• Title/Summary/Keyword: Wastewater Utilities

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The Assessment of Wastewater Treatment and Management Using Performance Indicators and Cluster Analysis (수행능 지표(Performance Indicator)와 군집분석을 이용한 하수도시설 및 운영 평가)

  • Kim, Shin-Geol;Choi, Tae-Yong;Koo, Ja-Yong
    • Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.165-175
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    • 2007
  • Performance indicators haven't been used for the assessment of the wastewater treatment facility or management in Korea yet, therefore they are going to be important parts in wastewater utilities because they are used to understand present situation and to compare one with other wastewater utilities. In this study, we used performance indicators to assess the condition of wastewater utilities and they were divided into four categories (A, B, C, and D). A category represented the condition of the planning & construction and composed of wastewater supply, disaster defence and employees. B category represented maintenance of wastewater utilities and were composed of manhole, sewer, and technical employees. C category showed the operation efficiency of wastewater utilities and D category represented the environmental load. To analyze the situation of wastewater utilities overall, cluster analysis was performed using four categori' es indicators. And CCC (Cubic Clustering Criterion) and R-square were used to decide the proper number of clusters, and wastewater utilities of 48 cities were divided into 5 groups(I, II, III, IV, and V groups). Each cluster was analyzed by average and standard deviation to understand the situation of wastewater utilities. A group analysis showed that IV and V clusters were insufficient, B group showed that I and IV groups were insufficient, C group showed all clusters are above average, and D group was also like C group.

Evaluation of Levels of Service in Wastewater Utilities Considering Customer Value (고객가치를 고려한 하수도 시설의 서비스 수준 평가)

  • Han, Sang-Jong;Hwang, Hwan-Kook;Chong, Yon-Kyu
    • Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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    • v.25 no.6
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    • pp.923-933
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    • 2011
  • In this study, we derived seven customer value factors to evaluate the levels of service in wastewater utilities required by customers. Levels of service according to the customer value were categorized into environmental amenity, accessibility of wastewater service, affordability of wastewater charge, quality of wastewater service, health and safety of wastewater service provision, reliability and responsiveness of wastewater service provision, and satisfaction of customer service. To investigate the levels of wastewater service, questionnaires were prepared according to the customer value factors, and the questionnaire survey was performed with 800 adults in all over Korea including male and female samples. The comprehensive satisfaction score for the wastewater service was 57.5 points, indicating a slightly good satisfaction level. The detailed analysis of the result showed that the satisfaction level was high in the wastewater service accessibility and call center service provision but it was relatively low in the river water quality and nasty smell of wastewater. It was concluded that the quality of wastewater service and customer service satisfaction need to be elevated primarily in order to improve levels of wastewater service required by the customers.

A Study on Current Energy Consumption and Recycling at Public Wastewater Treatment Plants in Korea (국내 공공하수도 시설의 에너지 사용 및 자원화실태 조사연구)

  • Park, Seungho;Kim, Byongjoo;Bae, Jae-Ho;Lee, Cheol Mo;Kim, Eung-Ho
    • Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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    • v.21 no.5
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    • pp.539-549
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    • 2007
  • To establish effective and prompt measures for energy conservation in public wastewater treatment plants in Korea, energy consumption rates in 233 utilities in 9 provinces and 7 metropolitan cities are investigated and compared to the rest of the world. Mean load factor for wastewater treatment utilities is 74.9% and those for influent pumps and aeration blowers are 56.2% and 61.0%, respectively. Mean electrical energy usages as the key performance indicators are $0.243kWh/m^3$ for overall sewage treatments and 2.07 kWh per unit kg BOD removal. Digester gas as one of major byproducts in the process amounts to $382,000m^3/day$ nationwide. While major part of the digester gas is used for sludge heating, only 7.3% of the gas is utilized for electricity generation. Both efficiencies for BOD removal and digestion gas generation are considerably lower than those in USA and EU utilities due to low concentration of organic material in influent wastewater. Such low energy regeneration, in turn, results in significantly higher energy consumption in Korean plants, compared to that in USA and EU ones.

