Instrumentation & monitoring |
How important is knowledge sharing,
particularly for younger engineers? There will always be a place for some targeted upskilling and knowledge sharing, especially when it comes to legacy instrumentation. Younger engineers need to understand how older instruments work and what they are actually measuring. It’s taken me 26 years to develop the perspective I now have on instrumentation, failure modes and risk assessment – and you can’t learn that instantaneously. The guidelines will go some way to addressing this, but mentoring and coaching remain important both in the workplace and across the industry.
At Entura, we’ve formalised our commitment
Above top: Gordon Dam is a curved concrete arch dam on the Gordon River
Above top Right: The Murchison Dam is a concrete faced rock- filled embankment dam across the Murchison River
Above bottom: The Meadowbank Dam is a buttress dam, with a concrete-faced embankment, across the Lower River Derwent
– such as the need to validate instrumentation readings. There’s also good information about legacy instrumentation and how it works, which is still very relevant for older dams. I’d like the next iteration of the guidelines to shift focus from the instruments themselves to a risk-based approach guided by failure modes. The failure mode determines what needs to be measured, which in turn informs which instrumentation to choose, how to use it, and how to interpret its output. The working group has reviewed the existing guidelines to identify gaps, benchmarked them against international guidelines, and surveyed ANCOLD members to confirm that we’re addressing what the industry really needs. We’ve now agreed on the content scope and allocated the writing of each section. We are aiming for a first draft by the end of this year, with reviews proceeding through 2027. We’re not going to reinvent the wheel where
good references already exist. Our intention is to focus on what extra value we can add with an overarching framework focusing on key principles: understanding the failure modes before designing an instrumentation system, and regularly checking and validating that instrumentation is not only working properly but is also providing data that genuinely supports dam safety.
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www.waterpowermagazine.com
to industry-wide knowledge-sharing through our Entura clean energy and water institute, where we share our experience through targeted up-skilling and training customised to participants’ needs. We’ve offered dam safety training in Tasmania, across mainland Australia and across our region – including a tailored program for dam safety inspectors in partnership with MYCOLD and Malaysia’s Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), and programs delivered as part of the South Asia Regional Infrastructure Connectivi-ty (SARIC) initiative – because many of the challenges and opportunities for dam safety are common across the world and there’s much to learn from each other.
References
https://entura.com.au/training/short-courses/dam- safety-training/
https://entura.com.au/about/technical-leadership-team/
https://entura.com.au/news/enturas-paul-southcott- appointed-as-convenor-of-new-ancold-working-group/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4JGs- GEJms&time_continue=84&source_ ve_path=MjM4NTE&embeds_referring_ euri=
https%3A%2F%2Fentura.com.au%2F
https://entura.com.au/news/entura-expertise-and- contributions-recognised/
https://entura.com.au/projects/11032/
https://entura.com.au/news/entura-bids-farewell- to-saric-delegation-after-a-successful-dam-safety- training-program/
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