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Circular Economy Strategies for Water & Energy
13–14 MARCH 2018 | LISBON, PORTUGAL
PLATNIUM GOLD SILVER
WIPAC MONTHLYThe Monthly Update from Water Industry Process Automation & Control
	www.wipac.org.uk												Issue 1/2018- January 2018
Page 2
In this Issue
	 From the Editor....................................................................................................................	 3
	 Industry News.................................................................................................................	 4 - 9		
	 Highlights of the news of the month from the global water industry centred around the successes of a few of the
	companies in the global market.
	 The Smart Water Industry - 2018 & Beyond........................................................................ 10-11
	A short look into the future of the “Smart” Water Industry moving forward from 2018 and beyond with a focus on
the developments in instrumentation and its integration into the water industry moving forward
	 Water & the Internet of Things 2018................................................................................. 12-14
A blog by Fred Greguras of Royse Law firm looking at the issues of Water & the Internet of Things including the legal
issues around Smart Water Meters and the benefits that the Internet of Things can bring.
	 Leveraging Water Network Data for System Management Prioritization........................... 15-16
A case study from TaKaDu and Knoxville utility Board on the use of water network data to reduce non-revenue water
losses
	 Redundant Fibre Optic Network helps plant meet goals................................................... 17-18
A case study from Rockwell Automation about the use of the plants redundant fibre optic network to provide control
across the treatment works
	
	 Workshops, Conferences & Seminars............................................................................... 19-20	 	
	 The highlights of the conferences and workshops in the coming months
	
	
	 WIPAC Monthly is a publication of the Water Industry Process Automation & Control Group. It is produced by the group
	 manager and WIPAC Monthly Editor, Oliver Grievson. This is a free publication for the benefit of the Water Industry and please 	
	 feel free to distribute to any who you may feel benefit.
	 All enquires about WIPAC Monthly, including those who want to publish news or articles within these pages, should be directed 	
	 to the publications editor, Oliver Grievson at olivergrievson@hotmail.com
Page 3
From the Editor
As a new year begins its always worth taking stock at what the industry has done in the past year and what it plans to
do in the next year, two years or more. In the UK Water Industry it is a time that has been plagued with PR19, the
industry’s time to take stock and count up the future bill and work out what it needs in up to seven years time. Its always
difficult and the folks that work in the water companies seem to go silent, and when you do see them they are some-
what bleary eyed from many late nights trying to work out what is needed and trying to work out what can be cut as the
realistic point is that not everything can be paid for. Coming from this perspective it is very easy to see why concepts such
as the “Smart Water Industry” are sometimes a tough sell. The truth is though the Water Industry is moving. As somebody
who has been inside the industry for a number of years now you can see things are getting better, things are starting to
get more and more intelligent. Whether this is due to the availability of better technology, more developed thinking or in
some case an undeniable need is a question that should be asked only for the answer “its a combination of everything”
that comes back.
So what has the water industry got in store for 2018 and beyond. It is a subject that I have tried to touch on in the first
article of this month’s issue although I will say touch on as I could probably fill the whole year’s WIPACs with the detail
of what I think the industry could and should do. I have certainly seen in the past few years the need for cheaper and
cheaper instruments split the market into the simple and the complex each with their own individual applications so it will be interesting to see where the
industry goes again I think it will be a combination of both directions with the wastewater network one of the areas of most development.
What I can say is that are exciting things coming up in the next few months with the conference scene being particularly busy. One of my favourite
conferences is starting the year, this time being set in Lisbon. Its a chance to catch up with the international scene at WEX Global and a chance to catch up with
some of the famous international stars of the industry to talk technical for a few days. Unfortunately this year it clashes with the Global Leakage Summit and
the first WET Wednesday of the year (an event hosted by Mark Lane of Pinsent Masons).
June sees the SWAN Forum Conference which takes place in Barcelona this year which as per usual is going to show some of the best developments in this
sub-section of the Water Industry of ours.
This year also sees WWEM and that to me is the Instrumentation Apprentice Competition and this month has been frantic rush to put things together so I can
get terms of references out in the next few days. In total the competition is being supported by ten companies with four competing teams before things have
really begun which is a fantastic result for the youth of the Water Industry who will represent us all in the years to come. Couple with the competition this year
is the return of the Flow Forum and the new “Learning Zone,” which again has slots filing up rapidly to impart the way instrumentation works.
I say each year that I am going to do less and then promptly get involved with more this year it is co-writing a book on Wastewater Flow, writing the new Brit-
ish/European Standard for Wastewater ICA as well as a very interesting working group within the IWA that will look at data quality. Something very important
if we are going to make this industry of ours more data-driven.
To say we have exciting year ahead of us is somewhat of an under-statement
Have a good month
Oliver
ABB and TaKaDu are providing a water management solution that will boost efficiency and reduce water leakage in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the world’s fastest
growing cities.
Saigon Water Supply Corporation (SAWACO) is deploying ABB’s digital control and monitoring technologies together with TaKaDu’s Integrated Event
Management Solution as part of its restoration of Ho Chi Minh City’s water distribution network.
The ABB solution - ABB Ability Symphony Plus SCADA - will monitor and control the entire water distribution system and integrate TaKaDu’s Event Management
Solution, which detects, analyzes and manages network events and incidents such as leaks, bursts, faulty assets, telemetry and data issues and operational
failures.
This massive urban project aims to increase efficiency, reduce water leakage, prevent disruptions and ensure everyone has access to clean water in Ho Chi Minh
City – Vietnam’s economic powerhouse. Last year, Ho Chi Minh City lost nearly 30 percent of its potable water to leaking and damaged pipes.
ABB’s and TaKaDu’s complementary solutions will enable SAWACO to monitor the network conditions digitally through multiple data collection points, such as
sensors and meters, and offer actionable insights to reduce non-revenue water. SAWACO will then be able to increase the amount of water delivered to the
city’s industries and eight million residents. At a first estimate, SAWACO will hit 50 Mio m³/year of water savings, equivalent to 20,000 Olympic-size swimming
pools, while production cost savings could be higher than 10 MUSD a year.
“Water projects like Ho Chi Minh City’s show the full potential of advanced automation for all municipalities dealing with rapid expansion or aging
infrastructure,” says Kevin Kosisko, Managing Director of ABB’s Power Generation & Water business. “Aggregating and analysing data from the field will offer
real-time insights into network status and will increase revenues.”
“We’re excited to partner with ABB on this project in one of Asia’s most dynamic countries” said Amir Peleg, TaKaDu’s Founder & CEO. “By converting raw
data into knowledge, we can help SAWACO reduce hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of non-revenue water lost per day while significantly improving its
operational efficiency.”
ABB is a leading provider of integrated power and automation solutions with unparalleled experience in partnering with the energy and water industries,
bringing them improved operations and sustainable progress. We deliver integrated and secure digital systems, services and solutions to automate and
optimize the performance of conventional and renewable power plants and water facilities.
ABB And TaKaDu To Strengthen Ho Chi Minh City’s Water
Distribution System
‘SDG 6 is key part of growth strategy for smart businesses’
‘Smart businesses will recognise that Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water needs to be a key part of their growth strategy’, commented Paul Polman, Chief
Executive Officer, Unilever in support of the activities of the Toilet Board Coalition at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.At the Global Forum the
Toilet Board Coalition highlighted the ‘Sanitation Economy’ and its immense business opportunities of providing universal access to safe sanitation.
On the occasion, Unilever announced to quadruple its contribution to the Transform programme to 40 million UK pounds in support of social enterprises.
Helping low-income consumers The Transform programme is founded by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Unilever in 2015 to
support market-based solutions that meet low-income household needs in developing countries. Through financial and business support for social enterprises
and behaviour-change interventions, the programme’s aim is to enable 100 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to gain access to products and
services that have been shown to improve health, livelihoods, the environment or well-being by 2025. To date, it has supported 19 projects across nine
countries, including a mobile platform for shopkeepers in Kenya that encourages them to become change agents in their communities, and a portable
hand-washing station for low-income households in Bangladesh.
Huge economic potential
At the World Economic Forum the Toilet Board Coalition draw the support of several CEO’s to join its agenda on ‘sanitation economy’ that, according to the
coalition, has an estimated 62 billion US dollar opportunity by 2021 in India alone. Sanitation has many business opportunities such as innovative toilet design,
recovery of biological resources (biogas and fertilizer), and smart digital technologies driving preventative healthcare.
According to the Toilet Board Coalition the ‘sanitation economy’ has three distinct elements:
•	 The Toilet Economy — innovation within toilet products and services that ensures toilets are designed fit for purpose for all environments and
incomes
•	 The Circular Sanitation Economy — toilet resources (commonly known as human waste) feed into a circular economy system which replaces
traditional waste management
•	 The Smart Sanitation Economy — digitised sanitation systems that optimise data for operating efficiencies, maintenance, plus consumer use and
health information insights
On 25 January in Davos, the Toilet Board Coalition hosted a round-table discussion with respected global leaders, including CEO’s of Unilever, LIXIL Corporation,
Kimberly-Clark, TATA Trusts and Firmenich, to discuss an Action Agenda for the Sanitation Economy.
Page 4
Industry News
Thames Water rolls out smart metering programme across
Epping Forest
Thames Water will shortly begin to roll out its smart water meters programme to households across Epping Forest. Smart meters will soon be putting local in
control of their water use, helping them to make simple money-saving choices at home.
Population growth and climate change are placing increasing pressures on water resources. The aim of Thames Water’s smart metering programme is to
educate customers on water use and improve leakage detection.
Thames Water smart meters 1The water company said that by providing clear usage information online, via regular comparison letters, or over the phone, the
meters highlight how efficient a home is and how simple water saving efforts can reduce bills.
The meters can also help locate leaks on customers supply pipes by quickly identifying where there is always water flowing through the meter, suggesting there
is likely to be a leak.
Mark Cooper, Thames Water’s head of metering said:
“Our smart meters are already saving millions of litres across London and we’ll be doing the same across Epping Forest. This is good news for customers, who
will be in control of their water bills, and great news for the environment given increasing pressures upon water resources.
“With our meters providing accurate and up to date data on water use, higher or unusual readings could indicate a leak on a customer’s pipe, which can be
pinpointed and fixed faster to stop water from being water wasted.”
Thames Water is also offering free home visits, where experts can advise how water efficient a house is and on the installation of water saving freebies such as
aerating taps and shower heads, and dual flush toilet adapters.
According to the utility, after a visit, a family of four could save as much as £180 a year on their water and energy bills, as heating water accounts for 21 per
cent of an average energy bill.
Households will have a comparison period to understand and reduce their usage, before being moved onto a metered bill, unless customers’ choose to switch
early to cash in on the savings.
Instrumentation Apprentice Competition Update
Circular Economy Strategies for Water & Energy
13–14 MARCH 2018 | LISBON, PORTUGAL
PLATNIUM GOLD SILVER
First starting in 2014 the WWEM Instrumentation Apprentice Competition will be returning again to WWEM 2018 in Telford on the 21st
November. The
competition which is open to every Water Industry Apprentice whether they work directly for the Water Companies or work for organisations associated with
the industry. The only qualification is that competitors must be registered on a current Apprenticeship programme.
The competition is going from strength to strength and despite details not currently being released there is a huge support from the Water Industry with
ten companies or organisations sponsoring or supporting the event including ABB, ATI, Partech, RS Hydro, Sensors for Water Interest Group (SWIG), Siris
Environmetnal Flow Surveys (SEFS), Siemens, Vega, WRC as well as International Labmate who are the organisers of WWEM. These organisations will be help-
ing to put the competition together along with Oliver Grievson, the group manager of Water Industry Process Automation & Control, who first brought the
competition to WWEM 2014.
Competitors, despite the competition not being formerly opened yet, have also been flooding in with teams promised from Process Plus and Z-Tech Control
Systems outside of the traditional Water Companies as well as United Utilities and the defending champions, Anglian Water.
Further details and the terms of reference for the competition will be released in February 2018 when the register of competitors will be formally opened and
further details can be obtained from Oliver Grievson by emailing olivergrievson@hotmail.com
Page 5
Arcadis acquires SEAMS
Arcadis has further grown its digital and data expertise with the acquisition of SEAMS. Together, both businesses will be able to provide clients with a unique
blend of expert technical and asset knowledge combined with advanced analytics. SEAMS was established in 2002 and employs 45 people. By acquiring SEAMS,
Arcadis’ data analytics and predictive analytics offering has now grown to more than 200 people around the UK.
Arcadis’ acquisition of SEAMS will address an increasingly critical issue for water companies, energy providers and infrastructure operators, helping them to
improve customer satisfaction, increase affordability and maintain high levels of service.
Combining Arcadis deep asset knowledge, industry insight and data analytics will elevate the traditional consultancy approach. Arcadis will be able to give the
nation’s biggest utilities and infrastructure providers the benefit of quicker, more detailed expert analysis. In turn, this will lead to reduced business risk at lower
cost, equipping clients to provide better service for their customers in the short-, medium- and long-term.
Led by Managing Director, Mark Engelhardt, and Technical Director, Mark Turner, SEAMS’ cutting-edge data and predictive analytics help to monitor
performance and advise on resilience on behalf of their clients to safeguard their assets, minimise costs and reduce risk.
The transaction represents Arcadis’ latest move towards a fully digitally enabled business in the UK and overseas, making things faster and more sustainable
and improving quality of life.
Commenting on the acquisition, Alan Brookes, CEO of Arcadis UK, said: “The utilities and infrastructure sectors are one of the last to be digitally disrupted
and if we’re to meet future consumer and client demands, our industry needs to move forward quickly. At Arcadis, this is our key priority and we are rapidly
accelerating the digitisation of our entire business for the benefit of our clients and to improve quality of life for their customers.
“While the volume of data is growing exponentially, the real value lies in our ability to interpret and understand how to use it to deliver valued benefits. This is
where the SEAMS team comes in. Working with our new colleagues to combine our expert industry views with increasingly data-driven insights will ultimately
enhance the level of sophistication we are bringing to our clients, helping them to improve their operations and make things better for those that rely on their
services.”
Managing Director, Mark Engelhardt, said: “The drive for better corporate performance and returns sits at the heart of most businesses. Our approach is all
about mining the plethora of data available to us and – most importantly – making the most effective use of it to inform the decision-making process.
“Our approach to data means that we can work with clients from the very earliest stages of strategic planning, right through to operational delivery, helping
them to draw valuable insights that ultimately help to drive the best performance of their assets. Our EDA Analytics software already has a proven track record
in the UK water, energy and transport sectors, and we are excited that by combining this with Arcadis’ global reach, industry insight and deep asset knowledge,
it will allow SEAMS to build new capability and access new clients and markets.
“The global demand for Advanced Analytics is at a major tipping point and the acquisition by Arcadis not only affords excellent career stability and development
for our staff, but also presents the perfect strategic opportunity to propel both companies forward into their next stage of growth.”
Wiltshire Council uses aerial laser mapping technology to tackle
flood risk
Aerial laser mapping technology is helping Wiltshire Council investigate flooding in the Corsham area of the county. Working with engineering consultancy
Atkins, the Bluesky LiDAR data is being used to create a hydraulic model of the drainage network and its interaction with the watercourses serving the
catchment. The detailed model will allow Council staff to predict the flow of flood water, as a result of rainfall falling directly onto the ground and of flow
over-topping river banks or escaping from the drainage network via manholes and gullies.
Corsham Floods-in September 2014, heavy rainfall caused extensive flooding across Wiltshire. Wiltshire Council and Wessex Water worked alongside the
Corsham Town Council, Police, Ministry of Defence and local schools to minimise the impact of flooded roads, including the major A4 trunk road. The same
event flooded the railway line, and passengers had to be rescued from a train after it became trapped in flood waters. Using the Bluesky LiDAR data, captured
using aircraft mounted lasers, a hydraulic model of the drainage network in the Corsham catchment area is being created. A hydraulic model is a mathematical
model of a fluid flow system, such as a water, sewer or storm system, and it is used to analyse the system’s hydraulic behaviour. Using the data, staff at Atkins
created a 2D mesh over the catchment area, which allows them to see the likely flow of water and its potential impact on people, property and infrastructure.
Readings can also be taken to determine the height of buildings, vegetation and other surface structures such as above ground pipelines, highways, street
furniture, power lines and railway tracks.
“Working with Bluesky, we were able to configure the LiDAR survey to meet our requirements,” commented Sophie Slade, Consultant Hydraulic Modeller at
Atkins Global. “In fact, Bluesky gave us a choice of resolutions and a range of survey areas to allow us to decide on an appropriate scope for the modelling
project. In the end, we were able to secure a higher resolution of data at the same price.”
Daniel Everett, Principal Drainage Engineer at Wiltshire Council, added:
“Once the detail of the survey had been agreed, delivery of the data was prompt and we were kept informed at all stages.”
Since 2007, Wiltshire Council has established two Operational Flood Working Groups in order to address the growing threat of flooding. The groups provide a
forum for stakeholders, including the Environment Agency, water companies and Town and Parish Councils, to work together to reduce flooding and its impact
on communities.
