The benefits of using flow control for the Water Corporation of Western Australia
The need
Prior to installing flow control valves, the Water Authority had little understanding of what an individual customer took, with regards to peak flow rate.
As customers flow rate demand grew, the existing service and water meter would often become thrashed, meaning too high a flow rate for the connection size, resulting in insufficient pressure at the desired flow, and repeatedly damaged water meters. Damaged meters result in no revenue from sale of water.
The solution
Maric constant flow control valves have been used as a standard operating procedure by the Water Corporation of Western Australia since the early 1990’s, for every new commercial connection flow control is compulsory.
When a commercial block of land is sold, the business will go to the council with a plan of what they would like to develop on the land. The council will then send these plans off to the relevant government agencies and they will consult with the customer about their needs for water, electricity etc.
For every new industrial, commercial, and domestic block of land that is developed, a “headworks” charge is paid to the authority. This cost is incurred by the developer and enables them to have mains water run past the block for possibility of a future connection. A headworks charge for each individual block was around $3,000.
Determining the peak flow requirement can be done in two ways:
– The customer has had a recommended peak flow rate for their processes by an engineer during the planning stages; they will then consult with the water authority on the available flow rates. then the water authority will size and charge a connection fee based on the provided flow.
-If the customer is unsure or has not had an engineer specify this, the water authority will then determine what their processes are and then decide what connection size and peak flow they will require and charge accordingly.
The benefits
Ensures customers are appropriately charges.
Customer pay a sliding scale fee for the provided flow rate.
Ensures customers are appropriately supplied.
A better understanding of peak demands, assists the authority to ensure statutory minimum pressure is available at negotiated flow rates.
Assists the authority to service more customers.
A better understanding of peak demands assists the authority to better maintain network pressures and therefor supply more customers.