S&WB math

Here is a word problem for you to work out.  According to the plan discussed at this week's meeting, how many turbines does the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board plan to have online after all of the projects are implemented?  

Be careful. This is tricky, but we can think it through.  First we have to know how may turbines are operating now.  The most recently installed piece of equipment is called Turbine 6. So you might be tempted to just say six immediately and put your pencils down. But wait... 

The S&WB has five turbines, though their designations confusingly run up to six because Turbine 2 was decommissioned years ago. Each has faced significant limitations in the past and caused problems for the agency.

That's quirky.  But, in a way, it's very New Orleans. It's kind of like trying to explain to a visitor why a bunch of streets that cross Canal are called "North" or "South" but nobody ever says they are actually traveling in those directions. You just have to know the lingo.  Anyway, so it's five, right?  

Well, not exactly.  To solve for the number of available turbines, we still have additional values we need to factor in.  For example, the temperature outside on any given day is one. 

Under the timeline discussed Tuesday, the first project to be completed would also be the cheapest: a $700,000 fix to Turbine 6, its newest piece of power generating equipment, to allow it to operate in cold weather. The turbine, originally provided to the S&WB by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2013, was not designed to run when air temperatures are below 45 degrees, a limitation that prompted a boil water advisory in 2018 when temperatures dropped while it was powering the S&WB’s water system.

Now, some would say designing equipment that can only function above 45 degrees is actually very forward-looking policy in the context of climate change.  Maybe this is an example of that "resiliency" everyone is always talking about.  Also it may be a little confusing to some that a drop in temperature is what causes water to boil. But, again, that's just another one of those quirks. In any case we are currently living in a world where sometimes Turbine 6 exists and sometimes it does not. To solve this part of the equation, add $700,000*

*This value will undoubtedly increase over time. To determine the appropriate function to input here, please see Appendix B

Thankfully, the status of Turbine 5 is more of a fixed variable. It is blowed up.  Although, we have now learned, it is not quite as blowed up as originally thought. 

Next would be repairs to Turbine 5. That generator exploded in December, causing enough damage that officials initially said it would likely never be worthwhile to repair it. But an inspection showed damage was not as severe as feared and that insurance on the equipment would largely cover the $5 million to $6 million to bring back online, minus a $1 million deductible.

We can rebuild it. And we will. So, let's see where we are now. That's 6 turbines minus one for nomenclature, minus one for explosions, minus one IF < 45 degrees F so, for now we're at three or maybe three and a half operational turbines.  Got it? Okay now add one.

Then there’s the plan to buy a new turbine, which would be designated Turbine 7, for $18 million to $20 million. About $13 million of that would come from the federal government, the rest from the infrastructure deal.

The proposal calls for Turbine 7 to be operational in 12 to 14 months.

At which point there should be (assuming the business with the weather is sorted out) six turbines in operation including the one called number 7.  Got it?  Good, now subtract two. 

With all those pieces in place, the S&WB would be able to take Turbines 1 and 3 offline completely, Korban said. Those turbines, powered by steam, are considered to be particularly problematic.

The thinking there being that, there should be sufficient steam just coming out of everyone's ears by this point in the problem that these machines will have become redundant.  And we didn't even get into the conversion of 25 cycle to 60 cycle electric power which, yes, is also a factor in this. 

It's no wonder, then, that with all this high level math going on, that the billing system is every bit as mysterious.

The S&WB currently estimates about 45% of customer bills, instead of billing for actual use, and Korban said efforts to improve that figure are underway. Those include staffing up internally and bringing in outside contractors, efforts he said have already improved the situation from a low point when only about 30% of customers’ bills were being read each month.

Sometimes you have to pay or what you use. Other times they just make something up.  This situation fluctuates over time according to several variables as well which causes many people to wonder if their water bill is determined by a random number generator.  They say that's happening 15 percent less of the time now than it was before, though. So make sure your instruments are calibrated before you begin your next calculation.