Page 6
Environment Agency to map England’s entire landscape by 2020
using LIDAR
The Environment Agency has announced plans to map England’s entire landscape by 2020, using the data to assess flood risk and inform conservation work.
Using aircraft equipped with laser scanners, the Environment Agency will map all 130,000km2 of the country, including rivers, fields and national parks –
equivalent to 32 million football pitches.
In addition to being used to understand flood risk, the data will also be made available for free to the public and industry to be used by archaeologists,
environmental and urban planners, and even gamers to make accurate 3D models of the landscape.
Currently about 75 per cent of the country is mapped but with only sporadic coverage of upland areas. The new project, beginning over winter, will cover all of
England’s national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) and sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) such as the Peak District and the Yorkshire
Dales.
Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, said:
“This ambitious project will enhance our understanding of England’s unique natural features and landscape, helping us to better understand flood risk, plan
effective defences and fight waste crime.
I’m pleased we are able to gather, use and share such valuable data to contribute to environmental improvements and conservation. It’s just one of the many
ways the Environment Agency is using technology to help people and wildlife.”
The Environment Agency has been using lidar – light detection and ranging – technology for 20 years to better understand flood risk. Maps are created by air-
craft equipped with laser scanners, which measure the distance between the aeroplane and the ground.
The data collected can then be used to plan flood defences across whole river catchments. It also helps environment officers spot sudden changes in the
landscape that could indicate illegal waste dumping – in 2014 eight people in Cornwall were fined for dumping 4,500m3 of waste, which was discovered using
lidar data.
Other organisations across the Defra group also use the data to help improve the environment – Natural England uses it to assess wildlife habitat and Forestry
Commission use it to understand more about the country’s tree cover.
In 2015, the Environment Agency made 11 terabytes of lidar data – equivalent to 3 million MP3 songs – available for free to the public as open data. Since then,
the data has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. The data has even helped archaeologists uncover lost Roman roads in the north of the country.
The new data will also be better quality than ever before, as the Environment Agency will map the whole country at 1m resolution by 2020. This means using
the most up-to-date laser technology to reveal the features and details of the terrain more clearly.
Page 7
Predictive Diagnostics Has Arrived, But How Is It Applied To
Wastewater Instrumentation?
It should be no surprise that something as simultaneously complex and critical as
wastewater treatment has a long history of technological development. Monitoring has
always been critical for the sector, and while the burdens and complications around
treatment continue to grow, so do the instrumentation solutions that operations depend
on to carry it out.
Historically, wastewater treatment plant instrumentation was in place to maintain
compliance. Over the last 20 years, monitoring has grown from simple data logging to
a more predictive and strategic approach. Today, wastewater operators are utilizing
analysers to direct predictive maintenance — an approach to protecting treatment
technology and tools by identifying issues before they happen, thus preserving their
asset’s life span more efficiently and affordably.
Importance Of Predictive Diagnostics
For years, reactive maintenance was about the best that wastewater treatment plants could expect. Operators relied on visual assessment, and most of the
critical maintenance could only take place once an issue was readily apparent through a breakdown.
Then came the advent of preventative maintenance, giving operations the chance to confront issues before they occurred, saving time and money.
“Today, and for quite some time, a paradigm of ‘preventative maintenance’ has prevailed in most facilities,” wrote Paul Brake, a mechanical engineer, in a recent
issue of Water Innovations. “Preventative maintenance relies on equipment history and statistical techniques to determine a theoretical mean time to failure.
Using this calculated result, a company will order replacement parts, schedule turnarounds and area shutdowns, and prepare staff or hire outside contractors
for scheduled maintenance.”
Despite its popularity, however, preventative maintenance is not a perfect solution. Because this method has wastewater operations base their maintenance
on statistics rather than factoring in specific operating conditions, it is not uncommon for operators to perform unnecessary maintenance or to not reach
equipment in time. That is why predictive maintenance is seen by many as the next step forward in plant operations.
“Predictive maintenance relies on monitoring the actual operational condition of critical equipment and uses the data and trends in the data to detect upcoming
failures,” Brake wrote. “It will allow you to improve processes, both in quality and efficiency, through better equipment operations, less downtime, and a more
complete monitoring of your process conditions.”
Putting Predictive Diagnostics Into Practice
Applying predictive diagnostics is not just a lofty goal for operations to aspire to in the future. It is a solution that is already helping wastewater treatment plant
operators with some very real problems that they experience on a day-to-day basis. Plants have been able to identify inefficiencies in chemical dosage by
keeping real-time tabs on pH and other indicators, using this data to get out in front of a malfunction and addressing a small maintenance issue before it
becomes full blown and disrupts operations. Fluctuations in chemistry have likewise pointed operations toward predictive maintenance needs for sensor
cleaning or replacement.
Meanwhile, accelerometers have been used to find slight issues with bearings, and thermal scans have found areas that are getting even slightly too hot or are
allowing too much heat to escape. With that information, operations can make slight modifications to brings things back to normal or can address these issues
during previously scheduled shutdowns.
Wastewater utilities have even used ultrasonic thickness gauges to identify issues with pipe walls and predict needed maintenance before those pipes have a
chance to rupture and create a larger issue.
Predictive Diagnostic Tools
Not only do instruments with predictive diagnostics exist, but these instruments can provide step-by-step instructions on how to perform maintenance tasks to
help operators have full confidence that they’re completing maintenance correctly.
Those operations that have turned to predictive maintenance of their analytical instruments obviously need the right tools in order to carry it out. They have
secured predictive diagnostic systems that monitor instrument performance in real time and automatically alert operators to any issues. This ultimately lets
them know whether changes in wastewater measurements are true reflections of the influent’s or effluent’s chemical makeup or simply instrumentation errors.
These tools inform operators if maintenance on their wastewater instrumentation is required due to a range of issues — e.g., a calibration slope being outside
acceptable limits, a sample requiring unusually high optics capacity, the detection of excessive light during sample reading, or general poor sample quality.
They can also indicate when recalibration or replacement is warranted by highlighting unacceptable limits or questionable sample qualities. They can even give
operators confidence that no maintenance is needed by confirming calibration, optical capacity, controlled light exposure, and accurate samples.
The technology is established. The tools are readily available. The only issues to be determined are which approaches work best for each user’s unique
applications.
Page 8
The Digital Transformation Of Water: 8 Trends To Watch In 2018
Great technological revolutions occur when innovation offers a new way to solve challenges at a price that the market can afford to pay — or ill afford to ignore,
considering the benefits. Some noteworthy trends are imminent in 2018, as long-standing and emerging water-sector obstacles get countered by a variety of
digital solutions.
Globally, the water industry has embarked on a journey toward digital transformation. The sector can no longer sustain itself in isolation from the technological
shifts happening in other infrastructure industries and at the customer level. These changes are happening due to a multitude of innovations that fall under
several banners: “smart water,” “digital water,” and “Internet of Things,” (IoT). Irrespective of nomenclature, change is underway.
Smart water solutions — hardware, software, and data analytics to improve capital and operating efficiencies — are taking hold in water, driving more than $35
billion US of municipal spending over the next decade. At the root of this buildout are continued financial pressures on water suppliers and users to do more
with less — and the proliferation of cloud-based information technology presents a viable solution.
Global smart water markets are being shaped by key themes, including water scarcity, customer demand for improved service at lower cost, increased
environmental awareness, regulatory compliance measures, and technology firms’ innovations to address these challenges.
Bluefield Research sees eight key trends emerging in 2018 that build on these themes and will continue to push smart water technologies to the forefront of
industry decision-making:
1. Private Equity Sees Opportunity In Smart Water
There’s a growing trend of consolidation across software and data management platforms, as financial and strategic investors look to boost returns by capturing
synergies across portfolio companies. We are seeing more and more venture capital and private equity companies entering the space. Two recent examples
include the EQT/Innovyze and XPV Water Partners/Aquatic Informatics. SoftBank snapped up equity’s majority in OSIsoft, while Optimatics raised capital from
venture and strategic investors to support growth initiatives.
Smart water deals represent an increasing share of water mergers and acquisitions and now hold much more value. A new benchmark was set in smart
water M&A (mergers and acquisitions) as private equity group EQT completed its smart water portfolio, paying $270 million for Innovyze, reflecting a 6x EBITDA
(earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ) for the profitable network modeling and business analytics platform.
2. Project Finance Gets Smarter
Innovations in financing structure increase the focus on performance, which encourages adoption of smart water technologies. We see this with the
impact bond financing, essentially outcome driven bonds with specific reference to water and wastewater infrastructure outcomes. One example is DC Water’s
issuance of an environmental impact bond to fund its green infrastructure initiative.
3. Asset Management Becomes Key Focus
Within the smart water sector, asset management has emerged as the key battleground, where players from across the utility operating spectrum are
extending their offerings to incorporate asset centric products and services. From multiple angles (leak detection , pressure management , workflow
management), solutions providers are looking to operationalize historic data in asset-centric decision-making. Municipal water utilities have never had such a
wide commercial offering of solutions to improve how they plan, monitor, and manage their critical water infrastructure.
4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) At The Core
AI is taking off, and water is no exception. We see machine-learning techniques at the core of multiple firms’ offerings, which greatly advance utilities’ ability to
operationalize data and monetize insights. Companies that are using AI to “smarten” water systems include Pluto AI, EMAGIN, Fracta, and Fathom.
5.Stormwater At Resilience Ground Zero
In the wake of hurricanes and the push for resilience to climate change globally, we see an increase in real-time control solutions for smarter stormwater
management which present an opportunity to avoid heavy CAPEX spending and maximize the use of existing assets. Smart sewer solutions introduce more
flexibility in existing collection networks, which maximize storage and retention capacity of existing wet infrastructure assets with real-time control systems.
6. Cybersecurity To Remain A High Priority
With hacking incidents in the U.S. and elsewhere, as well as utilities’ move into the cloud, cybersecurity is becoming a key priority with the European Union
developing standards and IT departments increasing focus.
7. Convergence Of Infrastructure Communication
Across the smart meter landscape, the addressable market for information communications technology (ICT) is on the cusp of change, as diversified municipal
utilities seek cost efficiencies through interoperable communications infrastructure across water, gas, and electric meters. ICT firms like Cisco, Verizon, AT&T,
Huawei, and Vodafone are at the forefront of emerging communications protocols. This is placing pressure on traditional smart metering players like Itron,
Landis+Gyr, Sensus, and Elster — which have controlled the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) market to date.
8. Smart Water Technologies To Play A Key Role In Utility Of The Future
Many municipal utilities are seeking to achieve cost efficiencies and improve operational efficiencies. Utilities are becoming more customer-centric, and smart
water is no exception. India is a good example of this, with water playing a key role in its Smart Cities Mission. A broader trend of digitalization is changing the
fundamental relationship between a utility and its customer, morphing an isolated supplier into a connected service provider, and water is no exception.
Page 9
Opinion:
The Smart Water Industry
2018 and beyond
It’s always quite difficult to gaze into a crystal ball and say what is going to be the key trends in the next year or two, what direction should the industry take and
where does it need to go. However for the Water Industry there are some clear indications, there are some hints and tips in the general direction that moving
forward the industry should (or must) take to supply water to its customers and to take the used water and return a clean product to the environment.
On the potable side of the industry the direction is very clear, the centralised nature of the potable water treatment process means that it, by its very nature,
is a factory based process which efficiently churns out drinknig water to very high standards all of the time. The challenge moving forward is certainly about
water resources and with growing population and the need for more and more water it is water resources that are the key to the future of the water side of the
business. When the flow goes into the distribution network is where the future of the Smart Water Industry lies. It is already a very well developed field insofar
as all of the technologies that the industry needs, all of the algorithms to analyse the data which will highlight areas of losses are already in place and working
well. There is surely some development in this area but the suppliers that are involved managing pressure and detecting leaks to drive down the percentage of
water lost through the distribution systems are getting to the point where they are most definitely refining the state of the art.
On the customer side the developments that are to come are the roll-outs of Smart Water meters and how the data from this can be incorporated into the
systems that are already in place and the use of AMI data is surely an area where the potable water industry is going to develop including the development of
the data based systems to analyse what is billions of pieces of data every day. It is the data and its input into the Water Company models that has the potential
to identify the smallest of leaks to drive water loss to minimum feasible levels.
It is in the wastewater side of the water industry where there is much more potential for development towards the Smart Water Industry moving forward and
it is here (as well as some general themes that the industry is likely to see the most number of giant leaps.
Instrumentation - Cheap versus Expensive
Instrumentation is diverging it is heading towards the point where the industry is going to have cheap sensors that are there to give a single measurement or to
identify the state of play within the wastewater system (be it collection network or treatment plant) which are very much based upon the principle of fix on fail
and are there to say whether something is happening or not all the way up to a simple measurement or to detect the state of something. They can be one off
sensors that are there for a project or they can be permanent simple probes. This is very much on the lines of switches, probes and rotation sensors that have
been used in the water industry for many decades but the more advanced of these sensors are getting cheaper and cheaper and the functionality is getting
more and more. Within the next few years there is bound to be a proliferation of these sort of sensors as we head towards an industry which is, like it or not,
based upon the Internet of Things. This is not SCADA, it is not control system based and is not there to control a plant but is there for situational awareness. As
instrumentation technology develops and gets cheaper so should the proliferation increase to cover the wastewater collection network which up until the past
few years was largely unmonitored as the complexity of measurement with the need for power and telemetry made the potential of measurement largely
unviable in terms of the cost. This has changed, both legally and financially. In the UK the need for Event Duration Monitoring on spills to the environment has
meant that thousands of sensors are being installed on overflows to the environment. This is designed to give situational awareness on the performance of
Combined Sewer Overflows in sensitive areas. This will be default show how the wastewater collection networks are performing which should in turn feed
network design. These moving forward are bound to form the basis of the data to feed smart wastewater collection systems and provide the situational data to
enable the network models to be run
In contrast to this are the more advanced type of instrumentation where the data has ,either the potential to be used for control purposes, or is already being
used for control purposes The technology for this is already out there and in a number of places has been used for a number of years but again the technology
is developing. There are a number of smart controllers that are being using instrumentation and control systems to provide automated local control. The data
from these systems not only feeding back to corporate telemetry systems but operators mobile devices to provide up to date information on the specific asset
that is being controlled. These instrumentation & control systems start at the very simple, a two pump pumping station perhaps and go up to plant wide systems
controlling whole treatment works using a model based approach. Its is the integration of these systems into the wider water industry that provides the key
to the future as well as what must happen moving forward with the collection network and the treatment works being wholly integrated into a single
smart multi--faceted treatment system from the customer’s toilet through the system with instrumentation and control all the way to the point of return to the
environment.
There are numerous drivers that have the potential to push this forward including the endless need to drive the cost of the industry down to the more techni-
cal needs of controlling flow and running more and more complex process to get a cleaner and cleaner product. It is this that will drive instrumentation use up
within the water industry.
One of the more interesting general developments in the instrumentation front is the development of mobile phone or tablet applications for working with
instrumentation. A quick look in the Application store of most devices will shows that most of the larger suppliers have applications that can provide, at the very
least, manuals or help to technicians in the field or the best applications provide control of a device. For those instruments that aren’t already covered it is likely
that there will be cover moving forward. This of course is forgetting a protocol that has been in the industry for many years that was meant to provide a method
of managing instrumentation in industry, including the Water Industry. The protocol is very rarely used but it has the potential to do so much more in managing
the asset base of instrumentation
Visualisation
The Water Industry has always been addicted to telemetry and SCADA based systems and having HMIs and PLCs in place on treatment works. Generally this is
absolutely fine for the larger works within the industry where economies of scale mean that it is financially viable to install these systems but the vast majority
of treatment works within the industry do not fall into this category. Approximately 65% of all of the treatment works in the UK serve under 250 people. This is
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in the region of 6,500 -7,000 treatment works. The problem with these works is understanding how they are performing on a day to day basis and the key to
this is potentially in the visualisation of the site data. Even on the larger works which will have multiple elements of instrumentation the key is understanding
what is going on. Already it has been alluded to that some of the instrumentation is getting smarter and has more readily accessible communication associated
with it through the use of applications. The potential problem already developing is that these applications are proprietary and the visual display (a tablet) has
no way of bringing this data together. This is the potential of portable edge computing at its best with an operator arriving on site at automatically receiving
data from the site information to inform the operator of the site performance.
Stretching this concept a step further would be the repair technician stepping up to an asset and having access to all of the information about that asset all the
way from its history and who has worked on that asset, to the manual and details of how it should work to an order form for any replacement parts that are
needed or assistance from a remote location. This sort of things has been touted as within the art of the possible and putting all of the available tools in the
hands of the operator or technician
The rise of IT versus OT versus Cyber Security
When you say IT to somebody they think laptops, they think the internet, toughbooks and the likes. More recently this has stretched to tablets and mobile
phones. When you say OT to somebody outside of the industry they think - “What’s that?” Operational Technology? I’ve seen somebody with a job titles
resembling that but for the life of me I can’t think what it is. Realistically it is everything from the instrument and getting to the data to the screen that is in
the office from the instrument that is in the ground to the infrastructure that controls it locally (i.e. PLC or SCADA systems) to communicating it to the various
corporate servers and making sure it is available to the company as a whole. It is the complex interactions that makes sure that one system can talk to another
and share what it needs to share. With the development off all of the new technologies and the new ways of working including the Internet of Things all of the
interface between IT & OT is getting more and more confused as data pings of to a cloud via a mobile phone signal and then back to the corporate data systems.
