Serving a combined population of over 500,000, the Lake Huron and Elgin Area Primary Water Supply Systems supply potable drinking water to 15 municipalities in southwestern Ontario. The City of London receives water from both systems. In 2021, Dillon was retained by the Regional Water Supply utility to update the asset management plans, one for each system.
As part of this project, Regional Water wanted to integrate Asset Management with prudent financial planning that continues to be a priority for the utility. This commitment was affirmed in the creation of a new Asset Management Policy. This policy set the stage for an update to the utility’s existing Levels of Service Framework, providing alignment with the ISO55000 series of international Asset Management standards as a best practice. The Framework identified key targets for objectives relative to the parameters of quality, availability/reliability, and environmental acceptability.
With the updated Level of Service Framework and approved targets, the risk framework was revised to incorporate risk ratings for each component in the asset registry. This led to generating an overall risk profile across the system, which incorporated climate change factors as well as condition, performance, importance of the assets and impact of failure or under-performance.
A state of the infrastructure report for the utility’s $680 million CDN assets was presented and will be updated on an annual basis, measuring performance against the target Levels of Service. The projected capital replacement costs and mid-life interventions were added to the capital projects underway and planned to establish a 25-year financial projection for the systems.
The guiding principles of the asset management policy and the enhanced levels of service framework were aligned with key drivers for investment and incorporated into the business case process. This supports decision-making that operationalizes asset management at the Regional Water utility. The business case process has been enhanced to include assessment of risk reduction as part of the prioritization process. This alignment demonstrates robust application of the principles of asset management and supports the long-term planning and sustainability of service delivery for the municipalities who rely daily on Regional Water to supply drinking water, and future connections such as the Oneida First Nation community which is planned in the near future.
Dillon helped Regional Water to advance asset management practices by integrating climate change in the risk assessment as well as adding digital technology assets as a separate category of assets were exciting additions in this update. Ongoing updates to the Asset Management Plans further integrate asset management and asset planning processes into the Regional Water’s day-to-day business process.
Awards
- Canadian Network of Asset Managers, Tereo Innovator Award - 2023