar with the equipment on site. The focus of the site visit was for the operator, to capture issues through photographs that could be used in the report to support the final score given to the site. Our team followed these visits up with a meeting with the operators to walk through all the process equipment and understand the day-to-day issues on site.

The Project manager ensured all information was captured, site visits were made and follow up meetings were held by the team. As the final part of the process the PM prepared closing workshops for the two phases, at Swansea and Penybont WWTPs, to present DCWW with the final results of the assessment and seek final approval from the key stakeholders. DCWWs team attended the final workshops and whilst some actions were taken from the day, it was recognised that the format provided a positive conclusion to the project, with site scores and final MEAV scores being finalised.

Outcome

Once the final approvals were attained from the key stakeholders in DCWW, Aquas PM and engineering team finalised the Assessment Report in order for DCWW Managers to upload to Ofwat.

Shared Capability

Aqua provided a rapid response to a key client request to deliver a report to Ofwat in a short period of time. By mobilising a Project Manager and Process Engineering team, Aqua provided a combined proactive time management and technical delivery approach which enabled the project to be delivered in advance of the tight deadline.