3.4 Post Acceptance Support and Maintenance
3.6 Hardware and Software Life Expectancy
4.1.3 Life Cycle Costs and Net Present Value
4.3 Approaches to Incorporate Intangible Benefits
5.0 FORMULATING THE BUSINESS CASE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Automation systems are an integral part of successful operation of a modern utility. Modern control systems can support enhanced decision making and the flexibility to adapt to future operational constraints, treatment processes, and regulatory requirements. Automation systems have historically been implemented as part of a larger process project and, as such, have generally not required significant justification because they have represented a small percentage of overall project cost.
For stand-alone automation projects that involve replacing or upgrading current systems or those being considered as a part of a utility’s optimization strategy of “doing more with less”, communicating a solid business case is much more important today. This chapter provides an overview of the business case for automation and reviews development of a solid business case including benefits, costs, and risks.
2.0 BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION
There are several reasons to automate a water resource recovery facility (WRRF). These include consistently meeting regulatory requirements; improving process performance and reliability; and saving chemicals, energy, and labor. Many utilities have realized that automation systems can provide a window into utility operations. As such, the effectiveness and efficiency of their daily operations are often directly linked to the integrity of their automation system. The result is that automation systems are beneficial in terms of operational effectiveness.
Some benefits represent a quantifiable savings to the utility, while other benefits cannot be quantified in the same way. When building a business case, it is important to account for both tangible, or quantifiable, economic components and intangible, or nonquantifiable, components. Developing an inventory of costs for energy, chemicals, and labor can be useful in identifying areas that have the highest cost; it also focuses automation efforts on areas with the highest savings potential.
2.1 Tangible Economic Benefits
Table 2.1 shows the relative magnitudes of operating costs for a typical WRRF. The proper application of automation can have an effect on several of these cost categories. The following sections highlight key tangible automation benefits. The value of tangible savings can change over time because of inflation or escalation; this should be accounted for in the overall economic analysis.
2.1.1 Labor Savings
There are many facilities with a significant manual operational component in which automation can result in reduced labor. Increased automation can
• Reduce instances of “walking the facility” and visiting remote facilities to check and control the processes;
TABLE 2.1 Operating costs for a typical WRRF (Hamilton et al., 2009).
• Eliminate repetitive tasks such as filling tanks and adjusting chemical flows;
• Minimize the need for staff presence at a particular place at a specific time;
• Reduce time for the collection of operational data;
• Reduce laboratory work collecting and processing samples; and
• Reduce the time for compiling regulatory, operational, and management reports.
A fully automated process area would automatically handle ordinary events and alarm an operator when an unusual event occurs.
Labor savings can be estimated by itemizing individual tasks performed by operations staff with estimates of the time and frequency of each task, both before and after automation improvements. It is important to account for additional training, testing, and verification activities needed to confirm that automation improvements are achieving the desired goals.
Labor savings opportunities can be substantial for some facilities. The City of Anchorage Water and Wastewater System in Anchorage, Alaska, increased facility capacity by 62% during a 10-year period while staff was reduced by 15% (47 people) during the same period. A significant component of this savings was attributable to automation (Patrick, 1997).
Estimated reductions in labor should be partially offset by anticipated increases in maintenance and calibration labor for the additional automation components.
2.1.2 Energy Savings
Benefits from energy management at a WRRF typically come from automatically controlling a process to reduce wasted energy and shifting the time of day when energy loads are used. Energy usage data from