All of this comes at an increased risk as from a Cyber Security point of view it isn’t know who has gone to an instrument and stuck a USB pen drive into it and
done who knows what. Its not a transmission route that is commonly thought of as it is in the same vane of protecting your mobile phone with anti-virus
software but the risk is still there and it has the potential of crossing instrumentation and control systems with the general Internet something that would
have most cyber security experts into a frenzy of worry as it is crossing systems that should not be mixed together. This has been the position in the past but
the development of IT & OT has put systems in place to protect vital corporate such as customers private information. The thought of people being able to see
when a customer is using water via their Smart Water Meter use has already been thought of but it is ,as technology develops an increasing challenge for the
water industry.
An integrated Smart Water Industry
This is perhaps one for the far future rather than something that is going to happen in the next 12 months and is probably closer to the next 12 years and it is
the concept of an integrated smart water industry on at least an operational level. What this means is tracing all of the inputs into the system be they from
customers or the wider environment and chasing it through the system on a model based approach. There are technologies for each of the steps in existence
at the current time from models tracking abstraction and its effect on the environment top plant based models to control water treatment works. There are
studies showing how different socio-economic groups consume water that improves on the standard 90% of water consumption goes down the drain. All of
this exists already on the clean side of the business and the wastewater side is no worse off. There are systems that track rainfall and predict the impact on the
sewerage and there are models that will take these inputs and show what need to be done and where on the sewerage network. Couple this with the plant
operational models that have been going for years and have been used for design purposes as well as the potential for their use to form the fundamental basis
of an advanced process control system. These are the basic building blocks which have the potential to turn the water industry into something resembling the
factory base approach that has been going for many years within the water industry as a whole.
The question is why is this not happening within the water industry, why has it not happened already and the truth is that the need and the financial benefit
has not been seen. This is the key that has changed within the water industry the potential for change has been seen as the case studies have developed and
the benefits have finally been seen. The Water Industry is slowly developing towards a Smarter Approach and, to be fair, is taking baby steps towards a smarter
future
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Opinion:
Water and The Internet of Things: 2018
I became interested in water and the Internet of Things (“IoT”) several years ago when I had a below ground water leak at home that resulted in a large water
bill. Since I live in the Silicon Valley, California, the high tech capital of the world, I thought there should be a better way to track water usage so problems can be
identified and solved sooner. I needed a smart water meter as part of an IoT application that I could access online to monitor water use and provide actionable
information so I could conserve water. Motivating water conservation is more effective when you know how much water is used.
I continue to be a good citizen to try to conserve water but smart meters are not yet available for my neighbourhood from my water utility, California Water
Service (“CWS”). Managing my water consumption is pretty much a guessing game with my traditional water meter as I await my monthly bill detailing usage.
The California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) has denied CWS’s requests to add smart meters to the water system in the last two rate cases but approval
may be more likely in the next rate case in 2019 because of the success of pilot projects.
The CWS is required to show the CPUC that the benefits of implementing smart meters exceed the costs, particularly the initial capital costs. Traditional water
meters require utility workers to manually visit each meter, pry up the concrete, open the meter cover and record usage. Collecting usage information manually
is a large operational expense. Smart meters can substantially reduce the operational costs of the manual meter reading process and decrease the carbon foot-
print resulting from driving tens of thousands of miles per year to read meters. Smart meter systems also enable water utilities to detect leaks more quickly and
to monitor usage to aid enforcement efforts. The website for the San Francisco smart water meter program mentioned below also indicates that smart meters
measure water consumption at 100 times the precision level of manual readings. While smart meters are more expensive than traditional meters, given the
continuing need to conserve water in California, it would seem that the cost benefit analysis should be more favourable toward adoption.
Smart water meters are part of an Advanced Metering Initiative (“AMI”) promoted by the CPUC that also includes smart gas and electric meters. My gas and
electric utility, Pacific Gas and Electric (“PG&E”), has installed a smart meter on the side of my house. I can access my account on the PG&E website to view usage
information that currently is about three days old.
There continues to be a small but vocal group of opponents of smart meters who believe the wireless emissions from such meters are not healthy and are
concerned about consumer privacy and that smart meters could result in higher not lower utility bills. To mitigate such concerns, the website for the San
Francisco smart water meter program carefully explains the privacy and security protections in place for customers as well as the testing results of emissions
when the smart meter transmits data.
What is the Internet of Things?
Smart water meters are part of an IoT, a network of technologies which can monitor the status of physical objects, capture meaningful data, and communicate
that data over a wireless network to a computer in the cloud for software to analyse in real time and help determine action steps. Technologies are capable
of monitoring objects such as smart water meters and other electronic devices, organisms or a natural part of the environment such as an area of ground to
be measured for moisture or chemical content. A smart device is associated with each object which provides the connectivity and a unique digital identity for
identifying, tracking and communicating with the object. A sensor within or attached to the device is connected to the Internet by a local area connection (such
as RFID, NFC or BTLE) and can also have wide area connectivity. Typically, each data transmission from a device is small in size but the number of transmissions
can be frequent. IoT involves many, many things interacting with each other to produce actionable information.
Each sensor device can monitor a specific condition or set of conditions such as vibration, motion, temperature, pressure or water quality. More IoT applications
have become feasible because the cost and size of such devices continues to decrease and their sophistication for measuring conditions keeps increasing. Cisco
estimates that 500 billion devices and objects will be connected to the Internet by 2030.
For example, at home I would need a smart water meter (device) that collects usage data which is communicated wirelessly to CWS where software analyzes
the data and reports the results on the web site for me to view. In the San Francisco program mentioned below, a customer can view the current data and
compare their numbers with past use and city averages. The usage data should eventually alert me to a leak but another device that measures water pressure
could detect a leak faster. To find the location for repair, however, I would need to add sensors to measure pressure at various locations in my water system. The
sensors would be connected to data analytics software in the cloud that would analyse the data transmitted to identify the location of the leak between two
sensing points in my water system. This is a much more complex application than simply tracking water usage and illustrates the importance of the data analytics
software needed to make sense of the transmitted data in an IoT application.
Smart Water Meters Status
San Francisco has implemented the largest smart water meter program in California. More than 98% of the city’s 178,000 water accounts are monitored by the
meters. Water consumption is measured hourly and data is transmitted on a wireless basis to the utility four times a day. Both the utility and customers can
track use. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, the East Bay Municipal Water District is also an early adopter. Its program targets mostly single-family homes and provides
a daily update of hour-by-hour consumption via a website. Consumers can be alerted, for example, by email or phone call, when water use exceeds a specified
limit or when a meter indicates continuous running water for 24 hours. There is also an ongoing pilot of AMI meters by the San Jose Water Company (“SJWC”)
in the Willow Glen area of San Jose.
During 2017, adoption of smart water meters was slow in California cities. I estimate that only about 15-20 percent of California water customers have smart
water meters. Smart water meter implementation also remains slow elsewhere around the U.S. The water utility industry is fragmented as compared to the
energy utility sector. There are more than 50,000 water utilities as compared to about 3,000 energy utilities. Each utility has to make an investment decision on
smart utilities which requires regulatory approval by a public utility commission.
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Since smart metering for the energy sector is approaching maturity, some analysts believe smart water meters will be the growth driver in the smart meter
market. Several research reports published in 2017 were positive about the growth of the smart water meter market. Global Market Insights expects the
smart water metering market to be worth $14 billion by 2024, with 290 million new units installed during the forecast period. Transparency Market Research
forecasts that the water meter segment will grow from a value of $3.5 billion in 2015 to $5.2 billion by the end of 2024, driven primarily by smart water meters.
A Bluefield Research report estimated that water utilities will spend $20 billion on software, data, and analytics solutions over the next decade with more than
$15 billion of that on smart meters. The global smart water meter market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.3% between 2017 and
2025 according to a Credence Research report.
Industry accounts for about 20% of water consumption worldwide. Industrial plants are also driving the adoption of smart water meters as part of their
strategic goal to reduce water usage and costs. The commercial smart water metering market share is expected to grow by more than 15% by 2024.
Budget restrictions are the largest obstacle to faster adoption of smart water meters for homes. As indicated above, the PUC has denied my utility, CWS,
from adding smart meters in the last two rate cases. Smart water meters are more expensive than traditional mechanical meters. Opponents of smart meters
also cite consumer health and privacy fears. A smart meter management network can also be expensive and some utilities do not have the IT capability to
effectively deploy and manage such technology. Some vendors are offering a managed services business model to utility companies for this purpose.
More smart meter products and systems became available in the market in 2017 but there does not appear to be any dominant market leader. The products
vary from the very basic to those that integrate water metering networks with leak detection and usage monitoring applications. The number of global and
domestic competitors, coupled with regulatory hurdles, makes fast growth very difficult. The San Francisco program vendor is Aclara Technologies. Some of
the other leading U.S. vendors in this sector are Itron Corp. and the Elster Group.
The IoT Can Help Conserve Water in California
The simplest form of smart water meter installed at homes and businesses on a wide spread basis can provide actionable information which can save millions
of gallons of water to help continue making water conservation a way of live in California. If the water utilities can provide the smart meter and basic water
management platform, private vendors can offer more sophisticated features that are accessible as an app on a mobile phone similar to how AT&T provides
the Digital Life home security system. Private vendors are already offering advanced features such as water leak detection.
Agriculture consumes about 40% of the freshwater available in California with a large amount being wasted by leaky irrigation systems, inefficient field
application methods and the planting of water intensive crops in the wrong growing location. The IoT has great potential to make water use smarter and
reduce waste for the agricultural industry, particularly in irrigation efficiency. Tax incentives (such as accelerated depreciation and investment tax credits) could
increase adoption of IoT and other smart water measures by agricultural and other businesses but the federal tax reform act signed into law in late December,
2017 did not contain any such provisions.
Another focus for IoT to help save water is landscape irrigation in parks, medians and elsewhere. This is a major use of water in cities. Nationwide, it is
estimated to be nearly one-third of all residential water use and as much as half of this water is wasted due to runoff, evaporation or wind. Landscape irrigation
systems, which apply sophisticated data analytics to a wide variety of objects, are available in the market. Current weather data is combined with sensors for
moisture, heat and other data such as the slope of the land, type of soil and the relative exposure to sunshine at a particular time.
In the water infrastructure, a utility can use an IoT network for predictive information to remotely determine the status and working condition of equipment
(open or closed, on or off, full or empty, etc.). The information can be actionable, for example; a water gate can be opened or closed or a pump turned on or off
remotely to adjust the flow of water through a water supply system. Pumps, gates and other equipment with moving parts in the water infrastructure can be
monitored for predictive maintenance alerts based on vibration and other indications of failure to prevent equipment malfunctions. If a water pump is about
to fail, the utility can be prompted to repair or replace it. An IoT-enabled water treatment plant can report if its filters are clean and functioning properly. The
IoT can measure water pressure in pipes to find leaks faster in the water transportation system or the presence of certain chemicals in the water supply.
Legal Issues
Privacy and Security: IoT networks need to be designed and implemented with adequate security and privacy protection. A network failure or hacker attack
could have serious consequences, particularly in the water infrastructure. There is at least one reported incident of hackers changing chemical settings in a
water treatment plant. Sensors and other entry points for an IoT network have such small software footprints that implementing security is difficult at such
entry points without architectural changes which would impact the economics of the network
Most water infrastructure IoT networks will have only security concerns but there will also be privacy issues in consumer IoT networks. Hacking into a smart
water meter, for example, could reveal whether or not a family is at home. Better security will mitigate privacy concerns. While most attention has been on
security threats to personal information, there also are security issues for non-personal information.
Data Ownership Rights: Ownership rights to data used in an IoT network can provide a competitive advantage, particularly in agriculture IoT applications. While
some data may be from the public domain or licensed from third parties, a business should try to own as much data as possible. Such data can be a valuable
asset and important consideration in a liquidity event.
Intellectual Property Protection: The advances in sensing technology, the way that IoT physical components are combined into a network and the related data
analytics software can have significant business value. Analytics is the process of collecting, organizing and analysing large amounts of data to discover patterns
and other useful information. Businesses need to think both offensively and defensively in creating an IP strategy so they have the freedom to operate without
a license from a third party and also provide a barrier to entry by a competitor. There are already thousands of patents issued relating to IoT.
Some data analytics software appears to remain patentable after the Alice court decision but patent holders and applicants will face challenges if they rely on
computer execution of nothing more than routine algorithms. Inventive steps will be needed to make IoT data analytics software patentable. Such a patent
may lose its value over time since the algorithm may improve over the one described in the patent and additional patent applications may be needed.
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Limiting Liability: There may be liability issues if an IoT device fails or the data analytics software provides erroneous information. Limiting liability by contract
with a utility, state or local government or business may be feasible in the same way as for other equipment and software but click wrap agreements may not
be possible for many consumer applications. Insurance will be needed as a safety net to mitigate the risk.
Summary
The IoT can be used to determine when, where and how much water is needed in residential use and in landscape and agricultural irrigation. Smart water
meters are a simple and effective beginning point for smart water systems. The widespread implementation of smart water meters for residential
customers could help save millions of gallons of water in California and elsewhere. Smart meters have many benefits for customers and water utilities. They
help customers make informed conservation decisions so usage is more efficient and less wasteful. The meters enable utilities to reduce labour costs, improve
enforcement efforts and speed up leak detection. While smart water meters are more expensive than traditional meters, given the continuing need to conserve
water in California and the potential operational cost reductions, the CPUC cost benefit analysis should be more favourable toward adoption of smart water
meters. It is unlikely that any federal tax incentives will become available to drive IoT adoption since the recent tax reform law, with the most major changes in
more than three decades, did not include any such provisions.
About the Author
Fred Greguras is an experienced business lawyer and entrepreneur. He works with global and U.S. businesses from startup
through public company stage with an emphasis on start-up and emerging growth companies. He has helped many foreign
companies set up and expand their operations in the United States and represents various types of businesses including
software, clean technology, semiconductor and medical device companies. His transactional experience includes equity
and debt financings of various types including project financings for energy projects, seed and venture capital and other
financings. Mr. Greguras has also advised on many M&A, joint ventures, licensing and other business transactions both in
the US and internationally. Fred has substantial experience representing companies with a market focus on, or operations
in, China, Vietnam and India, and in supporting investors and businesses from those countries.
Mr. Greguras’ background includes work as a partner at K&L Gates LLP and Fenwick and West LLP in the Silicon Valley and
the Kutak Rock law firm in Omaha, Nebraska. During his 25-plus year tenure in the Silicon Valley, Fred has also been a
venture capitalist, general counsel and CFO for a venture-backed startup. Fred is a graduate of the University of Nebraska
Law School and is a Marine Corps combat veteran. background includes work as a partner at K&L Gates LLP and Fenwick and
West LLP in the Silicon Valley and the Kutak Rock law firm in Omaha, Nebraska. During his 25-plus year tenure in the Silicon
Valley, Fred has also been a venture capitalist, general counsel and CFO for a venture-backed startup. Fred is a graduate of
the University of Nebraska Law School and is a Marine Corps combat veteran.
Endress+Hauser To Provide Free Training On Instrumentation To
Military Veterans
Endress+Hauser has announced that it will provide training to military veterans on process instrumentation, as part of the twelve-week Academy of
Advanced Manufacturing (AAM) program offered by Rockwell Automation and ManpowerGroup. Professionals from Endress+Hauser will be teaching process
instrumentation as part of the larger AAM curriculum starting in January 2018, and being offered at no cost to veterans.
“We are very excited to be collaborating with Rockwell Automation on this project. Our customers continue to tell us they have difficulty finding skilled workers
to fill the many open positions that are created by the large number of personnel retiring from the workforce,” said Jerry Spindler, customer and field service
training manager, Endress+Hauser. “We are proud to be involved in helping to solve this skills shortage by providing quality training on our instrumentation.
With the training classes, we not only get to help our customers, we are helping those who have served our country.”
The technical curriculum being taught by Endress+Hauser will offer in-depth training on technology and instrumentation for monitoring and managing
temperature, flow and pressure for machinery and equipment in industrial process industries. Endress+Hauser will lend its time and expertise in process
instrumentation to help train military veterans for careers in advanced manufacturing, while enhancing the technical talent pool and helping to bridge the skills
gap that exists globally.
“We are pleased that Endress+Hauser is part of the ranks of the AAM, and are bringing their instrumentation and process automation expertise to the
program,” stated Joe Allie, business manager, global competency, Rockwell Automation.
According to a white paper published by ManpowerGroup, more than 21 million military veterans live in the United States and more than a quarter of a million
service members are discharged every year. That number represents one of the largest sources of highly-skilled and loyal talent in the country.
