OREANDA-NEWS. Globally, water utilities are facing rising water demands and energy costs, shrinking resources, and deteriorating infrastructure. And, water loss and leakage are still rampant across water distribution networks even as large parts of the world are coping with severe drought. Tasked with addressing this array of challenges on shrinking or flat budgets, water utilities must implement smarter processes and control systems across their water distribution networks. To meet this need, Oracle introduced a new solution designed to help water utilities increase their speed and accuracy of response, reduce water loss and its impact on customers, and improve customer satisfaction with effective network analysis.

Oracle’s utilities-specific solutions, combined with its broader product and service offering, help utilities of all types and sizes achieve competitive advantage, business performance excellence and a lower total cost of technology ownership.

Oracle Utilities Smart Water Network Management—Oracle’s network management system for the water utility industry—enables water utilities to rapidly generate valve isolation plans for water main breaks, eliminating lag time between problem detection and response, which in turn minimizes customer impact and maximizes crew efficiency. This improved valve isolation planning can serve as a key tool for utilities to address distribution performance and conservation challenges.

“By triggering valve operation plans within Oracle Utilities Smart Water Network Management, utilities can better isolate leaks and breaks, reducing their impact on customers,” said Rodger Smith, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities. “Starting from a real-time view, utilities can simulate water valving scenarios, exploring the potential impact of each operation before executing it in the field. Utilities can then use the analysis to better prioritize infrastructure improvements, develop preventive maintenance strategies, and assess contingency and land-use plans to account for breaks and emergency services.”

Oracle Utilities Smart Water Network Management can also help water utilities in planning maintenance shutdowns as they can proactively notify affected customers and critical services, such as fire departments, of any expected service disruption (i.e. alerting area fire departments of impacted fire hydrants). By delivering an accurate, real-time view of the water network, Oracle Utilities Smart Water Network Management allows utilities to weigh the ideal network management scenarios to determine the best activities that balance regulatory, customer, and business objectives.