Download Improving the operating lifespan of surface-based

WMO
Improving the operating lifespan
of surface-based environmental
Automatic Monitoring Systems
Giancarlo Maria Pedrini
Technical Advisor of Italy P.R.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
WIGOS: A future observing framework for WMO
World Weather
Watch
GOS
GAW
GCW
Hydro OS
WIGOS
GCOS
Partners
GDPFS
Co-sponsors
WIS
GTS
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
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Real-time Environmental Monitoring Systems
Meteorological
Satellites
Hydro Meteorological
Stations
Control Center
Meteorological
Radars
Surface Based Monitoring Systems
Satellite
Communication
Network
Control Centers
Radio
On field
Automatic
Stations
and Radars
GPRS (GSM)
Users
Environment
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
Automatic Monitoring Systems are composed by:
• On–field Data Acquisition Platforms
• Communication Systems
• Data Acquisition Centers
Therefore they must be considered as
ICT (Information and Communication Technology)
Systems
and not only as the simple sum of separate “goods”.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
Automatic Monitoring System are widely diffused around
the world, as they can offer unvaluable performances:
ADVANTAGES
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Uniformity of produced data
Can be located almost everywhere
No need of bulky infrastructure
No need of main power supply
No need of constant human presence
Reduced operating costs
Can operate H24/D7
even during emergencies, when real-time data are mostly
needed.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
PROBLEMS
We must face the fact that many automatic stations, whose
data are indispensable to the International community,
VANISH every year, due i.e. to:
•
•
•
•
Inadequate equipment quality
Poor or inadequate installation
Dismissed by operating Authorities
Permanently damaged (by accidents, vandalism, etc.)
But the more frequent problem is
• LACK OF MAINTENANCE,
mostly due by unavailable or inadequate funding.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
Surface Based Monitoring Systems
Satellite
Communication
Network
Control Centers
Radio
Remote & on-field
Maintenance
On field
Automatic
Stations
and Radars
GPRS (GSM)
Environment
Survey and
Installation
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
Users
Evaluating the investment
AWS
Transmission system
7%
Civil works and installation
12%
20%
System engineering and additional
services
Software and models
12%
50%
The initial investment
23%
31%
46%
Initial investment (10 years)
System operation (internal
costs)
Maintenance
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
The overall
investment
Evaluating the investment
The “Cost of Data” comparison
Best
investment
Worse
investment
Intermediate investment
% of initial investment
100%
85%
70%
60%
% of valid data recorded
/transmitted / received
>99%
90%
75%
60%
58
69
87
98
Cost of data
(comparison)
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
Optimizing the investment
100
90
High quality and efficient systems
Receive > 99.5% of data
% of satisfaction
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
10
20
Minimum price systems
Saving 40 to 50% on investment
30
Receive 40 to 50% of data
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Reduced60price systems
50
70
80
40
% ofSaving
data 20 to 30% on investment
Receive 60 to 80% of data
Wellington (NZ)
90
100
This situation is often not understood even by HMS
executives, that moreover tend to make a DIY (Do It
Yourself) maintenance planning, and so think mainly in
terms of “buying the system”, even if not “buying goods”.
The result is that the maintenance and operating fundings
should be provided, usually on a year-by-year basis, by
the Finance Ministries, that often, or almost always, tend
to cut very soon what they believe to be “unnecessary
expenses”.
So more and more often, newly installed systems
suddenly become like Old Soldiers: “They never die, just
fade away” as Gen. Mac Arthur used to say.
But unfortunately they bring with them environmental
data, and there is no second chance to get them back.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
Users’ needs
Environmental
data
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
TARGET
The target is to get systems that can provide at least
99,5% of valid data for a time period of at least 10 years.
It’s time to stop seeing around the world systems that are
installed, and after a couple of years, finished the initial
warranty period, become useless, mainly because of lack
of funding to provide maintenance and/or transmission
fees.
