Del-Co Water Company, Inc.
Water Utility Company, Delaware, Ohio
Project
Del-Co is a small public drinking water company with a service area that extends into seven central Ohio counties. Del-Co operates and maintains a network of underground pipes, four water treatment facilities, and a series of thirty elevated storage tanks. Over the years, Del-Co has drastically increased the capacity of its water distribution system to match the growing demand from the communities they serve. Del-Co projects further growth in demand in the coming years, which requires modeling of Del-Co’s water system to design alternatives to meet the projected increase in water demand.
Del-Co depends on water modeling technology to keep their system up to date and meet the demands of the communities they serve. Recently, Shane Clark, Deputy General Manager of Del-Co, and his team faced a problem when they were informed by Innovyze that their InfoWater license was being phased out, and they would have to pay a significant amount of money for an upgrade to InfoWater Pro.
The engineering team at Del-Co had various difficulties with InfoWater. They were limited to working only within the ArcGIS platform, the product offered confusing symbology and a difficult-to-use scenario manager, and the learning curve was steep, even for experienced engineers. Therefore, before making a large investment in their current solution, Del-Co decided to explore the market and see what other water modeling solutions were available.
Solution
Del-Co set a goal to find a user-friendly, easy-to-learn solution with platform flexibility and powerful modeling tools. Achieving this goal would allow Del-Co to consider and implement improvements to their water distribution system faster, enhance customer satisfaction by ensuring that they meet the demands of the communities they serve and save money by using a more efficient modeling solution.
Del-Co was interested in Bentley’s OpenFlows’ WaterGEMS as the modeling solution for their water distribution system. Del-Co was impressed by the interoperability between the WaterGEMS stand-alone platform, ArcMap, ArcGIS, AutoCAD, and MicroStation. Del-Co realized that they could utilize their model wherever they needed it and weren’t limited to only working on ArcGIS. After seeing a demonstration, Del-Co engineers quickly realized how intuitive the software was and how easy it would be to manage different scenarios.
Del-Co keeps some records of their water distribution system on ArcGIS, and they were excited to learn how they can use those GIS files to create or import a model into WaterGEMS with just a few clicks. Del-Co also realized that, with a Virtuosity Subscription, they would receive Keys that can be redeemed for expert services and tailored training, making the transition and learning process easier.
Outcome
“After careful consideration of our options we decided that WaterGEMS was right for our employees and our company” said Clark. It was an easy decision for Clark and his team after they realized that WaterGEMS has the capabilities to do what InfoWater does while also eliminating the platform and learning curve problems that they encountered with InfoWater. “After only a few weeks of using WaterGEMS, I can already do everything I was able to do with our previous software and even more”. To further help with learning and quickly adapting to a new software, Del-Co engineers are planning a one-on-one training session with their Virtuosity Keys to learn how to use to the ModelBuilder tool in WaterGEMS.
Using Bentley’s water modeling products ensured a significant improvement in time management and accuracy for Del-Co’s projects. The Scenario Manager Tool made it possible to analyze multiple iterations of a model to determine the most efficient design. Though new to WaterGEMS at the time, Del-Co found the software flexible and user-friendly, which eliminated hours of training that Del-Co had been managing with InfoWater.
Del-Co wanted a water distribution modeling solution to deliver improvements to their water distribution system more efficiently and accurately. WaterGEMS helped them achieve this goal.
Software
Del-Co uses OpenFlows WaterGEMS for water distribution modeling to deliver improvements to their water distribution system more efficiently and accurately.
Facts
- Del-Co plans on redeeming “”Keys”” for project-specific training on OpenFlows WaterGEMS with a software and engineering expert.
- Virtuosity engineers were able to help Del-Co with their software purchase, providing information and demonstrations along the way.
- Del-Co engineers were easily able to learn WaterGEMS and have had a positive experience with the software.
- Del-Co engineers are working more efficiently and accurately thanks to their WaterGEMS purchase.
“After only a few weeks of using WaterGEMS I can already do everything I was able to do with our previous software and even more.”
Shane F. Clark, P.E
Deputy General Manager
Del-Co Water Company, Inc.
