Water Treatment Outsourcing

Water Treatment Outsourcing: Beating the Competition

(PE September 2004, p. 26)

A great topic and good article that needs further discussion. We have found that outsourcing water treatment for the power and other industries, while possibly providing short-term solutions, is debilitating to the utility organization in the long term. Outsource suppliers are vendors tiying to sell their products or services over other competitors. On the surface, this is as American as apple pie. But underneath it is making the utilities dependent on the technical capabilities and problem analysis skills of the supplier who may not be qualified to make such an evaluation.

When a symptom is identified, the utility contacts a water treatment equipment or chemical vendor. The vendor usually asks questions that guide the utility to the conclusion that the "solution" is the vendor's system or product In fact, the conversation usually ends up being between a utility representative that needs a quick answer and a supplier that will provide one. Few utilities have the chemical or water treatment expertise needed to do a sanity check. They usually call up a utility reference supplied by the vendor and confirm that this suppliers solution worked. It is very unlikely that the vendor will make a recommendation for the best solution if he cannot provide it. Vendors can only sell what they have, which may or may not be what the client needs.

Our experience indicates real solutions are found when asking in- depth and well thought-out questions that identify the root cause of the problem. As we tell everyone, "When you ask the right questions, the answers simply appear. The questioner must be open-minded and knowledgeable of the complete power system to develop the questions and know how the interfacing elements affect the condition being evaluated. Today this is the role of the experienced utility chemistry consultant. "Experienced" is the operative word.

Power chemistry developed over 100 years by trial-and-error questioning by utility chemistry personnel who challenged vendors to develop - and eventually supply - competitive solutions to well- defined questions. The problem is that much of the science behind power chemistry has been condensed down to pre-engineered solutions provided by sales, marketing and sales engineers - "sales" being the operative word.

Utility personnel need to become well-informed consumers. Services can be outsourced, but don't outsource responsibility for requesting services or obtaining results on which those decisions are made. Independent consultants are available whose only product is knowledge. Vendor equipment and chemical suppliers need to adopt an approach that goes beyond price and profit and encompass ethical values, which identify to the client the boundaries of their technical expertise and then work for the welfare of the clients within those boundaries.

Philip J. D'Angelo, VP of Technical Development, JoDAN Technologies, LTD