It’s like to plant trees to get woods, and after two years
there is no more money to water them, so we only get dry
trees and completely miss the target.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
Modern Data Acquisition Systems can perform an
excellent task for a relevant number of years:
Monitoring stations can acquire and transmit in real-time
environmental data at a sampling rate that is more than
sufficient to assure the full knowledge of the phenomena,
as it can be easily assured that the Nyquist-Shannon
theorem requirement (sampling frequency > twice the
signal band) is satisfied.
Also data storage is largely adequate, in terms of years of
storage of each directly on site, for most of the installed
stations.
Solar supply systems can assure the electrical power for
stations for tenths of years, and also batteries, if properly
designed and of good quality, can have an operative life of
more than 10 years before needing to be replaced.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
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So the target can be reached using the following steps:
• Acquiring the right systems
• Making them working for long time
This approach is by the way the same adopted by airline
companies, that find convenient to keep flying aircrafts built
decades ago (see the Boeing 747 – Jumbo), providing
obviously adequate maintenance, instead of replacing
them every few years.
The advantages of such an approach also in environmental
monitoring systems are evident:
• Operators can use well known and debugged systems
• No need to proceed to expensive acquisition of new
equipment
• Continuity of data acquisition, mostly useful for climate
data.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
SOLUTION
The solution is to make all the stakeholders motivated to
reach the target.
This can be done convincing the Founders to provide not
only “goods”, but a working system with a long lifespan,
splitting the founding in two parts:
1) Procurement of the system using the ICT criteria, that
allow to take into account also other parameters, apart
price:
• Equipment quality
• Installation methods
• Effective long-term working experience in the
specific field of the company that gets the bid.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
2) Including in the tender also a 10 year turnkey full
operation assurance, that will include also:
• Full equipment maintenance
• Full software maintenance
• Total payment of all accessory fees (transmission,
power supply, etc, nothing excluded)
• Anything that will be needed to make the system able
to provide at least 99,5% of valid data for the whole
contract time.
To assure that the target will be reached, a performance
security that can be seized in case of failure to reach the
assigned goal, will be fundamental part of the contract.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
This approach will provide relevant benefits.
The Customers will have no more to find, often year by
year, the funding for maintenance and accessory fees, that
usually depend from another ministry, and very often are
available late and/or in reduced amount, if any.
The System Providers will be stimulated to provide:
• the best available equipment, as a poor quality will
result in very high maintenance costs, in the long term.
• the optimal installation, to avoid the need to redo it
again if something becomes wear out too quickly.
• a good training to customer operators, as this will
reduce the company maintenance costs, avoiding
unnecessary onfield services due often to poor operator
training
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
• a timely payment of all communication and accessory
fees, as this will improve the quantity of delivered data.
The International data user community will benefit of the
possibility to rely on of a well-defined amount of valid data,
stable in time.
In conclusion this approach, performing the best ROI, will
maximize the benefits without any increase of the invested
amounts.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
THE ROLE OF WMO
One of the major tasks of WMO is to assure that the
international community can get the maximum benefits
from the meteorological and hydrological monitoring
activities performed by members.
An official WMO recommendation about the criteria to
provide funding, in order to maximize the quantity of valid
data provided by the investments, would provide a
guideline that funders, starting from World Bank, ADB,
International Cooperation Agencies, etc. will follow, so
assuring the required results.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
THE RESULTS
Splitting funding in this way:
• Initial Investment
= 30-35%
• Maintenance and Operation = 65-70%
will insure that the installed system, even if composed by
a reduced number of stations, will anyway assure a long
term stable set of valid data.
The results will be
Less But Better
and I strongly hope that you will agree with me.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
It’s also necessary to encourage founders to provide
founding, using a similar mechanism, for the maintenance
and operation of already installed system, further
increasing the useful lifespan of existing monitoring
systems.
This combined actions will substantially increase the
quantity of available date, strongly contributing to a better
knowledge of our planet.
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)
Thank you for your kind attention
www.wmo.int
EC-PORS-5 25-28 February 2014
Wellington (NZ)