Since 1990, 175 thousand people have moved to Des Moines, Iowa, increasing its population by 40%.
As Des Moines Water Works’ distribution system grew to accommodate these new residents, so did its need for more accurate data, better asset visibility, and increased reliability. Its existing, non-integrated CMMS, ERP, GIS, and SCADA systems provided a tremendous amount of data — but not in a manner useful to decision-making. So, in 2011, Des Moines implemented an enterprise asset management system, or EAM, to integrate these disparate data sources.
The Need for Data
By 2013, the new EAM was fully operational. However, despite tracking more than 250 key performance indicators and producing more than 180 reports, Des Moines still lacked the information needed to improve its reliability, control its costs, and reduce emergency equipment failures.
Soon, asset reliability issues and emergency breakdowns compelled Des Moines Water Works to seek an asset reliability module to supplement its EAM. The desired solution would collect data from the SCADA historian, provide near-real-time asset condition monitoring, and automatically generate work requests in the EAM when performance issues arose.
Motors@Work
DMWW chose Motors@Work to achieve their asset management, reliability, and energy efficiency goals. Motors@Work leveraged DMWW’s existing technology investments to collect and analyze data, such as voltage, current, power factor, pressure, and flow. Comparing values with predetermined standards in near-real time triggered information-rich condition monitoring alerts. Additionally, Motors@Work’s pump optimization functionality enabled DMWW’s operators to consider pump efficiencies, demand estimates, equipment availability, system capacity, weather forecasts, and energy tariffs when planning its operating schedule.
With Motors@Work, Des Moines Water Works increased its asset reliability, improved collaboration between its operations and maintenance, and cut its energy spend.
Analytics Savings
In its first year using Motors@Work, Des Moines achieved annual savings of $171,398; to date, their energy savings exceed $220,000. Similarly, by optimizing Des Moines’ pump schedules, Motors@Work enabled DMWW to improve its wire-to-water efficiency by 14.1 percent. Three years after implementing Motor@Work cloud-based motor-intelligence service, the mean time between failure on Des Moines’ pumps and motors decreased by 37%. Maintenance overtime is down; reliability and availability of critical equipment is up.
To learn more about Des Moines Water Works’ journey and how they achieved their goals, read the case study.
About Nicole
NICOLE DYESS
Director of Client Solutions
Nicole (Kaufman) Dyess has 20 years’ experience optimizing the performance of motor-driven systems. She began her career at Advanced Energy testing thousands of motors, consulting with motor & appliance manufacturers on their designs, and documenting motor management best practices for the US Department of Energy. Subsequently, she managed statewide energy efficiency programs at the NC Department of Commerce and then facilitated sustainability projects for the City of Raleigh. Nicole holds master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and public administration.