Over the next decade, the United States manufacturing sector is estimated to produce up to 3.5 million highly-skilled, technology-based jobs. Nearly 2.5 million
manufacturing workers will be retiring by 2025. With the skill shortages in the U.S. this leaves up to 2 million manufacturing positions unfilled and forecasts a
major challenge that needs to be addressed with a solution. The AAM program is aimed at reducing these potential future challenges.
For more information visit www.us.endress.com/training-veterans.
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Case Study:
Leveraging Water Network Data for
System Management Prioritization
Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) is an independent agency of the US City of Knoxville, Tennessee, providing electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater services to
more than 453,000 customers in Knoxville and parts of seven surrounding counties. KUB’s water system has experienced 30 percent to 35 percent non-revenue
water over the past 10 years; hard-to-find underground leaks are the big culprit. Reducing leaks improves customer service, increases operational efficiency,
reduces expenses for chemicals and power, and has other benefits.
Background – Addressing Water Loss
In a water loss reduction initiative, KUB invested in the implementation of District Metered Areas (DMAs) working with Matchpoint Water Asset Management
Inc. (Matchpoint), a water system management firm. KUB engaged Matchpoint in a 3-year agreement to manage supply, implementation and maintenance
of KUB’s DMA’s assets. DMAs partitioned the water network into 44 small areas serving no more than 3,000 customers, making it easier to find the leaks.
Matchpoint installed a total of 102 pressure sensors and flow meters to monitor the network within each DMA.
Flow and pressure sensors record measurements every 15 minutes and transmit the data daily to a central server where the entire water distribution data is
stored. As a result, KUB is generating a huge amount of data that provides the performance signature of the network base on individual sensor readings over
hours, days, and months of continuous monitoring. Analysing the sensor data can identify network performance anomalies, specifically levels of water loss.
KUB’s basis for implementing the system was to evaluate areas of water loss through DMA level analysis and prioritize leak detection and repair. With a few
DMAs and sensors, KUB could process the data using spreadsheets to evaluate the sensor data and DMA performance. As 102 sensors incrementally came on
line, however, evaluating the growing data became much more difficult.
The Need for Data Analytics
KUB identified objectives and expectations for using data to manage water loss and overall system performance.
•	 Highest cost water loss management approach is pipe replacement. KUB decided to use a data analytics strategy to gain greater insights
into areas and alternative methods for water loss reduction.
•	 Comparison of DMAs to find DMAs that have high water loss to best manage leakage.
•	 Focus leak detection and reduction on a few DMAs to drive water loss down.
•	 Prior efforts tended to stop the rising leaks, but not reduce the total level of leaks. The goal was to systematically drive the leak levels
downward through detection, repair, and other management methods.
•	 Use of complete water cost by DMA to help prioritize zones including the basic water production, energy, communication, engineering,
operations costs. Complete water costs could help with priority setting to achieve goals broader than total water loss.
•	 Share network performance data between co-workers and other work groups.
The TaKaDu Event Management Solution
KUB tapped TaKaDu through Matchpoint to meet its system management objectives and harness the vast data volumes to present KUB’s system performance
characteristics in meaningful ways. TaKaDu uses IoT cloud-based technology that provides an event management solution, and Matchpoint is one of TaKaDu’s
distributors in the North American region.
As a big data solution, TaKaDu’s event management capabilities consume and analyse the sensor and meter data with advanced analytics to automatically
detect, analyse and manage various types of water network events. Events include leaks, bursts, pressure transients, faulty assets and telemetry network
integrity. TaKaDu evaluates all sensor data over months of readings to identify events by correlating data from multiple sensors and DMAs along with
SCADA production data. Event detection is an automatic process. An event is characterized by its type, its size, and trends; TaKaDu’s data solution automatically
identifies correlations with other events, such as a main break or pressure drop. Event notification is automatically sent to KUB personnel based on their roles
and responsibilities. Events are relevant and actionable for KUB because of their discrete classification and characteristics. Using TaKaDu’s solution, KUB reviews
the event locations, magnitude and trends to prioritize, monitor and resolve the events.
“TaKaDu’s event management paradigm has transformed the flood of incomprehensible data into meaningful information that the KUB organization can
effectively use,” said Ted Tyree, Engineer, Water Systems Engineering at KUB. “Almost immediately, our engineers could ‘see’ the water distribution network
and understand where potential problems exist, the type, and the magnitude. With that snapshot, we could easily determine whether to monitor or act on
each one.”
Managing the water network operations, fixing leaks, and engineering network changes had historically been accomplished with basic network information
and a set of assumptions. A welcome revelation was the significant insights provided by TaKaDu, which helped quickly to clarify issues and characteristics of
specific areas of the system.
Tyree continued, “It became evident that water engineering required a data management and analysis solution. TaKaDu’s solution is based on data science;
its engineers and system deployment specialists are data experts bringing skills to KUB that enable our engineers to have much greater insight into the water
system.”
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Benefits & Results
“They committed to deployment within eight weeks, providing configuration, training, and ongoing support for KUB to ensure the full range of the TaKaDu
solution is understood and applied. With the system deployed in eight weeks, immediately we could see how our 102 sensors, meters, and SCADA devices were
performing. This simple view of our data stream allowed our team to identify a variety of telemetry and sensor installation issues that then became a primary
focus for completing our DMA buildout,” said Tyree.
Furthermore, TaKaDu determined where DMAs, meters, and sensors were not associated properly or where DMAs were not, in fact, closed areas. Addressing
these TaKaDu findings, along with the hardware configurations, solidified KUB’s implementation of the DMAs. Before TaKaDu, KUB engineers had to talk to data
experts to access SCADA data. TaKaDu has made the data accessible to staff throughout KUB directly to see events, view comments from others, and share
information across work shifts. Users can access the system directly and not have to physically talk to people to understand current event and system
performance characteristics (although the direct discussions will continue and remain valuable).
TaKaDu events enable KUB engineers to drill down and associate network performance data and to identify the root causes of issues and how to act on them.
The event management tools allow KUB to define an action, priorities, and assign them to teams so that we are working on the top priority items without losing
track of less important events. KUB also has a better understanding of event lifecycles where pipe leaks may progress to busts through progressive leaking or
pressure increases.
“This data driven insight will help us proactively reduce emergency events that we previously had no forewarning of, added Tyree. “It’s surprising how
quickly KUB has begun to rely on data for its system management. Our motivation for using TaKaDu is for overall optimization of the water network and our staff
resources. It is far beyond water loss management.”
WRc supporting UK Water Framework Directive – Review of UK-
TAG flow standards
On Tuesday 9th January, Vicki Bewes of WRc’s Catchment Management Team, attended the UKTAG Water Resources Task Team (WRTT) Workshop in
Birmingham to consider the revision of the UK Water Framework Directive (WFD) river flow standards, bringing together expertise from across UK regulatory
and conservation agencies and academic communities to form part of the review process.
As part of the workshop Vicki presented the findings of a recent typology analysis project done on behalf of the Environment Agency by WRc across England,
Wales and Scotland. This looked into the effects of changes in flow on macro-invertebrate communities and the ways in which these relationships vary in
different types of rivers; and specifically whether the current system of river typologies can be improved to better reflect the sensitivity of macro-invertebrates
to these changes.
The workshop generated significant discussion and the outcomes will now be considered in more detail by the WRTT to determine whether changes can be
made to the current typology system or what further research is needed
WRc are pleased to be chosen by Environment Agency to review
leakage elements of the company’s draft WRMPs
Every 5 years water companies prepare Water Resource Management Plans that outline how they plan to ensure security of future water supplies.
The Asset Management Solutions Team at WRc are very pleased to announce the successful award by the Environment Agency for the review of the leakage
management elements of the company’s plans.
The proactive management of leakage remains a key focus for water utilities and their customers, we are delighted to be involved in supporting the delivery
of the UK Water industry’s regulators obligations. In order to deliver continued lower levels of leakage, companies will need to be looking to innovative meth-
ods for efficiently targeting and repairing leaks with minimum disruption to customers, we look forward to informing the Environment Agency based on our
Independent, Research focused and innovative approach to leakage Management.
Page 16
The unglamorous yet crucial task of sewer and wastewater treatment has direct impacts on public health and the environment, yet rapid population growth is
stretching the capabilities of the nation’s water treatment infrastructure. According to the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card for Wastewater from the American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), more than 56 million new users will be connected to centralized treatment systems across the U.S. over the next 20 years.
One municipal wastewater treatment plant built in the 1970s is taking steps to enhance its capacity, operational efficiency and reliability. Located in a small,
coastal U.S. city, the plant has 1.1 million gallons per day of processing capacity. To address continually growing demand, the decision was made in early 2015
to incorporate a greater level of plant automation and control. The plant required modifications, including new instrumentation and controls (I&C) supported
by a high-availability, mission-critical communications network and an extension of the plant’s existing outfall.
The water district chose Carollo Engineers to design and engineer the solution, which leverages the Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) Reference
Architecture developed by Rockwell Automation and its Strategic Alliance Partner Cisco. It features a robust, redundant, fault-tolerant fibre - optic
communications network from Rockwell Automation EncompassTM Product Partner Phoenix Digital Corp. (PDC), as well as Rockwell Automation control
system products the customer specified.
Core Challenges Limit the Options
Budgets are tight in small, municipal water treatment plants such as this one, which makes the operational efficiencies afforded by industrial automation highly
desirable. However, any potential savings must be weighed against implementation and maintenance costs.
The plant sought access to real-time data and diagnostics to help improve decision-making, increase uptime and minimize manual processes such as
paper-based charts and graphs. Fast, secure Ethernet connectivity was needed for the central control system to collect data and generate the required reports
automatically. The underlying communications network needed to be cost-effective and industrially hardened — capable of providing fault tolerance and
redundancy to help achieve maximum availability and reliability.
The network also had to be as immune as possible from electromagnetic noise. “Water treatment environments are prone to electrical noise and static due to
electrical drives and other powered equipment, which have the potential to corrupt electronic communications. If a copper or metal conductor is introduced
into that environment, it may pick up extraneous electromagnetic noise and interfere with a signal being transmitted through it,” explains Amit Sahdev P.E.,
senior I&C engineer at Carollo Engineers.
Another key consideration was the lack of IT personnel on staff who had the necessary skills to support a typical Ethernet network for the advanced control
systems. The water district had no budget to outsource the role under a maintenance service contract, so installation and maintenance simplicity was a must
for the new communications network.
Finally, to be adaptive and effective for the long term, the solution needed to be scalable, expandable and capable of accommodating future I&C and network-
ing technologies.
Optimal Proposal Simplifies the Selection
The water district specified its preference for Rockwell Automation products in its request for proposals (RFPs). Carollo Engineers had a history of
Rockwell Automation solution knowledge, having specified and worked with its
technologies for more than 50 years.
Carollo also had a successful track record with the water district, including
preparing the wastewater treatment plant’s facility plan. After assessing the RFP
responses, the water district awarded Carollo Engineers the two-part, $9 million
project, which included both the plant modifications and outfall extension.
The solution Carollo proposed for installation at the existing water treatment plant
was tailored to the plant’s skill sets and budget and provided all of the requested
capabilities. The cost-effective, low-maintenance, energy-efficient solution was
designed to help provide maximum availability.
Based on the Cisco-Rockwell Automation CPwE architecture (see Figure 1), it
incorporated:
•	 An Allen-Bradley® programmable logic controller (PLC) platform,
including Bulletin 1756 ControlLogix® I/O chassis-based modules and
Bulletin 1768 CompactLogixTM controllers.
•	 Rockwell Software® Studio 5000® environment for PLC programming.
•	 Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk® View software for human-machine
interface (HMI) programming.
•	 Secure, noise-immune fibre-optic communications network from PDC
that included its OCP module (see Figure 2).
Case Study:
Redundant Fibre-Optic Network
Helps Plant Meet Goals
Figure 1: The low-maintenance, energy-efficient solution recommended for the water
district was based on the Cisco-Rockwell Automation CPwE Reference Architecture
and designed for maximum availability.
Page 17
New Solution Fits the Bill
PDC provided the network backbone for all of the Allen-Bradley PLCs, which included a full two-channel
redundant fibre - optic network in the in-chassis CompactLogix platform running at a full gigabit and
communicates with the Rockwell Automation process control system.
This product combination builds on years of success. PDC technology has been used in all of the automation
platforms Rockwell Automation has offered, from the Allen-Bradley PLC-5® control system to ControlLogix
products and now also CompactLogix. Multiple protocols for Rockwell Automation also have been supported
— originally remote I/O and the data highway, followed by ControlNet® networks, and now Ethernet®.
PDC passes any version of Ethernet without software programming, setup or configuration. The average
technician can install, troubleshoot and maintain the PDC network in minutes, without special certification, in
a secure fashion.
The use of fiber cable has multiple benefits. “Fibre-optic cables are inherently immune from electromagnetic
interference as they are non-conductive in nature and cannot pick up extraneous electromagnetic interfer-
ence, making them a better solution in electrically noisy environments,” says Sahdev.
Because fiber provides redundant connections, not just one like traditional cable, the PDC solution provides
a more robust system. It is not just resilient; it provides a truly two-channel redundant network. Fiber also
operates at the speed of light.
“This is the perfect example of where Phoenix Digital and Rockwell Automation work well together; it’s the
small-to-medium-sized municipality that needs the technology but struggles with the maintenance of the
application,” says Tom Schaefer, president and CEO of PDC. “When Carollo presented us with the project
requirements and the skill set of the local maintenance team, the PDC system was the natural choice.”
Plant Awaits Highly Anticipated Benefits
Carollo Engineers completed the engineering design in September 2016. Construction of the modification and outfall projects began in March 2017 and is
scheduled to finish in January 2018. The engineering firm is providing quality management and construction support services throughout the implementation.
Once completed, the wastewater treatment plant will realize the many benefits of the new automation systems and a network designed for reliability.
“Customers like the robustness of the full two-channel redundancy network,” says Schaefer. “Our network is designed to operate in zero-downtime service
applications.”
Plug-and-play simplicity minimizes the time spent on network maintenance. A technician — not an IT-trained and -certified individual — can replace a unit if
the PDC network goes down. “Replacements can be made in and out of a hot running network in 30 seconds, with no data loss, without a laptop or instruction
manual; just set up the switches on the new unit the same way as the old one, and it fires up and goes,” adds Schaefer.
In addition, should a power outage occur, the PDC system will re-establish itself in less than 10 seconds. This allows for the automation devices and the PLC to
come back online and become operational into an active running network. All of this allows a more robust solution that the water district doesn’t have to worry
about because it can self-maintain.
Figure 2: The secure, noise-immune fibre-optic com-
munications network includes the OCP plug-and-play
fibre-optic module from Phoenix Digital Corp. that
provides fault tolerant, redundant communication.
Online portal now available for water quality assessment
The IIWQ World Water Quality Portal is now available online to “assist with global water quality assessment and capacity building for streams, lakes and rivers.”
This portal was developed by EOMAP GmbH & Co. KG to support the International Initiative on Water Quality (IIWQ) of UNESCO’s International Hydrological
Programme. It was launched earlier this week at UNESCO headquarters.
“In view of scarce water quality information at the global and national levels, the portal will be a valuable tool to obtain water quality information, especially in
remote areas and in developing country regions such as Africa, Asia, Latin America,” said Dr. Sarantuyaa Zandaryaa, program specialist in the Division of Water
Sciences at UNESCO-IHP. “It is also a decision-support tool and will help countries identify the most pressing water quality problems such as pollution hotspots.”
The portal is based on EOMAP’s web service and provides users with near real-time data, campaign planning support, and access to remote and inaccessible
areas, according to a press release. Such water quality parameters as turbidity, chlorophyll, and indicators for cyanobacteria blooms can be mapped via satellite
globally with weekly or even daily sampling frequencies under cloud-free conditions.
Users can select specific locations to view, such as the Itaipu/Parana reservoir shown above (impounded by Itaipu Dam, which supplies water for a 14,000-MW
hydroelectric plant). Or they can set a virtual station on a map of the world. Historical data is available back through 2016.
Page 18
March 2018
WEX Global
12-14th
March 2018
Lisbon, Portugal
Hosted by WEX Global
Latest Developments in Water Sensors
7th
March 2018
Cambridge, UK
Hosted by the Sensors for Water Interest Group
9th Global Water Leakage Summit
13th
-14th
March 2018
London, UK
Hosted by London Business Conferences
WWT Smart Water Networks
20th
March 2018
Birmingham, UK
Hosted by WWT
April 2018
Sensors for Water & Wastewater Maintenance
18th April 2018
Manchester, UK
Hosted by the Sensors for Water Interest Group
Smart Water Systems
25th-26th April 2018
London, UK
Hosted by SMi Group
May 2018
Condition Based Monitoring
TBC May 2018
TBC
Hosted by the Sensors for Water Interest Group
SWAN 2018
21st-22nd May 2018
Barcelona, Spain
Hosted by Smart Water Networks Forum
November 2018
Water, Wastewater & Environmental Monitoring
21st-22nd November 2018
Telford, UK
Hosted by International Labmate
Page 19
Conferences, Events,
Seminars & Studies
Conferences, Seminars & Events
Conferences Coming Soon
Latest Developments in Water Sensors
Where: 	 Clare College, Cambridge
When: 		 7th
March 2018
Physical and chemical sensors are at the heart of virtually all measurement
systems. Amongst the most popular for water monitoring applications are
temperature, conductivity, turbidity, colour and pH. During the past decades,
they have become smaller, more rugged and stable, leading to better reliable
systems. Also during this time, significant advances have been made in the
measurement of species such as trace metals, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and E.
coli, using electrochemical and optical techniques.
