Equipment Procurement for the Skyway WWTP Provides Energy, Operations and Schedule Value

Most municipal wastewater treatment equipment is procured based on capital cost. However, procurement should focus on maximizing value rather than minimizing first costs. Value means the lowest total cost of ownership, including capital costs, operating and maintenance (O&M) costs, reliability of meeting effluent requirements, standardization across facilities, after-purchase support, and meeting schedule.For equipment where the operating costs dominate the life-cycle cost, then procurement based on capital cost is unlikely to maximize value. Pre-selection allows evaluation of the total cost of ownership and maintains maximum control with the owner.For the Skyway WWTP (Burlington, Ontario, Canada), raw sewage pumps, aeration blowers, and UV disinfection equipment were pre-selected to maximize value. In these pre-selections, the proposal with the lowest capital cost typically was not the preferred vendor. Proposals with modestly higher initial investments resulted in significant O&M savings, lower life-cycle costs and higher overall value.