IDModeling Inc. has been selected by the city of La Palma, Calif., to deploy its flagship smart water network software, Sedaru. Sedaru leverages IDModeling’s hydraulic, asset and operational management analytics so utilities can anticipate water operations, understand impacts and solve problems for energy, quality, water resource and asset management initiatives.
The city of La Palma’s Water Div. is responsible for providing high quality drinking water to its residents and businesses. The primary source of the city’s water supply comes directly from the local groundwater basin managed by the Orange County Water District, with supplemental supply purchased from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California through the Municipal Water District of Orange County.
“We see great potential in IDModeling’s Sedaru to connect our people and our data for better decision making, “ said James Tsumura, La Palma’s water supervisor. “Today, everything is done based on experience, and on paper, making it difficult to look at history. What Sedaru does really fits into bringing the agency into the modern day.”
Sedaru will connect the staff of the La Palma Water Div. to a broad range of systems, including Esri-based geographic information systems (GIS), asset management, hydraulic modeling and Neptune Technology Group’s advanced meter infrastructure (AMI). Sedaru synthesizes this real-time information, and places findable, shareable, and actionable role-based analytics into the hands of employees, from the office to the field. As an example, water meter usage, error codes, backflow and leak events will be delivered to Water Div. staff for immediate detection and proactive resolution. “Crews will be able to access usage data and share it; all while they’re onsite working with our customers. We’re expecting that to be a big timesaver,” Tsumura said.
Sedaru will also serve the La Palma Water Div. as a predictive, operational tool allowing them to access and run their hydraulic model. Previously only used by their engineering consultant, Sedaru unlocks the city’s water system model as a predictive tool that utility staff can immediately benefit from. This will allow the Water Div. to anticipate the impact of water system maintenance and operations for both planned and unplanned events. “Many times the information we get doesn’t reflect what we see in the field. With the help of our hydraulic model we will be able to prove there is nothing wrong with a specific asset, and that it’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” Tsumura said.
“Sedaru plays a big part in the city’s implementation of a smart water network," Tsumura said. "Sedaru opens up the pathway to go beyond traditional monitoring and control of our assets, and allow us to formalize data collection, asset management and prioritization to make better decisions on how our limited funds are spent on capital improvement and maintenance projects.”
“We’re excited to support the city of La Palma by empowering its Water Div. with a cost-effective, practical, and fully-connected operating platform that elevates the data and experience already at the utility into a unifying, connected app for all to benefit from,” said IDModeling’s CEO Paul Hauffen. “Sedaru leverages data from all of the Water Div.’s systems—as well as the practical experience of its entire staff—to deliver both immediate operational value and long-term system management benefits.”
Source: IDModeling Inc.