This workshop will highlight developments and improvements to sensors
and sensing technologies, with emphasis on, but not exclusively, these latter,
chemical, materials.
WEX Global 2018
Where: 	 Lisbon, Portugal
When: 		 12th
-14th
March 2018
WEX GLOBAL is an action oriented summit which places business meetings at
its heart. A programme of pre-selected mutually agreed one to one meetings
are combined with an outstanding conference of internationally renowned ex-
pert speakers and numerous other networking opportunities such as themed
lunches, a gala dinner and other receptions. It is a unique opportunity to form
strong international business partnerships at a single exclusive location. Every
delegate receives a personalised agenda which means that at WEX, you will
shorten your sales cycle with a top down selling approach that initiates rela-
tionships directly with senior decision makers.
9th Global Water Leakage Summit
Where: 	 London, UK
When: 		 13th
-14th
March 2018
Regarded as the world’s premier water leakage summit, The Global Leakage
Summit features the most innovative and successful examples of delivering
and maintaining reduced leakage levels across the world.
Returning for its 9th year, the 2018 speaker line-up will include water network
practitioners from Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Jordan, Bahrain, Burkina Faso,
Singapore and Malaysia, while the UK water industry is represented by: Affinity
Water, Anglian Water, Bristol Water, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Northumbrian
Water, SES Water, Severn Trent Water, South East Water, South West Water,
Thames Water and Yorkshire Water.
Circular Economy Strategies for Water & Energy
13–14 MARCH 2018 | LISBON, PORTUGAL
Kick off next spring with a visit
to beautiful and lively Lisbon to
attend the eleventh WEX Global
Summit: Circular Economy
Strategies for Water & Energy.
The World Economic Forum’s 2016 global risk report
emphasised ‘the potential for climate change to
exacerbate water crises.’ WEX Global 2018 will shine
a light into the future, and bring together world-leading
experts and practitioners to make sense of a fast-changing
environment, where continuous innovation and knowledge-
sharing become essential. Forward-looking institutions,
companies and stakeholders are invited to join this
trailblazing summit, to determine how to grow
and strategise the circular economy.
WHAT IS WEX GLOBAL?
WEX, the water and energy exchange, occupies a unique
place in the water conference calendar. Business meetings
and conversation lie at the heart of WEX, along with
the principle of ‘exchange’: the exchange of ideas and
philosophies, of business cards, of solutions, and of
methodologies, to form strong networks on which to build.
Get in touch to discuss the different
options available for attendance!
SPEAKERS 2018
With more than 30x countries represented to date and
counting, WEX hosts speakers from both commercial
and technical backgrounds, working across the public
and private sectors. Meet directors or equivalent from
companies including the following live at WEX:-
MEDIA PARTNERS
• Acciona
• Aguas de Portugal
• Algerian Energy Company
• Aegea Saneamento e
Participacoes SA
• APG-Neuros
• Aquasave
• Asian Water
• Azersu JSC
• Bishkek Vodokanal
• Budapest Waterworks
• City of Cincinnati
• Cole Engineering
• Czech Water (VAKHB)
• EBRD
• EPAL Grupo Aguas de
Portugal
• eWater Consult
• FCC Aqualia, Future Water
Association
• GEA Westfalia
• Ghana Water Company
• GKW Consult
• Government of Jamaica
• Headworks
• Hydrolia
• IBRD
• Intqual-Pro
• Islamic Development Bank
• Isle Utilities
• KFW
• Krevox
• King Saud University
• L’Oreal
• Metropolitana Milanese
• Ministry Of Finance – Egypt
• Ministry of the Environment
– Poland
• Nairobi Water & Sewerage
Company
• National Water
Commission (Jamaica)
• NWWEC – Iran
• ONEE
• Prishtina RWC
• PUC Belgrade Waterworks
• Royal Haskoning DHV
• SC Apa Canal SA Sibiu
• SEDIF
• SEWA
• Sonede
• South East Water
• Southern Water
• Suez
• Caribbean Development
Bank
• United Utilities
• Utico
• WRC
• Yorkshire Water
…and more being added
every day!
+44 (0)5603 683104
info@wex-global.com
www.wex-global.com
“WEX is a tremendous event
because you get such high quality
people with intensive interaction,
and you have time to have in depth
conversations with everyone.”
Frank Rogalla, Director of Innovation & Technology, Aqualia
PLATNIUM GOLD SILVER
Page 20

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WIPAC Monthly - January 2018

  • 1. Circular Economy Strategies for Water & Energy 13–14 MARCH 2018 | LISBON, PORTUGAL PLATNIUM GOLD SILVER WIPAC MONTHLYThe Monthly Update from Water Industry Process Automation & Control www.wipac.org.uk Issue 1/2018- January 2018
  • 2. Page 2 In this Issue From the Editor.................................................................................................................... 3 Industry News................................................................................................................. 4 - 9 Highlights of the news of the month from the global water industry centred around the successes of a few of the companies in the global market. The Smart Water Industry - 2018 & Beyond........................................................................ 10-11 A short look into the future of the “Smart” Water Industry moving forward from 2018 and beyond with a focus on the developments in instrumentation and its integration into the water industry moving forward Water & the Internet of Things 2018................................................................................. 12-14 A blog by Fred Greguras of Royse Law firm looking at the issues of Water & the Internet of Things including the legal issues around Smart Water Meters and the benefits that the Internet of Things can bring. Leveraging Water Network Data for System Management Prioritization........................... 15-16 A case study from TaKaDu and Knoxville utility Board on the use of water network data to reduce non-revenue water losses Redundant Fibre Optic Network helps plant meet goals................................................... 17-18 A case study from Rockwell Automation about the use of the plants redundant fibre optic network to provide control across the treatment works Workshops, Conferences & Seminars............................................................................... 19-20 The highlights of the conferences and workshops in the coming months WIPAC Monthly is a publication of the Water Industry Process Automation & Control Group. It is produced by the group manager and WIPAC Monthly Editor, Oliver Grievson. This is a free publication for the benefit of the Water Industry and please feel free to distribute to any who you may feel benefit. All enquires about WIPAC Monthly, including those who want to publish news or articles within these pages, should be directed to the publications editor, Oliver Grievson at olivergrievson@hotmail.com
  • 3. Page 3 From the Editor As a new year begins its always worth taking stock at what the industry has done in the past year and what it plans to do in the next year, two years or more. In the UK Water Industry it is a time that has been plagued with PR19, the industry’s time to take stock and count up the future bill and work out what it needs in up to seven years time. Its always difficult and the folks that work in the water companies seem to go silent, and when you do see them they are some- what bleary eyed from many late nights trying to work out what is needed and trying to work out what can be cut as the realistic point is that not everything can be paid for. Coming from this perspective it is very easy to see why concepts such as the “Smart Water Industry” are sometimes a tough sell. The truth is though the Water Industry is moving. As somebody who has been inside the industry for a number of years now you can see things are getting better, things are starting to get more and more intelligent. Whether this is due to the availability of better technology, more developed thinking or in some case an undeniable need is a question that should be asked only for the answer “its a combination of everything” that comes back. So what has the water industry got in store for 2018 and beyond. It is a subject that I have tried to touch on in the first article of this month’s issue although I will say touch on as I could probably fill the whole year’s WIPACs with the detail of what I think the industry could and should do. I have certainly seen in the past few years the need for cheaper and cheaper instruments split the market into the simple and the complex each with their own individual applications so it will be interesting to see where the industry goes again I think it will be a combination of both directions with the wastewater network one of the areas of most development. What I can say is that are exciting things coming up in the next few months with the conference scene being particularly busy. One of my favourite conferences is starting the year, this time being set in Lisbon. Its a chance to catch up with the international scene at WEX Global and a chance to catch up with some of the famous international stars of the industry to talk technical for a few days. Unfortunately this year it clashes with the Global Leakage Summit and the first WET Wednesday of the year (an event hosted by Mark Lane of Pinsent Masons). June sees the SWAN Forum Conference which takes place in Barcelona this year which as per usual is going to show some of the best developments in this sub-section of the Water Industry of ours. This year also sees WWEM and that to me is the Instrumentation Apprentice Competition and this month has been frantic rush to put things together so I can get terms of references out in the next few days. In total the competition is being supported by ten companies with four competing teams before things have really begun which is a fantastic result for the youth of the Water Industry who will represent us all in the years to come. Couple with the competition this year is the return of the Flow Forum and the new “Learning Zone,” which again has slots filing up rapidly to impart the way instrumentation works. I say each year that I am going to do less and then promptly get involved with more this year it is co-writing a book on Wastewater Flow, writing the new Brit- ish/European Standard for Wastewater ICA as well as a very interesting working group within the IWA that will look at data quality. Something very important if we are going to make this industry of ours more data-driven. To say we have exciting year ahead of us is somewhat of an under-statement Have a good month Oliver
  • 4. ABB and TaKaDu are providing a water management solution that will boost efficiency and reduce water leakage in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the world’s fastest growing cities. Saigon Water Supply Corporation (SAWACO) is deploying ABB’s digital control and monitoring technologies together with TaKaDu’s Integrated Event Management Solution as part of its restoration of Ho Chi Minh City’s water distribution network. The ABB solution - ABB Ability Symphony Plus SCADA - will monitor and control the entire water distribution system and integrate TaKaDu’s Event Management Solution, which detects, analyzes and manages network events and incidents such as leaks, bursts, faulty assets, telemetry and data issues and operational failures. This massive urban project aims to increase efficiency, reduce water leakage, prevent disruptions and ensure everyone has access to clean water in Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam’s economic powerhouse. Last year, Ho Chi Minh City lost nearly 30 percent of its potable water to leaking and damaged pipes. ABB’s and TaKaDu’s complementary solutions will enable SAWACO to monitor the network conditions digitally through multiple data collection points, such as sensors and meters, and offer actionable insights to reduce non-revenue water. SAWACO will then be able to increase the amount of water delivered to the city’s industries and eight million residents. At a first estimate, SAWACO will hit 50 Mio m³/year of water savings, equivalent to 20,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, while production cost savings could be higher than 10 MUSD a year. “Water projects like Ho Chi Minh City’s show the full potential of advanced automation for all municipalities dealing with rapid expansion or aging infrastructure,” says Kevin Kosisko, Managing Director of ABB’s Power Generation & Water business. “Aggregating and analysing data from the field will offer real-time insights into network status and will increase revenues.” “We’re excited to partner with ABB on this project in one of Asia’s most dynamic countries” said Amir Peleg, TaKaDu’s Founder & CEO. “By converting raw data into knowledge, we can help SAWACO reduce hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of non-revenue water lost per day while significantly improving its operational efficiency.” ABB is a leading provider of integrated power and automation solutions with unparalleled experience in partnering with the energy and water industries, bringing them improved operations and sustainable progress. We deliver integrated and secure digital systems, services and solutions to automate and optimize the performance of conventional and renewable power plants and water facilities. ABB And TaKaDu To Strengthen Ho Chi Minh City’s Water Distribution System ‘SDG 6 is key part of growth strategy for smart businesses’ ‘Smart businesses will recognise that Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water needs to be a key part of their growth strategy’, commented Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever in support of the activities of the Toilet Board Coalition at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.At the Global Forum the Toilet Board Coalition highlighted the ‘Sanitation Economy’ and its immense business opportunities of providing universal access to safe sanitation. On the occasion, Unilever announced to quadruple its contribution to the Transform programme to 40 million UK pounds in support of social enterprises. Helping low-income consumers The Transform programme is founded by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Unilever in 2015 to support market-based solutions that meet low-income household needs in developing countries. Through financial and business support for social enterprises and behaviour-change interventions, the programme’s aim is to enable 100 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to gain access to products and services that have been shown to improve health, livelihoods, the environment or well-being by 2025. To date, it has supported 19 projects across nine countries, including a mobile platform for shopkeepers in Kenya that encourages them to become change agents in their communities, and a portable hand-washing station for low-income households in Bangladesh. Huge economic potential At the World Economic Forum the Toilet Board Coalition draw the support of several CEO’s to join its agenda on ‘sanitation economy’ that, according to the coalition, has an estimated 62 billion US dollar opportunity by 2021 in India alone. Sanitation has many business opportunities such as innovative toilet design, recovery of biological resources (biogas and fertilizer), and smart digital technologies driving preventative healthcare. According to the Toilet Board Coalition the ‘sanitation economy’ has three distinct elements: • The Toilet Economy — innovation within toilet products and services that ensures toilets are designed fit for purpose for all environments and incomes • The Circular Sanitation Economy — toilet resources (commonly known as human waste) feed into a circular economy system which replaces traditional waste management • The Smart Sanitation Economy — digitised sanitation systems that optimise data for operating efficiencies, maintenance, plus consumer use and health information insights On 25 January in Davos, the Toilet Board Coalition hosted a round-table discussion with respected global leaders, including CEO’s of Unilever, LIXIL Corporation, Kimberly-Clark, TATA Trusts and Firmenich, to discuss an Action Agenda for the Sanitation Economy. Page 4 Industry News
  • 5. Thames Water rolls out smart metering programme across Epping Forest Thames Water will shortly begin to roll out its smart water meters programme to households across Epping Forest. Smart meters will soon be putting local in control of their water use, helping them to make simple money-saving choices at home. Population growth and climate change are placing increasing pressures on water resources. The aim of Thames Water’s smart metering programme is to educate customers on water use and improve leakage detection. Thames Water smart meters 1The water company said that by providing clear usage information online, via regular comparison letters, or over the phone, the meters highlight how efficient a home is and how simple water saving efforts can reduce bills. The meters can also help locate leaks on customers supply pipes by quickly identifying where there is always water flowing through the meter, suggesting there is likely to be a leak. Mark Cooper, Thames Water’s head of metering said: “Our smart meters are already saving millions of litres across London and we’ll be doing the same across Epping Forest. This is good news for customers, who will be in control of their water bills, and great news for the environment given increasing pressures upon water resources. “With our meters providing accurate and up to date data on water use, higher or unusual readings could indicate a leak on a customer’s pipe, which can be pinpointed and fixed faster to stop water from being water wasted.” Thames Water is also offering free home visits, where experts can advise how water efficient a house is and on the installation of water saving freebies such as aerating taps and shower heads, and dual flush toilet adapters. According to the utility, after a visit, a family of four could save as much as £180 a year on their water and energy bills, as heating water accounts for 21 per cent of an average energy bill. Households will have a comparison period to understand and reduce their usage, before being moved onto a metered bill, unless customers’ choose to switch early to cash in on the savings. Instrumentation Apprentice Competition Update Circular Economy Strategies for Water & Energy 13–14 MARCH 2018 | LISBON, PORTUGAL PLATNIUM GOLD SILVER First starting in 2014 the WWEM Instrumentation Apprentice Competition will be returning again to WWEM 2018 in Telford on the 21st November. The competition which is open to every Water Industry Apprentice whether they work directly for the Water Companies or work for organisations associated with the industry. The only qualification is that competitors must be registered on a current Apprenticeship programme. The competition is going from strength to strength and despite details not currently being released there is a huge support from the Water Industry with ten companies or organisations sponsoring or supporting the event including ABB, ATI, Partech, RS Hydro, Sensors for Water Interest Group (SWIG), Siris Environmetnal Flow Surveys (SEFS), Siemens, Vega, WRC as well as International Labmate who are the organisers of WWEM. These organisations will be help- ing to put the competition together along with Oliver Grievson, the group manager of Water Industry Process Automation & Control, who first brought the competition to WWEM 2014. Competitors, despite the competition not being formerly opened yet, have also been flooding in with teams promised from Process Plus and Z-Tech Control Systems outside of the traditional Water Companies as well as United Utilities and the defending champions, Anglian Water. Further details and the terms of reference for the competition will be released in February 2018 when the register of competitors will be formally opened and further details can be obtained from Oliver Grievson by emailing olivergrievson@hotmail.com Page 5
