Cost optimal wastewater system improvements - 2009/2010 North Shore City wastewater optimisation project
Annual Conference
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This paper presents the methodology and results of the North Shore City Wastewater Optimisation project completed during 2009 and 2010. The project showcases innovative planning techniques and smart technology which enabled North Shore City Council (NSCC) to determine least-cost solutions to achieve complex planning objectives.
Like many cities and councils, NSCC endeavour to provide their customers with a wastewater system which minimises social, cultural and environmental impacts while doing so at the least cost to the community. Costoptimisation has been an integral part of the NSCC Project CARE master plan programme over the past ten years. Advances in technology have allowed NSCC to transition from a traditional trial-and-error options analysis approach to linear-programming optimisation in 2001 and then to genetic algorithm (GA) optimisation in 2008.
To meet the needs of the 2009/2010 city-wide optimisation project, substantial advances were made in the optimisation technology originally used by NSCC in 2008. These innovative technology enhancements achieved robust and repeatable results for the city-wide optimisation project. The solutions achieved were more practical from an engineering standpoint, and the usability of the technology was dramatically improved. At the time the project was commenced there had been no larger scale application of the optimisation technology in New Zealand, Australia, or the Unites States.
North Shore City Council has a wastewater network strategic improvement programme of $300 Million to be implemented by 2021. Cost savings on such a large programme are very significant.
The results presented in this Paper will demonstrate how the technology and engineering processes used in the North Shore City Optimisation project provide a robust method for evaluation of options to deliver least-cost solutions; allows the cost of different level of service (LOS) and other planning objectives to be quantified; and, by definition, saves money.