Region of Peel's Real Time Control Strategy: An Integrated Plan to Enhanced System Performance and Maximizing Return on Collection and Treatment System Investments

Objectives The Region of Peel (the Region) has long recognized that the integration of an automated form of operational control to manage flows within its wastewater collection system would be a key tool that would allow them to meet or potentially exceed their wet weather flow management objectives as the Region continues to grow at a rapid pace and seeks to adapt to changing climate conditions. Furthermore, the Region also envisioned that the enhanced operational performance and efficiencies provided by an RTC based system could provide cost savings in system operations and capital program delivery. With its long-term servicing strategy having been defined by its 2020 Wastewater Master Plan, the Region completed a study to assess and demonstrate how Real Time Control (RTC) can be implemented on the Region's Trunk Sanitary Sewer System to support meeting its key business objectives related to the management of wet weather flows within both the trunk sewer system and at its two Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs). The main objective of the paper and presentation will be to show how the Region has been visionary and proactive in developing and establishing a regionwide RTC Strategy through this Study that demonstrates the value of its implementation and how it will be integrated within the delivery of its Capital Phasing and Implementation Plan (CPIP). Investigation/Study The paper and presentation will show how the RTC assessment project has developed and evaluated a range of RTC strategies that are specifically tailored to meet the vision, business objectives and specific functional needs of the Region's system. The analytical tools and approaches used to demonstrate the opportunities, constraints and the benefits of RTC implementation will be described. The recommended preferred RTC Strategy includes the automation of up to 27 flow control sites that will be integrated within a system that ultimately provides for the globally coordinated control of seven (7) trunk sewers as key flow control facilities. The conceptual designs of the overall RTC system and its elements will be described along with the recommended implementation strategy. The implementation of the RTC Strategy will occur in a phased approach. Furthermore, it will be implemented under a framework that provides a robust foundation for incrementally building the RTC Strategy from the simpler local reactive control to more sophisticated forms of RTC as the decision support system (DSS) tools are developed and as additional control facilities are constructed and integrated into the overall control systems. This will lay the foundation for on-going expansion of the system and facilitate the integration of new technologies over time in a manner that will allow for progressive improvements in the system's capabilities - as needed, and with the potential to ultimately culminate in a 'globally coordinated' configuration. Conclusions The implementation of RTC on the Region's Trunk sanitary sewer system is demonstrated to provide significant opportunity to enhance overall system operation and capacity management opportunities by dynamically making better use of residual system capacities when and where they are available in the system. The preferred strategy is designed such that it can be staged and integrated within existing and planned infrastructure in manner that provides flexibility for continuous improvement, resiliency to change (e.g., climate, growth), and ensures its long-term sustainability. The implementation of RTC at the Region of Peel also serves as a key component of the Region's digital transformation initiatives. Its implementation will provide the following significant benefits in supporting the Region's flow management strategy: -Opportunity to make maximum use of existing and planned infrastructure investments in order to attain an enhanced level of service and system performance relative to the Region's minimum design level of service objectives. -Added operational visibility and flexibility for both collection system and treatment system operators, -Added flexibility for managing and adapting to changing growth and climate conditions, -Opportunity to realize significant cost savings in planned capacity improvements, including upgrades at the Region's WWTPs. What do the findings mean to the Environmental Industry? System-wide RTC on a wastewater collection system is not yet widespread amongst utilities-for some it is perceived as a risk and involves adopting a paradigm shift in the way the system will be operated. For those who have adopted RTC, however, the benefits of greater operational control, improved operational efficiencies, greater visibility, and decision-making ability on the operation of the system are apparent and outweigh the aforementioned concerns. With the development and implementation of an RTC Strategy, the Region of Peel will be making their wastewater collection system 'smarter' and more efficient by applying new hardware, software, networking technologies as well as data management and analytics tools that will provide access to a wider range of operational data for monitoring, system diagnostics and analytics, flow conditions prediction, and system optimization. The implementation of RTC in the Region is effectively a catalyst for the digital transformation of the Region's wastewater and collection system. Within the industry, the significant operational and maintenance challenges posed by the recent COVID-19 pandemic have really highlighted the value of the digital transformation of utilities. Not only for more efficient system planning, management and operations but also for its ability to address issues of workforce availability, remote operations capability, and faster responses to equipment breakdowns and/or faster interventions to address system needs or critical conditions.