  • 6. Arcadis acquires SEAMS Arcadis has further grown its digital and data expertise with the acquisition of SEAMS. Together, both businesses will be able to provide clients with a unique blend of expert technical and asset knowledge combined with advanced analytics. SEAMS was established in 2002 and employs 45 people. By acquiring SEAMS, Arcadis’ data analytics and predictive analytics offering has now grown to more than 200 people around the UK. Arcadis’ acquisition of SEAMS will address an increasingly critical issue for water companies, energy providers and infrastructure operators, helping them to improve customer satisfaction, increase affordability and maintain high levels of service. Combining Arcadis deep asset knowledge, industry insight and data analytics will elevate the traditional consultancy approach. Arcadis will be able to give the nation’s biggest utilities and infrastructure providers the benefit of quicker, more detailed expert analysis. In turn, this will lead to reduced business risk at lower cost, equipping clients to provide better service for their customers in the short-, medium- and long-term. Led by Managing Director, Mark Engelhardt, and Technical Director, Mark Turner, SEAMS’ cutting-edge data and predictive analytics help to monitor performance and advise on resilience on behalf of their clients to safeguard their assets, minimise costs and reduce risk. The transaction represents Arcadis’ latest move towards a fully digitally enabled business in the UK and overseas, making things faster and more sustainable and improving quality of life. Commenting on the acquisition, Alan Brookes, CEO of Arcadis UK, said: “The utilities and infrastructure sectors are one of the last to be digitally disrupted and if we’re to meet future consumer and client demands, our industry needs to move forward quickly. At Arcadis, this is our key priority and we are rapidly accelerating the digitisation of our entire business for the benefit of our clients and to improve quality of life for their customers. “While the volume of data is growing exponentially, the real value lies in our ability to interpret and understand how to use it to deliver valued benefits. This is where the SEAMS team comes in. Working with our new colleagues to combine our expert industry views with increasingly data-driven insights will ultimately enhance the level of sophistication we are bringing to our clients, helping them to improve their operations and make things better for those that rely on their services.” Managing Director, Mark Engelhardt, said: “The drive for better corporate performance and returns sits at the heart of most businesses. Our approach is all about mining the plethora of data available to us and – most importantly – making the most effective use of it to inform the decision-making process. “Our approach to data means that we can work with clients from the very earliest stages of strategic planning, right through to operational delivery, helping them to draw valuable insights that ultimately help to drive the best performance of their assets. Our EDA Analytics software already has a proven track record in the UK water, energy and transport sectors, and we are excited that by combining this with Arcadis’ global reach, industry insight and deep asset knowledge, it will allow SEAMS to build new capability and access new clients and markets. “The global demand for Advanced Analytics is at a major tipping point and the acquisition by Arcadis not only affords excellent career stability and development for our staff, but also presents the perfect strategic opportunity to propel both companies forward into their next stage of growth.” Wiltshire Council uses aerial laser mapping technology to tackle flood risk Aerial laser mapping technology is helping Wiltshire Council investigate flooding in the Corsham area of the county. Working with engineering consultancy Atkins, the Bluesky LiDAR data is being used to create a hydraulic model of the drainage network and its interaction with the watercourses serving the catchment. The detailed model will allow Council staff to predict the flow of flood water, as a result of rainfall falling directly onto the ground and of flow over-topping river banks or escaping from the drainage network via manholes and gullies. Corsham Floods-in September 2014, heavy rainfall caused extensive flooding across Wiltshire. Wiltshire Council and Wessex Water worked alongside the Corsham Town Council, Police, Ministry of Defence and local schools to minimise the impact of flooded roads, including the major A4 trunk road. The same event flooded the railway line, and passengers had to be rescued from a train after it became trapped in flood waters. Using the Bluesky LiDAR data, captured using aircraft mounted lasers, a hydraulic model of the drainage network in the Corsham catchment area is being created. A hydraulic model is a mathematical model of a fluid flow system, such as a water, sewer or storm system, and it is used to analyse the system’s hydraulic behaviour. Using the data, staff at Atkins created a 2D mesh over the catchment area, which allows them to see the likely flow of water and its potential impact on people, property and infrastructure. Readings can also be taken to determine the height of buildings, vegetation and other surface structures such as above ground pipelines, highways, street furniture, power lines and railway tracks. “Working with Bluesky, we were able to configure the LiDAR survey to meet our requirements,” commented Sophie Slade, Consultant Hydraulic Modeller at Atkins Global. “In fact, Bluesky gave us a choice of resolutions and a range of survey areas to allow us to decide on an appropriate scope for the modelling project. In the end, we were able to secure a higher resolution of data at the same price.” Daniel Everett, Principal Drainage Engineer at Wiltshire Council, added: “Once the detail of the survey had been agreed, delivery of the data was prompt and we were kept informed at all stages.” Since 2007, Wiltshire Council has established two Operational Flood Working Groups in order to address the growing threat of flooding. The groups provide a forum for stakeholders, including the Environment Agency, water companies and Town and Parish Councils, to work together to reduce flooding and its impact on communities. Page 6
  • 7. Environment Agency to map England’s entire landscape by 2020 using LIDAR The Environment Agency has announced plans to map England’s entire landscape by 2020, using the data to assess flood risk and inform conservation work. Using aircraft equipped with laser scanners, the Environment Agency will map all 130,000km2 of the country, including rivers, fields and national parks – equivalent to 32 million football pitches. In addition to being used to understand flood risk, the data will also be made available for free to the public and industry to be used by archaeologists, environmental and urban planners, and even gamers to make accurate 3D models of the landscape. Currently about 75 per cent of the country is mapped but with only sporadic coverage of upland areas. The new project, beginning over winter, will cover all of England’s national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) and sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) such as the Peak District and the Yorkshire Dales. Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, said: “This ambitious project will enhance our understanding of England’s unique natural features and landscape, helping us to better understand flood risk, plan effective defences and fight waste crime. I’m pleased we are able to gather, use and share such valuable data to contribute to environmental improvements and conservation. It’s just one of the many ways the Environment Agency is using technology to help people and wildlife.” The Environment Agency has been using lidar – light detection and ranging – technology for 20 years to better understand flood risk. Maps are created by air- craft equipped with laser scanners, which measure the distance between the aeroplane and the ground. The data collected can then be used to plan flood defences across whole river catchments. It also helps environment officers spot sudden changes in the landscape that could indicate illegal waste dumping – in 2014 eight people in Cornwall were fined for dumping 4,500m3 of waste, which was discovered using lidar data. Other organisations across the Defra group also use the data to help improve the environment – Natural England uses it to assess wildlife habitat and Forestry Commission use it to understand more about the country’s tree cover. In 2015, the Environment Agency made 11 terabytes of lidar data – equivalent to 3 million MP3 songs – available for free to the public as open data. Since then, the data has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. The data has even helped archaeologists uncover lost Roman roads in the north of the country. The new data will also be better quality than ever before, as the Environment Agency will map the whole country at 1m resolution by 2020. This means using the most up-to-date laser technology to reveal the features and details of the terrain more clearly. Page 7
  • 8. Predictive Diagnostics Has Arrived, But How Is It Applied To Wastewater Instrumentation? It should be no surprise that something as simultaneously complex and critical as wastewater treatment has a long history of technological development. Monitoring has always been critical for the sector, and while the burdens and complications around treatment continue to grow, so do the instrumentation solutions that operations depend on to carry it out. Historically, wastewater treatment plant instrumentation was in place to maintain compliance. Over the last 20 years, monitoring has grown from simple data logging to a more predictive and strategic approach. Today, wastewater operators are utilizing analysers to direct predictive maintenance — an approach to protecting treatment technology and tools by identifying issues before they happen, thus preserving their asset’s life span more efficiently and affordably. Importance Of Predictive Diagnostics For years, reactive maintenance was about the best that wastewater treatment plants could expect. Operators relied on visual assessment, and most of the critical maintenance could only take place once an issue was readily apparent through a breakdown. Then came the advent of preventative maintenance, giving operations the chance to confront issues before they occurred, saving time and money. “Today, and for quite some time, a paradigm of ‘preventative maintenance’ has prevailed in most facilities,” wrote Paul Brake, a mechanical engineer, in a recent issue of Water Innovations. “Preventative maintenance relies on equipment history and statistical techniques to determine a theoretical mean time to failure. Using this calculated result, a company will order replacement parts, schedule turnarounds and area shutdowns, and prepare staff or hire outside contractors for scheduled maintenance.” Despite its popularity, however, preventative maintenance is not a perfect solution. Because this method has wastewater operations base their maintenance on statistics rather than factoring in specific operating conditions, it is not uncommon for operators to perform unnecessary maintenance or to not reach equipment in time. That is why predictive maintenance is seen by many as the next step forward in plant operations. “Predictive maintenance relies on monitoring the actual operational condition of critical equipment and uses the data and trends in the data to detect upcoming failures,” Brake wrote. “It will allow you to improve processes, both in quality and efficiency, through better equipment operations, less downtime, and a more complete monitoring of your process conditions.” Putting Predictive Diagnostics Into Practice Applying predictive diagnostics is not just a lofty goal for operations to aspire to in the future. It is a solution that is already helping wastewater treatment plant operators with some very real problems that they experience on a day-to-day basis. Plants have been able to identify inefficiencies in chemical dosage by keeping real-time tabs on pH and other indicators, using this data to get out in front of a malfunction and addressing a small maintenance issue before it becomes full blown and disrupts operations. Fluctuations in chemistry have likewise pointed operations toward predictive maintenance needs for sensor cleaning or replacement. Meanwhile, accelerometers have been used to find slight issues with bearings, and thermal scans have found areas that are getting even slightly too hot or are allowing too much heat to escape. With that information, operations can make slight modifications to brings things back to normal or can address these issues during previously scheduled shutdowns. Wastewater utilities have even used ultrasonic thickness gauges to identify issues with pipe walls and predict needed maintenance before those pipes have a chance to rupture and create a larger issue. Predictive Diagnostic Tools Not only do instruments with predictive diagnostics exist, but these instruments can provide step-by-step instructions on how to perform maintenance tasks to help operators have full confidence that they’re completing maintenance correctly. Those operations that have turned to predictive maintenance of their analytical instruments obviously need the right tools in order to carry it out. They have secured predictive diagnostic systems that monitor instrument performance in real time and automatically alert operators to any issues. This ultimately lets them know whether changes in wastewater measurements are true reflections of the influent’s or effluent’s chemical makeup or simply instrumentation errors. These tools inform operators if maintenance on their wastewater instrumentation is required due to a range of issues — e.g., a calibration slope being outside acceptable limits, a sample requiring unusually high optics capacity, the detection of excessive light during sample reading, or general poor sample quality. They can also indicate when recalibration or replacement is warranted by highlighting unacceptable limits or questionable sample qualities. They can even give operators confidence that no maintenance is needed by confirming calibration, optical capacity, controlled light exposure, and accurate samples. The technology is established. The tools are readily available. The only issues to be determined are which approaches work best for each user’s unique applications. Page 8
  • 9. The Digital Transformation Of Water: 8 Trends To Watch In 2018 Great technological revolutions occur when innovation offers a new way to solve challenges at a price that the market can afford to pay — or ill afford to ignore, considering the benefits. Some noteworthy trends are imminent in 2018, as long-standing and emerging water-sector obstacles get countered by a variety of digital solutions. Globally, the water industry has embarked on a journey toward digital transformation. The sector can no longer sustain itself in isolation from the technological shifts happening in other infrastructure industries and at the customer level. These changes are happening due to a multitude of innovations that fall under several banners: “smart water,” “digital water,” and “Internet of Things,” (IoT). Irrespective of nomenclature, change is underway. Smart water solutions — hardware, software, and data analytics to improve capital and operating efficiencies — are taking hold in water, driving more than $35 billion US of municipal spending over the next decade. At the root of this buildout are continued financial pressures on water suppliers and users to do more with less — and the proliferation of cloud-based information technology presents a viable solution. Global smart water markets are being shaped by key themes, including water scarcity, customer demand for improved service at lower cost, increased environmental awareness, regulatory compliance measures, and technology firms’ innovations to address these challenges. Bluefield Research sees eight key trends emerging in 2018 that build on these themes and will continue to push smart water technologies to the forefront of industry decision-making: 1. Private Equity Sees Opportunity In Smart Water There’s a growing trend of consolidation across software and data management platforms, as financial and strategic investors look to boost returns by capturing synergies across portfolio companies. We are seeing more and more venture capital and private equity companies entering the space. Two recent examples include the EQT/Innovyze and XPV Water Partners/Aquatic Informatics. SoftBank snapped up equity’s majority in OSIsoft, while Optimatics raised capital from venture and strategic investors to support growth initiatives. Smart water deals represent an increasing share of water mergers and acquisitions and now hold much more value. A new benchmark was set in smart water M&A (mergers and acquisitions) as private equity group EQT completed its smart water portfolio, paying $270 million for Innovyze, reflecting a 6x EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ) for the profitable network modeling and business analytics platform. 2. Project Finance Gets Smarter Innovations in financing structure increase the focus on performance, which encourages adoption of smart water technologies. We see this with the impact bond financing, essentially outcome driven bonds with specific reference to water and wastewater infrastructure outcomes. One example is DC Water’s issuance of an environmental impact bond to fund its green infrastructure initiative. 3. Asset Management Becomes Key Focus Within the smart water sector, asset management has emerged as the key battleground, where players from across the utility operating spectrum are extending their offerings to incorporate asset centric products and services. From multiple angles (leak detection , pressure management , workflow management), solutions providers are looking to operationalize historic data in asset-centric decision-making. Municipal water utilities have never had such a wide commercial offering of solutions to improve how they plan, monitor, and manage their critical water infrastructure. 4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) At The Core AI is taking off, and water is no exception. We see machine-learning techniques at the core of multiple firms’ offerings, which greatly advance utilities’ ability to operationalize data and monetize insights. Companies that are using AI to “smarten” water systems include Pluto AI, EMAGIN, Fracta, and Fathom. 5.Stormwater At Resilience Ground Zero In the wake of hurricanes and the push for resilience to climate change globally, we see an increase in real-time control solutions for smarter stormwater management which present an opportunity to avoid heavy CAPEX spending and maximize the use of existing assets. Smart sewer solutions introduce more flexibility in existing collection networks, which maximize storage and retention capacity of existing wet infrastructure assets with real-time control systems. 6. Cybersecurity To Remain A High Priority With hacking incidents in the U.S. and elsewhere, as well as utilities’ move into the cloud, cybersecurity is becoming a key priority with the European Union developing standards and IT departments increasing focus. 7. Convergence Of Infrastructure Communication Across the smart meter landscape, the addressable market for information communications technology (ICT) is on the cusp of change, as diversified municipal utilities seek cost efficiencies through interoperable communications infrastructure across water, gas, and electric meters. ICT firms like Cisco, Verizon, AT&T, Huawei, and Vodafone are at the forefront of emerging communications protocols. This is placing pressure on traditional smart metering players like Itron, Landis+Gyr, Sensus, and Elster — which have controlled the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) market to date. 8. Smart Water Technologies To Play A Key Role In Utility Of The Future Many municipal utilities are seeking to achieve cost efficiencies and improve operational efficiencies. Utilities are becoming more customer-centric, and smart water is no exception. India is a good example of this, with water playing a key role in its Smart Cities Mission. A broader trend of digitalization is changing the fundamental relationship between a utility and its customer, morphing an isolated supplier into a connected service provider, and water is no exception. Page 9
  • 10. Opinion: The Smart Water Industry 2018 and beyond It’s always quite difficult to gaze into a crystal ball and say what is going to be the key trends in the next year or two, what direction should the industry take and where does it need to go. However for the Water Industry there are some clear indications, there are some hints and tips in the general direction that moving forward the industry should (or must) take to supply water to its customers and to take the used water and return a clean product to the environment. On the potable side of the industry the direction is very clear, the centralised nature of the potable water treatment process means that it, by its very nature, is a factory based process which efficiently churns out drinknig water to very high standards all of the time. The challenge moving forward is certainly about water resources and with growing population and the need for more and more water it is water resources that are the key to the future of the water side of the business. When the flow goes into the distribution network is where the future of the Smart Water Industry lies. It is already a very well developed field insofar as all of the technologies that the industry needs, all of the algorithms to analyse the data which will highlight areas of losses are already in place and working well. There is surely some development in this area but the suppliers that are involved managing pressure and detecting leaks to drive down the percentage of water lost through the distribution systems are getting to the point where they are most definitely refining the state of the art. On the customer side the developments that are to come are the roll-outs of Smart Water meters and how the data from this can be incorporated into the systems that are already in place and the use of AMI data is surely an area where the potable water industry is going to develop including the development of the data based systems to analyse what is billions of pieces of data every day. It is the data and its input into the Water Company models that has the potential to identify the smallest of leaks to drive water loss to minimum feasible levels. It is in the wastewater side of the water industry where there is much more potential for development towards the Smart Water Industry moving forward and it is here (as well as some general themes that the industry is likely to see the most number of giant leaps. Instrumentation - Cheap versus Expensive Instrumentation is diverging it is heading towards the point where the industry is going to have cheap sensors that are there to give a single measurement or to identify the state of play within the wastewater system (be it collection network or treatment plant) which are very much based upon the principle of fix on fail and are there to say whether something is happening or not all the way up to a simple measurement or to detect the state of something. They can be one off sensors that are there for a project or they can be permanent simple probes. This is very much on the lines of switches, probes and rotation sensors that have been used in the water industry for many decades but the more advanced of these sensors are getting cheaper and cheaper and the functionality is getting more and more. Within the next few years there is bound to be a proliferation of these sort of sensors as we head towards an industry which is, like it or not, based upon the Internet of Things. This is not SCADA, it is not control system based and is not there to control a plant but is there for situational awareness. As instrumentation technology develops and gets cheaper so should the proliferation increase to cover the wastewater collection network which up until the past few years was largely unmonitored as the complexity of measurement with the need for power and telemetry made the potential of measurement largely unviable in terms of the cost. This has changed, both legally and financially. In the UK the need for Event Duration Monitoring on spills to the environment has meant that thousands of sensors are being installed on overflows to the environment. This is designed to give situational awareness on the performance of Combined Sewer Overflows in sensitive areas. This will be default show how the wastewater collection networks are performing which should in turn feed network design. These moving forward are bound to form the basis of the data to feed smart wastewater collection systems and provide the situational data to enable the network models to be run In contrast to this are the more advanced type of instrumentation where the data has ,either the potential to be used for control purposes, or is already being used for control purposes The technology for this is already out there and in a number of places has been used for a number of years but again the technology is developing. There are a number of smart controllers that are being using instrumentation and control systems to provide automated local control. The data from these systems not only feeding back to corporate telemetry systems but operators mobile devices to provide up to date information on the specific asset that is being controlled. These instrumentation & control systems start at the very simple, a two pump pumping station perhaps and go up to plant wide systems controlling whole treatment works using a model based approach. Its is the integration of these systems into the wider water industry that provides the key to the future as well as what must happen moving forward with the collection network and the treatment works being wholly integrated into a single smart multi--faceted treatment system from the customer’s toilet through the system with instrumentation and control all the way to the point of return to the environment. There are numerous drivers that have the potential to push this forward including the endless need to drive the cost of the industry down to the more techni- cal needs of controlling flow and running more and more complex process to get a cleaner and cleaner product. It is this that will drive instrumentation use up within the water industry. One of the more interesting general developments in the instrumentation front is the development of mobile phone or tablet applications for working with instrumentation. A quick look in the Application store of most devices will shows that most of the larger suppliers have applications that can provide, at the very least, manuals or help to technicians in the field or the best applications provide control of a device. For those instruments that aren’t already covered it is likely that there will be cover moving forward. This of course is forgetting a protocol that has been in the industry for many years that was meant to provide a method of managing instrumentation in industry, including the Water Industry. The protocol is very rarely used but it has the potential to do so much more in managing the asset base of instrumentation Visualisation The Water Industry has always been addicted to telemetry and SCADA based systems and having HMIs and PLCs in place on treatment works. Generally this is absolutely fine for the larger works within the industry where economies of scale mean that it is financially viable to install these systems but the vast majority of treatment works within the industry do not fall into this category. Approximately 65% of all of the treatment works in the UK serve under 250 people. This is Page 10
