Optimain® DS
Decision Support & Risk Analysis Software
Optimain DS has been tackling the challenges posed by the newly enacted federal Distribution Integrity regulations well before DIMP was even considered. With nearly 20 years of production use at some of the industry’s leading LDC's, Optimain DS provides the tools and ingenuity for gas utilities to meet the new DIMP challenges. Optimain DS is a comprehensive decision-support solution that enables system-wide risk assessment and strategic asset management.
Opvantek has a significant track record of successfully working with gas operators to implement industry best practices and assist engineers, managers, and field technicians in identifying utility-specific factors that affect distribution integrity, risk, and economics. Optimain DS incorporates these factors, and helps utility personnel analyze and prioritize distribution pipe expenditures systematically across their entire network. This approach has been the foundation of many customer successes in reducing system-wide risk and O&M expenditures and optimizing capital infrastructure investments .
Optimain DS supports integration with all major GIS and relational database systems to collect main and service pipe attributes, leak and pipe condition reports, plus location specific information, such as cover type, building usage, population density, and other relevant factors. Users are able to define discrete project "envelopes" based on various criteria, including: default main configuration, leak concentrations, address ranges or user defined spatial envelopes.
Optimain DS evaluates all Main and Service Pipe material types, including:
 |
Cast Iron / Wrought Iron
|
|
Unprotected Steel
|
|
Protected Steel
|
|
Plastic
|
Optimain DS provides powerful tools for system-wide analysis, including:
Project Builder - an Optimain DS project establishes a “scope” or envelope of pipe segments and all related source records that impact failures and consequences. Projects can be created manually or automatically to facilitate system-wide pipe assessment
Multi-Project Analyzer – where Optimain DS projects can be viewed and updated. After a project is created, Optimain DS continuously monitors and refreshes source data as changes occur such as new leak records, environmental data, or alternative actions, and provides automated refresh, recalculation and re-ranking of projects based on the latest leak, inspection and environmental information
Statistical Analysis Engine - considers all leak and pipe condition reports and develops various statistical likelihood values for each project.
Optimain DS goes well beyond traditional repair/replace analysis by using customer specific business rules, statistics, and algorithms that assess the cost and risk reduction potential of various alternatives, including increased surveillance, rehabilitation, repair or replacement.
Optimain® DS SPIP
Understanding that service lines can represent 50% or more of system-wide distribution network risk, many gas operators consider measurement and management of service risk to be a key component of their Distribution Integrity plans. In many cases, operators are assuming ownership of curb to meter service lines, adding an additional risk component, as these pipes run directly to homes and buildings where gas is consumed.
Optimain DS SPIP incorporates a separate assessment of the risk associated with leaks or other failures on service pipes into the overall risk model. Similar to configuration of Optimain DS for main pipes, implementing the SPIP module requires statistical analysis of available service pipe attribute and failure data, and SME input to identify and confirm service failure and risk profile factors and weights. Users can identify areas or map grids where the total risk is dominated by the service pipe component, which could be candidates for service only replacement projects. Service risk can also be the deciding factor when allocating capital or other resources.
Features and Benefits
The Optimain DS SPIP module is a valuable extension to Optimain DS software. With the addition of the SPIP module, Optimain DS is enhanced to provide the following functionality:
|
Predict service pipe failures based on material, vintage, size, leak history, and/or other factors
|
|
Model service-specific risk profile factors, including meter location, building use, and use of excess flow valves
|
|
Total project risk is the sum of main and service risk
|
|
Incorporate service pipe risk into project scores, system-wide analysis, and provide visual representation of relative risk by area in your GIS
|
|
Forecast service pipe repair expenses |
|
Manage proactive “service only” replacement projects when risk or repair expenses are dominated by the service lines |
|
If necessary, integrate new data sources to capture service-specific failure and risk factors |
|
Configure business rules to automatically select default service risk mitigation plans |
The Optimain DS SPIP module provides the means for evaluating and incorporating individual service pipe failure and risk evaluations, which provides increased flexibility in capital dollar replacement allocations.
|
