By leaving O&M to water treatment experts, both municipal and private partners can focus on other responsibilities
By acquiring and operating water treatment plants, Seven Seas Water Group offers a comprehensive solution that combines ownership, operation, and maintenance. This approach provides municipalities and private entities with greater control, long-term cost savings, and enhanced performance. While we also offer outsourced O&M services, owning the plant offers several distinct advantages.
By owning the plant, Seven Seas can provide a turnkey solution that includes:
- Long-term cost savings. Through strategic planning, investment optimization, and operational efficiency, Seven Seas can deliver significant cost savings over the long term.
- Enhanced performance. With full ownership and control, Seven Seas can implement the most effective strategies to optimize plant performance, ensuring reliable and efficient water treatment.
- Risk mitigation. As the plant owner, Seven Seas assumes responsibility for operational risks, providing peace of mind to municipalities and private entities.
- Strategic alignment: By owning the plant, Seven Seas can align its interests with those of its partners, fostering a collaborative and mutually beneficial relationship.
Leaving the plant under the management of capable experts allows municipalities and businesses to focus on their core operations, without having to worry about details such as staying within budget or meeting complex regulatory standards. With a team of experts at the wheel, water and wastewater treatment costs are reduced and operational performance is enhanced, resulting in more reliable and sustainable plant operations.
Reasons for Outsourcing Treatment Plant O&M
Some of the benefits of outsourcing the operations and maintenance of your plant include:
Cost savings. Outsourcing O&M lets municipalities and private entities take advantage of cost savings offered by greater purchasing power and economies of scale, giving them access to competitively priced maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. By partnering with experts, they can reduce staff and training costs, as well as costs associated with purchasing and maintaining equipment. Instead, municipalities and private entities pay fixed amounts, allowing them to keep within budget, with the peace of mind that the plant is being operated and maintained for optimal performance without additional input from them.
Improved efficiency and reliability. Having access to experienced operators and technicians helps streamline operations and reduce downtime. A specialized water treatment provider often uses advanced technologies and best practices — including data analytics — for improved system monitoring. This allows problems to be detected and addressed early, improving reliability and preventing outages.
Risk mitigation. Outsourcing O&M allows municipalities and private entities to transfer operational risks to a specialized provider. The responsibility for plant O&M now rests on the shoulders of experts with an in-depth knowledge of water treatment and environmental and safety compliance issues, lowering the risk of breakdowns, accidents, and noncompliance. Liability is transferred to the professional service provider.
Focus on core competencies: When the management of a plant is outsourced, municipalities or private entities no longer have to spend time and resources worrying about running the plant. This frees up their time, allowing them to concentrate on their primary business, knowing the plant is in good hands.
Outsourced O&M Case Studies
The Miski Mayo phosphate mine in Sechura, Peru, was facing several water management challenges, including an insufficient water supply that threatened both the long-term operations and surrounding environment. In 2016, the mine outsourced its water management to Seven Seas Water Group, which initiated several strategies to ensure a reliable water supply and minimize environmental risks. This involved making upgrades to the existing plant — including the plant’s intake, dissolved air flotation (DAF) pretreatment, and control systems — to meet Seven Seas standards, as well as replacing membranes and overhauling the cartridge filter system. Seven Seas’ upgraded system included seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) with DAF pretreatment, with a capacity to produce around 2.75 million GPD (10,400 m³/d) of industrial water, together with brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) capable of producing 33,000 GPD (125 m³/d) of potable water to meet the drinking water needs of 2,000 mine workers. By outsourcing the mine’s water management to Seven Seas, the mine secured a reliable and sustainable water supply, ensuring the viability of its long-term operations without putting pressure on limited freshwater resources.
In the United States, the City of Alice, Texas, had inadequate fresh water, so it had to pipe in raw water from a neighboring lake to supply its potable water plant. With surface water supplies threatened by prolonged drought and the rising cost of treatment, the city sought an alternative drought-proof solution that would allow them to be more self-sufficient. The city opted for a public-private partnership with Seven Seas, taking advantage of our Water-as-a-Service® solution. This not only allowed them to finance the second phase of a brackish water desalination plant with private sector capital, but also allowed them to outsource the permitting, design, and construction of the plant, together with plant operations and maintenance. Seven Seas will own and operate the plant for the duration of the 15-year contract, after which, ownership will be transferred to the city.
The importance of careful planning and due diligence when choosing a partner to team with cannot be overstated. By carefully planning the outsourcing process, municipalities and private entities can ensure a smooth transition, maximize the benefits of outsourcing, and maintain a reliable, compliant, and cost-effective water treatment operation.
Contact Seven Seas to learn more about our Water-as-a-Service® solutions and the different financing mechanisms we offer. Let us take care of your water challenges while you take care of business.
Image Credit: bestyy38/123RF
Erik Arfalk is the Senior Vice President of Business Development at Seven Seas, specializing in innovative and sustainable water and wastewater solutions in the US and the Caribbean. Previously, he was the Chief Commercial Officer at Fluence Corporation, where he launched MABR. Erik has held leadership roles at Atlas Copco and GE in Europe and the US, starting his career in strategy consulting. He holds a Master's in Business Administration and Economics from Lund University, Sweden. Erik's passion for water solutions and his talent for building strategic partnerships have established him as a respected industry leader.