  • 11. in the region of 6,500 -7,000 treatment works. The problem with these works is understanding how they are performing on a day to day basis and the key to this is potentially in the visualisation of the site data. Even on the larger works which will have multiple elements of instrumentation the key is understanding what is going on. Already it has been alluded to that some of the instrumentation is getting smarter and has more readily accessible communication associated with it through the use of applications. The potential problem already developing is that these applications are proprietary and the visual display (a tablet) has no way of bringing this data together. This is the potential of portable edge computing at its best with an operator arriving on site at automatically receiving data from the site information to inform the operator of the site performance. Stretching this concept a step further would be the repair technician stepping up to an asset and having access to all of the information about that asset all the way from its history and who has worked on that asset, to the manual and details of how it should work to an order form for any replacement parts that are needed or assistance from a remote location. This sort of things has been touted as within the art of the possible and putting all of the available tools in the hands of the operator or technician The rise of IT versus OT versus Cyber Security When you say IT to somebody they think laptops, they think the internet, toughbooks and the likes. More recently this has stretched to tablets and mobile phones. When you say OT to somebody outside of the industry they think - “What’s that?” Operational Technology? I’ve seen somebody with a job titles resembling that but for the life of me I can’t think what it is. Realistically it is everything from the instrument and getting to the data to the screen that is in the office from the instrument that is in the ground to the infrastructure that controls it locally (i.e. PLC or SCADA systems) to communicating it to the various corporate servers and making sure it is available to the company as a whole. It is the complex interactions that makes sure that one system can talk to another and share what it needs to share. With the development off all of the new technologies and the new ways of working including the Internet of Things all of the interface between IT & OT is getting more and more confused as data pings of to a cloud via a mobile phone signal and then back to the corporate data systems. All of this comes at an increased risk as from a Cyber Security point of view it isn’t know who has gone to an instrument and stuck a USB pen drive into it and done who knows what. Its not a transmission route that is commonly thought of as it is in the same vane of protecting your mobile phone with anti-virus software but the risk is still there and it has the potential of crossing instrumentation and control systems with the general Internet something that would have most cyber security experts into a frenzy of worry as it is crossing systems that should not be mixed together. This has been the position in the past but the development of IT & OT has put systems in place to protect vital corporate such as customers private information. The thought of people being able to see when a customer is using water via their Smart Water Meter use has already been thought of but it is ,as technology develops an increasing challenge for the water industry. An integrated Smart Water Industry This is perhaps one for the far future rather than something that is going to happen in the next 12 months and is probably closer to the next 12 years and it is the concept of an integrated smart water industry on at least an operational level. What this means is tracing all of the inputs into the system be they from customers or the wider environment and chasing it through the system on a model based approach. There are technologies for each of the steps in existence at the current time from models tracking abstraction and its effect on the environment top plant based models to control water treatment works. There are studies showing how different socio-economic groups consume water that improves on the standard 90% of water consumption goes down the drain. All of this exists already on the clean side of the business and the wastewater side is no worse off. There are systems that track rainfall and predict the impact on the sewerage and there are models that will take these inputs and show what need to be done and where on the sewerage network. Couple this with the plant operational models that have been going for years and have been used for design purposes as well as the potential for their use to form the fundamental basis of an advanced process control system. These are the basic building blocks which have the potential to turn the water industry into something resembling the factory base approach that has been going for many years within the water industry as a whole. The question is why is this not happening within the water industry, why has it not happened already and the truth is that the need and the financial benefit has not been seen. This is the key that has changed within the water industry the potential for change has been seen as the case studies have developed and the benefits have finally been seen. The Water Industry is slowly developing towards a Smarter Approach and, to be fair, is taking baby steps towards a smarter future Page 11
  • 12. Opinion: Water and The Internet of Things: 2018 I became interested in water and the Internet of Things (“IoT”) several years ago when I had a below ground water leak at home that resulted in a large water bill. Since I live in the Silicon Valley, California, the high tech capital of the world, I thought there should be a better way to track water usage so problems can be identified and solved sooner. I needed a smart water meter as part of an IoT application that I could access online to monitor water use and provide actionable information so I could conserve water. Motivating water conservation is more effective when you know how much water is used. I continue to be a good citizen to try to conserve water but smart meters are not yet available for my neighbourhood from my water utility, California Water Service (“CWS”). Managing my water consumption is pretty much a guessing game with my traditional water meter as I await my monthly bill detailing usage. The California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) has denied CWS’s requests to add smart meters to the water system in the last two rate cases but approval may be more likely in the next rate case in 2019 because of the success of pilot projects. The CWS is required to show the CPUC that the benefits of implementing smart meters exceed the costs, particularly the initial capital costs. Traditional water meters require utility workers to manually visit each meter, pry up the concrete, open the meter cover and record usage. Collecting usage information manually is a large operational expense. Smart meters can substantially reduce the operational costs of the manual meter reading process and decrease the carbon foot- print resulting from driving tens of thousands of miles per year to read meters. Smart meter systems also enable water utilities to detect leaks more quickly and to monitor usage to aid enforcement efforts. The website for the San Francisco smart water meter program mentioned below also indicates that smart meters measure water consumption at 100 times the precision level of manual readings. While smart meters are more expensive than traditional meters, given the continuing need to conserve water in California, it would seem that the cost benefit analysis should be more favourable toward adoption. Smart water meters are part of an Advanced Metering Initiative (“AMI”) promoted by the CPUC that also includes smart gas and electric meters. My gas and electric utility, Pacific Gas and Electric (“PG&E”), has installed a smart meter on the side of my house. I can access my account on the PG&E website to view usage information that currently is about three days old. There continues to be a small but vocal group of opponents of smart meters who believe the wireless emissions from such meters are not healthy and are concerned about consumer privacy and that smart meters could result in higher not lower utility bills. To mitigate such concerns, the website for the San Francisco smart water meter program carefully explains the privacy and security protections in place for customers as well as the testing results of emissions when the smart meter transmits data. What is the Internet of Things? Smart water meters are part of an IoT, a network of technologies which can monitor the status of physical objects, capture meaningful data, and communicate that data over a wireless network to a computer in the cloud for software to analyse in real time and help determine action steps. Technologies are capable of monitoring objects such as smart water meters and other electronic devices, organisms or a natural part of the environment such as an area of ground to be measured for moisture or chemical content. A smart device is associated with each object which provides the connectivity and a unique digital identity for identifying, tracking and communicating with the object. A sensor within or attached to the device is connected to the Internet by a local area connection (such as RFID, NFC or BTLE) and can also have wide area connectivity. Typically, each data transmission from a device is small in size but the number of transmissions can be frequent. IoT involves many, many things interacting with each other to produce actionable information. Each sensor device can monitor a specific condition or set of conditions such as vibration, motion, temperature, pressure or water quality. More IoT applications have become feasible because the cost and size of such devices continues to decrease and their sophistication for measuring conditions keeps increasing. Cisco estimates that 500 billion devices and objects will be connected to the Internet by 2030. For example, at home I would need a smart water meter (device) that collects usage data which is communicated wirelessly to CWS where software analyzes the data and reports the results on the web site for me to view. In the San Francisco program mentioned below, a customer can view the current data and compare their numbers with past use and city averages. The usage data should eventually alert me to a leak but another device that measures water pressure could detect a leak faster. To find the location for repair, however, I would need to add sensors to measure pressure at various locations in my water system. The sensors would be connected to data analytics software in the cloud that would analyse the data transmitted to identify the location of the leak between two sensing points in my water system. This is a much more complex application than simply tracking water usage and illustrates the importance of the data analytics software needed to make sense of the transmitted data in an IoT application. Smart Water Meters Status San Francisco has implemented the largest smart water meter program in California. More than 98% of the city’s 178,000 water accounts are monitored by the meters. Water consumption is measured hourly and data is transmitted on a wireless basis to the utility four times a day. Both the utility and customers can track use. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, the East Bay Municipal Water District is also an early adopter. Its program targets mostly single-family homes and provides a daily update of hour-by-hour consumption via a website. Consumers can be alerted, for example, by email or phone call, when water use exceeds a specified limit or when a meter indicates continuous running water for 24 hours. There is also an ongoing pilot of AMI meters by the San Jose Water Company (“SJWC”) in the Willow Glen area of San Jose. During 2017, adoption of smart water meters was slow in California cities. I estimate that only about 15-20 percent of California water customers have smart water meters. Smart water meter implementation also remains slow elsewhere around the U.S. The water utility industry is fragmented as compared to the energy utility sector. There are more than 50,000 water utilities as compared to about 3,000 energy utilities. Each utility has to make an investment decision on smart utilities which requires regulatory approval by a public utility commission. Page 12
  • 13. Since smart metering for the energy sector is approaching maturity, some analysts believe smart water meters will be the growth driver in the smart meter market. Several research reports published in 2017 were positive about the growth of the smart water meter market. Global Market Insights expects the smart water metering market to be worth $14 billion by 2024, with 290 million new units installed during the forecast period. Transparency Market Research forecasts that the water meter segment will grow from a value of $3.5 billion in 2015 to $5.2 billion by the end of 2024, driven primarily by smart water meters. A Bluefield Research report estimated that water utilities will spend $20 billion on software, data, and analytics solutions over the next decade with more than $15 billion of that on smart meters. The global smart water meter market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.3% between 2017 and 2025 according to a Credence Research report. Industry accounts for about 20% of water consumption worldwide. Industrial plants are also driving the adoption of smart water meters as part of their strategic goal to reduce water usage and costs. The commercial smart water metering market share is expected to grow by more than 15% by 2024. Budget restrictions are the largest obstacle to faster adoption of smart water meters for homes. As indicated above, the PUC has denied my utility, CWS, from adding smart meters in the last two rate cases. Smart water meters are more expensive than traditional mechanical meters. Opponents of smart meters also cite consumer health and privacy fears. A smart meter management network can also be expensive and some utilities do not have the IT capability to effectively deploy and manage such technology. Some vendors are offering a managed services business model to utility companies for this purpose. More smart meter products and systems became available in the market in 2017 but there does not appear to be any dominant market leader. The products vary from the very basic to those that integrate water metering networks with leak detection and usage monitoring applications. The number of global and domestic competitors, coupled with regulatory hurdles, makes fast growth very difficult. The San Francisco program vendor is Aclara Technologies. Some of the other leading U.S. vendors in this sector are Itron Corp. and the Elster Group. The IoT Can Help Conserve Water in California The simplest form of smart water meter installed at homes and businesses on a wide spread basis can provide actionable information which can save millions of gallons of water to help continue making water conservation a way of live in California. If the water utilities can provide the smart meter and basic water management platform, private vendors can offer more sophisticated features that are accessible as an app on a mobile phone similar to how AT&T provides the Digital Life home security system. Private vendors are already offering advanced features such as water leak detection. Agriculture consumes about 40% of the freshwater available in California with a large amount being wasted by leaky irrigation systems, inefficient field application methods and the planting of water intensive crops in the wrong growing location. The IoT has great potential to make water use smarter and reduce waste for the agricultural industry, particularly in irrigation efficiency. Tax incentives (such as accelerated depreciation and investment tax credits) could increase adoption of IoT and other smart water measures by agricultural and other businesses but the federal tax reform act signed into law in late December, 2017 did not contain any such provisions. Another focus for IoT to help save water is landscape irrigation in parks, medians and elsewhere. This is a major use of water in cities. Nationwide, it is estimated to be nearly one-third of all residential water use and as much as half of this water is wasted due to runoff, evaporation or wind. Landscape irrigation systems, which apply sophisticated data analytics to a wide variety of objects, are available in the market. Current weather data is combined with sensors for moisture, heat and other data such as the slope of the land, type of soil and the relative exposure to sunshine at a particular time. In the water infrastructure, a utility can use an IoT network for predictive information to remotely determine the status and working condition of equipment (open or closed, on or off, full or empty, etc.). The information can be actionable, for example; a water gate can be opened or closed or a pump turned on or off remotely to adjust the flow of water through a water supply system. Pumps, gates and other equipment with moving parts in the water infrastructure can be monitored for predictive maintenance alerts based on vibration and other indications of failure to prevent equipment malfunctions. If a water pump is about to fail, the utility can be prompted to repair or replace it. An IoT-enabled water treatment plant can report if its filters are clean and functioning properly. The IoT can measure water pressure in pipes to find leaks faster in the water transportation system or the presence of certain chemicals in the water supply. Legal Issues Privacy and Security: IoT networks need to be designed and implemented with adequate security and privacy protection. A network failure or hacker attack could have serious consequences, particularly in the water infrastructure. There is at least one reported incident of hackers changing chemical settings in a water treatment plant. Sensors and other entry points for an IoT network have such small software footprints that implementing security is difficult at such entry points without architectural changes which would impact the economics of the network Most water infrastructure IoT networks will have only security concerns but there will also be privacy issues in consumer IoT networks. Hacking into a smart water meter, for example, could reveal whether or not a family is at home. Better security will mitigate privacy concerns. While most attention has been on security threats to personal information, there also are security issues for non-personal information. Data Ownership Rights: Ownership rights to data used in an IoT network can provide a competitive advantage, particularly in agriculture IoT applications. While some data may be from the public domain or licensed from third parties, a business should try to own as much data as possible. Such data can be a valuable asset and important consideration in a liquidity event. Intellectual Property Protection: The advances in sensing technology, the way that IoT physical components are combined into a network and the related data analytics software can have significant business value. Analytics is the process of collecting, organizing and analysing large amounts of data to discover patterns and other useful information. Businesses need to think both offensively and defensively in creating an IP strategy so they have the freedom to operate without a license from a third party and also provide a barrier to entry by a competitor. There are already thousands of patents issued relating to IoT. Some data analytics software appears to remain patentable after the Alice court decision but patent holders and applicants will face challenges if they rely on computer execution of nothing more than routine algorithms. Inventive steps will be needed to make IoT data analytics software patentable. Such a patent may lose its value over time since the algorithm may improve over the one described in the patent and additional patent applications may be needed. Page 13
