There are approx. 4.500 water supply companies (WVU) and 6.000 waterworks in Germany....

Every year, Germany needs 5 billions of cubic meters of drinking water. And here it comes:

2.5 billion m3 of drinking water, i.e. 50% of the total annual drinking water demand in Germany, is provided by only 61 WVU. 50% of the output therefore comes from 1.4% of the companies.

Why is that so? Water suppliers to large cities face the challenge of supplying drinking water to many households and businesses. Others of the 61 large utilities supply water to gigantic industries. Where industry gathers, a lot of water is needed and wastewater is produced. A prodigious task for a few WVU.

The remaining 4,439 water suppliers serve partly small communities with low population growth and without established industry. Here, farms can play an important role, as livestock and fields require a lot of water. This presents a very different but equally significant challenge.

A water utility earns its revenue per m3 of drinking water supplied or, for example, when laying house connections. In addition, a water utility is burdened with high, annual fixed costs. The maintenance and upkeep of the pipeline systems alone swallows up a lot of monetary resources. Large delivery volumes and many households therefore mean a lot of revenue, but also huge maintenance costs. Smaller utilities usually have less revenue potential, but they still have to cover their fixed costs. Regardless of whether the utility is large or small, the plants have to run efficiently.

What an industrial valve can contribute to efficiency

•  Most industrial valves are effective. But what makes an efficient valve? For one thing, valve tightness. Higher sealing means less loss of the medium, higher real output quantities and thus more turnover p.a.
• In addition to valve tightness, the total costs of ownership (TCO) are also a relevant factor. The TCO describes all the costs that the valve itself incurs during its period of use. We are talking here about acquisition costs, repair or maintenance costs, etc.
• The control precision of an industrial valve is the third decisive factor. The WVU plants should run at 100% capacity utilization if possible, but always below the overload limit. This requires ideally coordinated systems within the plant. For example, all pumps must operate efficiently, but all industrial valves must also be integrated into the system in a precisely controlled and coordinated manner. Only in this way do the pumps not operate under overload, but at an appropriate capacity. They simply form an efficient system.

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