Energy Efficiency Evaluation of Publicly Owned Wastewater Utilities (공공하수처리장의 에너지 소비현황 및 효율성 평가)

  • Cho, Eulsaeng;Han, Dae Ho;Ha, Jongsik
    • Journal of Environmental Policy
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.85-105
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    • 2012
  • In this paper, the energy efficiency of wastewater utilities was evaluated to explore ways to save energy via operational measures. The correlation of each wastewater characteristic parameter to energy was assessed to find a set of parameters that explained most of the variations in energy use among utilities. The results show that increases in inflow, influent COD concentration, and ratio of advanced treatment generally increased the energy use. On the other hand, increases in load factor (influentaverage flow/design flow) reduced the energy use. In the regression analysis, the energy efficiency was highest in the A2O advanced process. On the other hand, the membrane process (among the advanced processes) and the contacted aeration process (among the secondary processes) require more efforts in saving energy. However, the data base system related to energy use must be supplemented in order for more accurate analysis of energy consumption in wastewater treatment facilities. In particular, i) electricity consumption of relay pumps and, ii) energy usage per unit process, iii) pump power usage to discharge treated wastewater in a long distance, if necessary, and iv) alternative energy production and utilization status must be recorded. By utilizing the results of the analysis conducted in this study, it is possible to quantify a level of energy savings needed and establish customized energy saving measures to achieve a certain target level for benchmarking a successful case of wastewater utilities.

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The Development and Application of the Performance Indicator for Sewage System Service in Korea (하수도서비스 평가지표 개발 및 적용에 관한 연구)

  • Ahn, Young Mi;Kim, Duk-Jin;Yoon, Hyun Shik;Kim, Young Jo;Yoo, Man Sik
    • Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.453-465
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    • 2007
  • With rapid expansion of the water market and growth of water companies, the recent trends in international water industry show that standardization of service activities concerning management of water and wastewater system (ISO/TC 224, to be issued in the second half year of 2007) is expected to have a large influence on the global water market including liberalization of water service market. In the Draft International Standard(DIS) of ISO/TC224, Performance Indicators(PIs) are suggested to estimate the service activities relating to water and wastewater treatment facilities. PIs have been developed in many countries including some international organization(World Bank, IWA and etc.) for service benchmarking. To evaluate public service level and establish plans to improve service level of wastewater utilities, we developed PIs for 120 items and applied them to 10 sewage utilities in the consideration of their scales, circumstances and conditions. In this study, we verified the applicability of the developed performance indicators(PIs). So, we concluded that PIs developed for the purpose of this study can be a useful tool applicable to objective evaluation of the service level of sewage utilities. Using the evaluation tool of PIs developed, it can also be used as a benchmarking tool in this industry as well as for enhancing the efficiency of operation and management of the sewage system. It will also contribute to the water resource management through determination of investment priorities based on the evaluation results and to raising international competitiveness of the domestic sewage utilities to meet the future opening of the water market.

Development and Application of Performance Indicators to Estimate the Service Activities Relating with Water and Wastewater Works: Focus on Water Works Parts (상하수도 서비스 평가지표 개발 및 적용: 상수도 분야를 중심으로)

  • Choi, Tae-yong;Yoon, Yeo Cheon;Lee, Lan Jung;Kim, Duck-Jin;Jo, Jae Hong;Koo, Ja-yong
    • Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.411-429
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    • 2006
  • To improve Service quality for water and wastewater works, most water and wastewater utility effort to develop not only facility construction but also operation optimization. The operation is optimized by accurate estimation for ongoing situation. And from the accurate estimation, utility operator gain a information about their service quality and problems, So we developed a evaluation tool (Performance Indicators: PI) for service activity of water and wastewater works. The PI was developed in many countries and some international organizations (World Bank, IWA etc.) for service benchmarking. And ISO (international organization for standardization) just has been making a service standard for water and wastewater system (So called ISO/C224). This proceeding for making a service standard is ongoing now and will be launched in 2007. In our study, PI was composed of 6 parts (A human resource, facility management, operation, service quality, finance and environment). To evaluate water utilities, performance indicators for water was consisted of 100 items. Each 2 water utilities were estimated by this performance indicator. From the study, we just know that the performance indicator was a very useful tool to estimate utility service quality. And from the result, it is possible to know the strong and weak point of estimated utilities.

