Watermain shutdown

If you need to find the best option to isolate pipes and identify the valves that must be closed to carry out maintenance, this functionality is for you!

Performing a shutdown allows you to simulate pipe isolation in a network, determine the valves involved and visualize the impact on your customers. If you need a refresher on Watermain Shutdown controls, read this article.

To perform a shutdown:

1. Select and close as many pipes as you need (one at a time)
2. Qatium will identify and close the valves near the selected pipes
3. The Shutdown panel will open automatically showing the state of the selected asset
   Optional: Select all non-operating valves and alternative supply valves
4. The network pressure and flows will be updated after the simulation finishes

Important:
Only shutdown valves (TCV) will be used in this scenario.

How to locate valves

To locate valves quickly on the map from the Shutdown panel you can: 

1. Hover over a valve in the panel: it will show a gray highlight circle over the valve in the map
2. Click on the marker button in the panel to go directly to the valve in the map

How to mark valves as non-operable 

When a proposed valve is not being operated in real life due to failure, lack of access, or any other reasons, you can try other options to achieve pipe isolation. 

1. Mark any valve affecting the shutdown as non-operable by clicking on the Exclude icon   from the shutdown panel
2. Qatium will find suitable alternative valves and use them instead

If you want to unshut some of the pipes to see how the network behaves, you just have to open them back. Qatium will search for the best suitable path to a source and open all the valves and pipes in it to resupply the area.

Important:
The closed valves that are not in that critical path won't get opened back.

How to resupply affected customers

Sometimes after performing a shutdown over a pipe, a collateral area could end up being isolated. In these cases, if there are other closed valves, you can open them to resupply the area and ensure the consumers are not affected.

1. Go to the alternative valves’ list
2. Click on the toggle to open the valve
3. The system will recalculate and show the new results

If your network contains customer points, the map and the shutdown panel will display insights about the impact of the closure, including:

• The number of affected customers by the shutdown (highlighted in blue on the map) 
• How many of them can be resupplied by opening an alternative supply valve (highlighted in soft gray on the map)
• The customers that are collaterally affected by the shutdown, but cannot be resupplied (highlighted in dark gray on the map) E.g.: When performing a shutdown up from a cul-de-sac

Learn how to import customer points to your network by reading this article.

Important:
The panel and map will show only the affected customers for the selected pipe. When performing multiple shutdowns in the same scenario, select the desired pipe to see detailed information about the shutdown.

What's next?
➡️ Operating Valves