Performance of water supply operations measured by reliability and marginal cost

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Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Engineering
Department Civil & Environmental Engineering
Author Lillywhite, Jason Russell
Title Performance of water supply operations measured by reliability and marginal cost
Date 2008-05
Description This study develops and applies a concept of combining marginal cost and reliability in an operational water supply model. This concept can be used to gauge the performance of various water supply strategies. Traditional methods of water supply planning typically capture capital costs of new supplies but do not necessarily capture measurements of reliability and operational efficiencies. Reliability and efficiency can significantly impact performance of producing and delivering water. Rapid population growth, climate change, extended droughts, and increasing public scrutiny are all reasons why it is becoming more important for water supply planners to develop strategies that provide reliable and cost-efficient solutions to the public. Based on a concept previously developed, this study uses an approach of assessing reliability of water supply and marginal costs by incorporating both supply and demand-side management options. Risk-based reliability of the system is estimated as a function of shortages in flow rate and system storage volumes. The new approach is applied to a water supply planning model for the Washington County Water Conservancy District (District), a regional water wholesaler located in St. George, Utah. The results of this study show that increased operational efficiencies can be found while maintaining higher reliability in the system. The results also show that this approach can provide better insight into timing of large future supply acquisitions.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Water-supply; Water-supply engineering
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name MS
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital reproduction of "Performance of water supply operations measured by reliability and marginal cost " J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections, TD7.5 2008 .L54
Rights Management © Jason Russell Lillywhite
Format Extent 9,497,567 bytes
Identifier us-etd2,87913
Source Original: University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections
ARK ark:/87278/s6w67189
Setname ir_etd
ID 192465
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6w67189