An evaluation of local waters productivity by operating types (운영형태별 수도사업 생산성 평가)

  • Kim, Shang-Moon;Lee, Ik-Gyu
    • Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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    • v.25 no.3
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    • pp.325-334
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    • 2011
  • Market Environment around water work industry is rapidly changing. ISO, International Organization for Standardization, announced the international water work service standard for comparison and evaluation between nations and businesses. And developed countries in water work are introducing market principle for growth of nation's water industry and reinforcement of its competitiveness. Also, some local governments entrusted their water utilities for improvement of competitiveness of water work. However, as some failure cases from overseas came out with emphasis, there are many refuting perspective about entrusted operation achievements of domestic water market. Hence, this paper evaluated competitiveness of domestic local water utilities from the perspective of productivity. After evaluating productivity using Malmquist productivity index, the authors compared and analyzed whether there is a difference of productivity between two different operating types by using Mann-Whitney test. As a result of analysis, it has shown that local water utilities achieved higher productivity at entrusted operation type rather than direct operation type. The local water utilities which chose entrusted operation had increased the productivity 13.9% on total factor productivity(TFP) during experimenting period, while the local water utilities which chose direct operation had increased 0.2%. The background of achieving this high productivity in entrusted operation was analyzed as a result of the higher technological effectiveness of a special water company. The result of this study can be referred when local government needs to decide on what operating types they will use.

The North Korea water supply system investigated using laws and regulations (법령으로 살펴본 북한의 상수도 체계)

  • Kim, Seung-Hyun
    • Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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    • v.36 no.4
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    • pp.209-218
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    • 2022
  • This study has been conducted to investigate the North Korea water supply system. For this purpose, laws and regulations concerning the North Korea water utilities were analyzed. According to this study, the water supply system of North Korea is similar to that of South Korea. The major difference between these two systems lies in the national water supplier: South Korea has the national water supplier as well as the municipal suppliers, while there is no national water supplier in North Korea. It is noted that the North Korean water utilities depend on outside suppliers for resources necessary for water production such as electricity, chemicals, spare parts, etc. This could damage the North Korean water utilities. If required resources were not delivered properly (deficient quantity and/or at delayed timing), the water suppliers would encounter difficulties in water production.

Water utilities vulnerability assessment and adaption strategies for climate change in Jeju province (제주도 기후변화 관련 상수도시설 취약성 평가 및 적응대책)

  • Kim, Jinkeun
    • Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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    • v.32 no.6
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    • pp.517-526
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    • 2018
  • Climate adaptation strategies for water utilities including 16 water treatment plants(WTPs) in Jeju were investigated. Drought, heat wave, and heavy rain were among the most significant climate factors affecting water utilities in Jeju. Heat wave increases water temperature, which in turn increases the concentration of algae, color, and odor materials. Some adaption strategies for the heat wave can be strengthening water monitoring and introducing advanced water treatments. Heavy rain increases raw water turbidity in surface water. The 7 WTPs that take raw water from streams or springs had a maximum turbidity of less than 50 NTU under heavy rain. However, due to concerns of turbidity spike in treated water, some WTPs discontinued intaking raw water when raw water turbidity increased more than 2 NTU. They instead received treated water from other WTPs which took groundwater for water supply. This happens because of the low skills of employees. Thus, there needs to be an increase in operator competency and upgrade of water facilities for the adaption of heavy rain. To improve adaption for the drought, there should be an increase in the capacity of intake facilities of surface water as well as a decrease in water loss. In addition, water consumption per person should be decreased.