Municipal Water and Wastewater | Allied Reliability

Managing a municipal water and wastewater system comes with unique challenges, especially when it comes to equipment reliability. Downtime, unexpected failures, and high maintenance costs can hinder the effectiveness of service delivery, impacting both operational budgets and the environment. To ensure continuous and efficient operation, read on to discover how we can help address one of the more common challenges in this industry.

Aging infrastructure is a significant issue for water utilities, as older equipment often leads to frequent failures, increased maintenance costs, and even service disruptions. Allied Reliability can offer solutions that not only extend the life of aging assets but also improve efficiency and reduce costs. Here’s how we can help:

Reliability Consulting

Allied Reliability’s expert consultants can conduct thorough assessments of aging infrastructure and develop strategic plans to address its associated challenges. Their services can include:

Asset Management Optimization: Helping municipalities prioritize and plan for asset replacements, repairs, and upgrades based on criticality and performance data.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Identifying why equipment fails, especially when parts or systems are nearing the end of their life cycle, and suggesting solutions to prevent further failures.
Risk-Based Decision Making: Helping municipalities make informed decisions on which assets to repair, replace, or decommission based on evaluating risk, age, and operational needs.
Lifecycle Planning: Developing long-term asset management strategies to optimize the lifecycle of aging equipment and ensure reliable operation without unnecessary costs.

Predictive Maintenance Solutions

Aging infrastructure is prone to unanticipated breakdowns, which can lead to significant downtime and repair costs. Allied Reliability’s predictive maintenance solutions can proactively monitor the health of equipment and systems to prevent failures before they happen. This can be done by

Condition Monitoring: Installing advanced sensors and condition monitoring technologies to detect early signs of wear or potential failure in aging equipment.
Data-Driven Insights: Utilizing advanced analytics and AI-driven tools to predict the remaining useful life of equipment, providing actionable insights on when to perform maintenance or replacements.
Reduced Unplanned Downtime: With predictive maintenance, water utilities can avoid costly emergency repairs, reduce downtime, and ensure that critical infrastructure is running smoothly, even when aging.

Training and Skill Development

Municipalities with aging infrastructure must ensure their workforce has the right skills to manage and maintain older systems. Allied Reliability provides training programs to enhance the capabilities of municipal staff, such as:

Reliability Fundamentals: Educating operators on the principles of improving asset management and maintenance decision-making using proven reliability engineering principles.
Condition Monitoring Training: Providing staff with the tools and knowledge to use condition monitoring technologies, ensuring they can monitor and respond to issues in real-time.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Workshops: Teaching teams how to conduct root cause analysis to determine why failures are happening and how to prevent recurrence.

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

FMEA is an essential technique for identifying the potential failure modes of aging infrastructure and assessing the impact of those failures. Allied Reliability can facilitate FMEA workshops for water municipalities to:

Identify Weaknesses: Pinpoint where aging infrastructure is most susceptible to failure, including key components and systems that require urgent attention.
Prioritize Actions: Prioritize maintenance or replacement efforts based on the severity and likelihood of failure, ensuring that resources are focused on critical assets.
Improve Risk Mitigation: Implement risk mitigation strategies that reduce the chance of catastrophic failures, particularly for water systems that are crucial to public health.

Long-Term Strategic Planning

Municipalities dealing with aging infrastructure often need help with long-term planning and budgeting for capital improvements. Allied Reliability can help by:

Developing Strategic Roadmaps: Creating a roadmap for the renewal or replacement of aging assets, ensuring a sustainable and phased approach to investment.
Optimizing Capital Budgets: Helping municipalities allocate budgets more effectively by analyzing the costs of maintaining aging assets versus replacing them.
Integrating New Technologies: Advising on the implementation of newer, more reliable technologies to replace or complement aging infrastructure, such as smart sensors, and automation.

Sustainability and Regulatory Compliance

Aging infrastructure often faces mounting pressure due to stricter environmental and regulatory standards. Allied Reliability can help municipalities ensure that their systems comply with regulations while transitioning to more sustainable solutions:

Environmental Impact Assessment: Helping municipalities evaluate the environmental impact of their aging infrastructure and recommending sustainable practices for water conservation and treatment.
Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring that aging systems are upgraded to meet current regulatory standards, avoiding penalties and improving community trust.

Allied Reliability’s expertise in reliability consulting, predictive maintenance, training, and strategic planning provides water municipalities with the tools they need to tackle the challenges posed by aging infrastructure. By leveraging these solutions, municipalities can optimize the performance of their aging systems, reduce the risk of unexpected failures, and ensure long-term sustainability, all while maintaining cost efficiency and regulatory compliance. Whether through advanced condition monitoring, tailored consulting, or workforce development, Allied Reliability supports water utilities in their mission to provide reliable, safe, and sustainable water services to their communities.