  • 14. Limiting Liability: There may be liability issues if an IoT device fails or the data analytics software provides erroneous information. Limiting liability by contract with a utility, state or local government or business may be feasible in the same way as for other equipment and software but click wrap agreements may not be possible for many consumer applications. Insurance will be needed as a safety net to mitigate the risk. Summary The IoT can be used to determine when, where and how much water is needed in residential use and in landscape and agricultural irrigation. Smart water meters are a simple and effective beginning point for smart water systems. The widespread implementation of smart water meters for residential customers could help save millions of gallons of water in California and elsewhere. Smart meters have many benefits for customers and water utilities. They help customers make informed conservation decisions so usage is more efficient and less wasteful. The meters enable utilities to reduce labour costs, improve enforcement efforts and speed up leak detection. While smart water meters are more expensive than traditional meters, given the continuing need to conserve water in California and the potential operational cost reductions, the CPUC cost benefit analysis should be more favourable toward adoption of smart water meters. It is unlikely that any federal tax incentives will become available to drive IoT adoption since the recent tax reform law, with the most major changes in more than three decades, did not include any such provisions. About the Author Fred Greguras is an experienced business lawyer and entrepreneur. He works with global and U.S. businesses from startup through public company stage with an emphasis on start-up and emerging growth companies. He has helped many foreign companies set up and expand their operations in the United States and represents various types of businesses including software, clean technology, semiconductor and medical device companies. His transactional experience includes equity and debt financings of various types including project financings for energy projects, seed and venture capital and other financings. Mr. Greguras has also advised on many M&A, joint ventures, licensing and other business transactions both in the US and internationally. Fred has substantial experience representing companies with a market focus on, or operations in, China, Vietnam and India, and in supporting investors and businesses from those countries. Mr. Greguras’ background includes work as a partner at K&L Gates LLP and Fenwick and West LLP in the Silicon Valley and the Kutak Rock law firm in Omaha, Nebraska. During his 25-plus year tenure in the Silicon Valley, Fred has also been a venture capitalist, general counsel and CFO for a venture-backed startup. Fred is a graduate of the University of Nebraska Law School and is a Marine Corps combat veteran. background includes work as a partner at K&L Gates LLP and Fenwick and West LLP in the Silicon Valley and the Kutak Rock law firm in Omaha, Nebraska. During his 25-plus year tenure in the Silicon Valley, Fred has also been a venture capitalist, general counsel and CFO for a venture-backed startup. Fred is a graduate of the University of Nebraska Law School and is a Marine Corps combat veteran. Endress+Hauser To Provide Free Training On Instrumentation To Military Veterans Endress+Hauser has announced that it will provide training to military veterans on process instrumentation, as part of the twelve-week Academy of Advanced Manufacturing (AAM) program offered by Rockwell Automation and ManpowerGroup. Professionals from Endress+Hauser will be teaching process instrumentation as part of the larger AAM curriculum starting in January 2018, and being offered at no cost to veterans. “We are very excited to be collaborating with Rockwell Automation on this project. Our customers continue to tell us they have difficulty finding skilled workers to fill the many open positions that are created by the large number of personnel retiring from the workforce,” said Jerry Spindler, customer and field service training manager, Endress+Hauser. “We are proud to be involved in helping to solve this skills shortage by providing quality training on our instrumentation. With the training classes, we not only get to help our customers, we are helping those who have served our country.” The technical curriculum being taught by Endress+Hauser will offer in-depth training on technology and instrumentation for monitoring and managing temperature, flow and pressure for machinery and equipment in industrial process industries. Endress+Hauser will lend its time and expertise in process instrumentation to help train military veterans for careers in advanced manufacturing, while enhancing the technical talent pool and helping to bridge the skills gap that exists globally. “We are pleased that Endress+Hauser is part of the ranks of the AAM, and are bringing their instrumentation and process automation expertise to the program,” stated Joe Allie, business manager, global competency, Rockwell Automation. According to a white paper published by ManpowerGroup, more than 21 million military veterans live in the United States and more than a quarter of a million service members are discharged every year. That number represents one of the largest sources of highly-skilled and loyal talent in the country. Over the next decade, the United States manufacturing sector is estimated to produce up to 3.5 million highly-skilled, technology-based jobs. Nearly 2.5 million manufacturing workers will be retiring by 2025. With the skill shortages in the U.S. this leaves up to 2 million manufacturing positions unfilled and forecasts a major challenge that needs to be addressed with a solution. The AAM program is aimed at reducing these potential future challenges. For more information visit www.us.endress.com/training-veterans. Page 14
  • 15. Case Study: Leveraging Water Network Data for System Management Prioritization Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) is an independent agency of the US City of Knoxville, Tennessee, providing electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater services to more than 453,000 customers in Knoxville and parts of seven surrounding counties. KUB’s water system has experienced 30 percent to 35 percent non-revenue water over the past 10 years; hard-to-find underground leaks are the big culprit. Reducing leaks improves customer service, increases operational efficiency, reduces expenses for chemicals and power, and has other benefits. Background – Addressing Water Loss In a water loss reduction initiative, KUB invested in the implementation of District Metered Areas (DMAs) working with Matchpoint Water Asset Management Inc. (Matchpoint), a water system management firm. KUB engaged Matchpoint in a 3-year agreement to manage supply, implementation and maintenance of KUB’s DMA’s assets. DMAs partitioned the water network into 44 small areas serving no more than 3,000 customers, making it easier to find the leaks. Matchpoint installed a total of 102 pressure sensors and flow meters to monitor the network within each DMA. Flow and pressure sensors record measurements every 15 minutes and transmit the data daily to a central server where the entire water distribution data is stored. As a result, KUB is generating a huge amount of data that provides the performance signature of the network base on individual sensor readings over hours, days, and months of continuous monitoring. Analysing the sensor data can identify network performance anomalies, specifically levels of water loss. KUB’s basis for implementing the system was to evaluate areas of water loss through DMA level analysis and prioritize leak detection and repair. With a few DMAs and sensors, KUB could process the data using spreadsheets to evaluate the sensor data and DMA performance. As 102 sensors incrementally came on line, however, evaluating the growing data became much more difficult. The Need for Data Analytics KUB identified objectives and expectations for using data to manage water loss and overall system performance. • Highest cost water loss management approach is pipe replacement. KUB decided to use a data analytics strategy to gain greater insights into areas and alternative methods for water loss reduction. • Comparison of DMAs to find DMAs that have high water loss to best manage leakage. • Focus leak detection and reduction on a few DMAs to drive water loss down. • Prior efforts tended to stop the rising leaks, but not reduce the total level of leaks. The goal was to systematically drive the leak levels downward through detection, repair, and other management methods. • Use of complete water cost by DMA to help prioritize zones including the basic water production, energy, communication, engineering, operations costs. Complete water costs could help with priority setting to achieve goals broader than total water loss. • Share network performance data between co-workers and other work groups. The TaKaDu Event Management Solution KUB tapped TaKaDu through Matchpoint to meet its system management objectives and harness the vast data volumes to present KUB’s system performance characteristics in meaningful ways. TaKaDu uses IoT cloud-based technology that provides an event management solution, and Matchpoint is one of TaKaDu’s distributors in the North American region. As a big data solution, TaKaDu’s event management capabilities consume and analyse the sensor and meter data with advanced analytics to automatically detect, analyse and manage various types of water network events. Events include leaks, bursts, pressure transients, faulty assets and telemetry network integrity. TaKaDu evaluates all sensor data over months of readings to identify events by correlating data from multiple sensors and DMAs along with SCADA production data. Event detection is an automatic process. An event is characterized by its type, its size, and trends; TaKaDu’s data solution automatically identifies correlations with other events, such as a main break or pressure drop. Event notification is automatically sent to KUB personnel based on their roles and responsibilities. Events are relevant and actionable for KUB because of their discrete classification and characteristics. Using TaKaDu’s solution, KUB reviews the event locations, magnitude and trends to prioritize, monitor and resolve the events. “TaKaDu’s event management paradigm has transformed the flood of incomprehensible data into meaningful information that the KUB organization can effectively use,” said Ted Tyree, Engineer, Water Systems Engineering at KUB. “Almost immediately, our engineers could ‘see’ the water distribution network and understand where potential problems exist, the type, and the magnitude. With that snapshot, we could easily determine whether to monitor or act on each one.” Managing the water network operations, fixing leaks, and engineering network changes had historically been accomplished with basic network information and a set of assumptions. A welcome revelation was the significant insights provided by TaKaDu, which helped quickly to clarify issues and characteristics of specific areas of the system. Tyree continued, “It became evident that water engineering required a data management and analysis solution. TaKaDu’s solution is based on data science; its engineers and system deployment specialists are data experts bringing skills to KUB that enable our engineers to have much greater insight into the water system.” Page 15
  • 16. Benefits & Results “They committed to deployment within eight weeks, providing configuration, training, and ongoing support for KUB to ensure the full range of the TaKaDu solution is understood and applied. With the system deployed in eight weeks, immediately we could see how our 102 sensors, meters, and SCADA devices were performing. This simple view of our data stream allowed our team to identify a variety of telemetry and sensor installation issues that then became a primary focus for completing our DMA buildout,” said Tyree. Furthermore, TaKaDu determined where DMAs, meters, and sensors were not associated properly or where DMAs were not, in fact, closed areas. Addressing these TaKaDu findings, along with the hardware configurations, solidified KUB’s implementation of the DMAs. Before TaKaDu, KUB engineers had to talk to data experts to access SCADA data. TaKaDu has made the data accessible to staff throughout KUB directly to see events, view comments from others, and share information across work shifts. Users can access the system directly and not have to physically talk to people to understand current event and system performance characteristics (although the direct discussions will continue and remain valuable). TaKaDu events enable KUB engineers to drill down and associate network performance data and to identify the root causes of issues and how to act on them. The event management tools allow KUB to define an action, priorities, and assign them to teams so that we are working on the top priority items without losing track of less important events. KUB also has a better understanding of event lifecycles where pipe leaks may progress to busts through progressive leaking or pressure increases. “This data driven insight will help us proactively reduce emergency events that we previously had no forewarning of, added Tyree. “It’s surprising how quickly KUB has begun to rely on data for its system management. Our motivation for using TaKaDu is for overall optimization of the water network and our staff resources. It is far beyond water loss management.” WRc supporting UK Water Framework Directive – Review of UK- TAG flow standards On Tuesday 9th January, Vicki Bewes of WRc’s Catchment Management Team, attended the UKTAG Water Resources Task Team (WRTT) Workshop in Birmingham to consider the revision of the UK Water Framework Directive (WFD) river flow standards, bringing together expertise from across UK regulatory and conservation agencies and academic communities to form part of the review process. As part of the workshop Vicki presented the findings of a recent typology analysis project done on behalf of the Environment Agency by WRc across England, Wales and Scotland. This looked into the effects of changes in flow on macro-invertebrate communities and the ways in which these relationships vary in different types of rivers; and specifically whether the current system of river typologies can be improved to better reflect the sensitivity of macro-invertebrates to these changes. The workshop generated significant discussion and the outcomes will now be considered in more detail by the WRTT to determine whether changes can be made to the current typology system or what further research is needed WRc are pleased to be chosen by Environment Agency to review leakage elements of the company’s draft WRMPs Every 5 years water companies prepare Water Resource Management Plans that outline how they plan to ensure security of future water supplies. The Asset Management Solutions Team at WRc are very pleased to announce the successful award by the Environment Agency for the review of the leakage management elements of the company’s plans. The proactive management of leakage remains a key focus for water utilities and their customers, we are delighted to be involved in supporting the delivery of the UK Water industry’s regulators obligations. In order to deliver continued lower levels of leakage, companies will need to be looking to innovative meth- ods for efficiently targeting and repairing leaks with minimum disruption to customers, we look forward to informing the Environment Agency based on our Independent, Research focused and innovative approach to leakage Management. Page 16
  • 17. The unglamorous yet crucial task of sewer and wastewater treatment has direct impacts on public health and the environment, yet rapid population growth is stretching the capabilities of the nation’s water treatment infrastructure. According to the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card for Wastewater from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), more than 56 million new users will be connected to centralized treatment systems across the U.S. over the next 20 years. One municipal wastewater treatment plant built in the 1970s is taking steps to enhance its capacity, operational efficiency and reliability. Located in a small, coastal U.S. city, the plant has 1.1 million gallons per day of processing capacity. To address continually growing demand, the decision was made in early 2015 to incorporate a greater level of plant automation and control. The plant required modifications, including new instrumentation and controls (I&C) supported by a high-availability, mission-critical communications network and an extension of the plant’s existing outfall. The water district chose Carollo Engineers to design and engineer the solution, which leverages the Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) Reference Architecture developed by Rockwell Automation and its Strategic Alliance Partner Cisco. It features a robust, redundant, fault-tolerant fibre - optic communications network from Rockwell Automation EncompassTM Product Partner Phoenix Digital Corp. (PDC), as well as Rockwell Automation control system products the customer specified. Core Challenges Limit the Options Budgets are tight in small, municipal water treatment plants such as this one, which makes the operational efficiencies afforded by industrial automation highly desirable. However, any potential savings must be weighed against implementation and maintenance costs. The plant sought access to real-time data and diagnostics to help improve decision-making, increase uptime and minimize manual processes such as paper-based charts and graphs. Fast, secure Ethernet connectivity was needed for the central control system to collect data and generate the required reports automatically. The underlying communications network needed to be cost-effective and industrially hardened — capable of providing fault tolerance and redundancy to help achieve maximum availability and reliability. The network also had to be as immune as possible from electromagnetic noise. “Water treatment environments are prone to electrical noise and static due to electrical drives and other powered equipment, which have the potential to corrupt electronic communications. If a copper or metal conductor is introduced into that environment, it may pick up extraneous electromagnetic noise and interfere with a signal being transmitted through it,” explains Amit Sahdev P.E., senior I&C engineer at Carollo Engineers. Another key consideration was the lack of IT personnel on staff who had the necessary skills to support a typical Ethernet network for the advanced control systems. The water district had no budget to outsource the role under a maintenance service contract, so installation and maintenance simplicity was a must for the new communications network. Finally, to be adaptive and effective for the long term, the solution needed to be scalable, expandable and capable of accommodating future I&C and network- ing technologies. Optimal Proposal Simplifies the Selection The water district specified its preference for Rockwell Automation products in its request for proposals (RFPs). Carollo Engineers had a history of Rockwell Automation solution knowledge, having specified and worked with its technologies for more than 50 years. Carollo also had a successful track record with the water district, including preparing the wastewater treatment plant’s facility plan. After assessing the RFP responses, the water district awarded Carollo Engineers the two-part, $9 million project, which included both the plant modifications and outfall extension. The solution Carollo proposed for installation at the existing water treatment plant was tailored to the plant’s skill sets and budget and provided all of the requested capabilities. The cost-effective, low-maintenance, energy-efficient solution was designed to help provide maximum availability. Based on the Cisco-Rockwell Automation CPwE architecture (see Figure 1), it incorporated: • An Allen-Bradley® programmable logic controller (PLC) platform, including Bulletin 1756 ControlLogix® I/O chassis-based modules and Bulletin 1768 CompactLogixTM controllers. • Rockwell Software® Studio 5000® environment for PLC programming. • Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk® View software for human-machine interface (HMI) programming. • Secure, noise-immune fibre-optic communications network from PDC that included its OCP module (see Figure 2). Case Study: Redundant Fibre-Optic Network Helps Plant Meet Goals Figure 1: The low-maintenance, energy-efficient solution recommended for the water district was based on the Cisco-Rockwell Automation CPwE Reference Architecture and designed for maximum availability. Page 17
  • 18. New Solution Fits the Bill PDC provided the network backbone for all of the Allen-Bradley PLCs, which included a full two-channel redundant fibre - optic network in the in-chassis CompactLogix platform running at a full gigabit and communicates with the Rockwell Automation process control system. This product combination builds on years of success. PDC technology has been used in all of the automation platforms Rockwell Automation has offered, from the Allen-Bradley PLC-5® control system to ControlLogix products and now also CompactLogix. Multiple protocols for Rockwell Automation also have been supported — originally remote I/O and the data highway, followed by ControlNet® networks, and now Ethernet®. PDC passes any version of Ethernet without software programming, setup or configuration. The average technician can install, troubleshoot and maintain the PDC network in minutes, without special certification, in a secure fashion. The use of fiber cable has multiple benefits. “Fibre-optic cables are inherently immune from electromagnetic interference as they are non-conductive in nature and cannot pick up extraneous electromagnetic interfer- ence, making them a better solution in electrically noisy environments,” says Sahdev. Because fiber provides redundant connections, not just one like traditional cable, the PDC solution provides a more robust system. It is not just resilient; it provides a truly two-channel redundant network. Fiber also operates at the speed of light. “This is the perfect example of where Phoenix Digital and Rockwell Automation work well together; it’s the small-to-medium-sized municipality that needs the technology but struggles with the maintenance of the application,” says Tom Schaefer, president and CEO of PDC. “When Carollo presented us with the project requirements and the skill set of the local maintenance team, the PDC system was the natural choice.” Plant Awaits Highly Anticipated Benefits Carollo Engineers completed the engineering design in September 2016. Construction of the modification and outfall projects began in March 2017 and is scheduled to finish in January 2018. The engineering firm is providing quality management and construction support services throughout the implementation. Once completed, the wastewater treatment plant will realize the many benefits of the new automation systems and a network designed for reliability. “Customers like the robustness of the full two-channel redundancy network,” says Schaefer. “Our network is designed to operate in zero-downtime service applications.” Plug-and-play simplicity minimizes the time spent on network maintenance. A technician — not an IT-trained and -certified individual — can replace a unit if the PDC network goes down. “Replacements can be made in and out of a hot running network in 30 seconds, with no data loss, without a laptop or instruction manual; just set up the switches on the new unit the same way as the old one, and it fires up and goes,” adds Schaefer. In addition, should a power outage occur, the PDC system will re-establish itself in less than 10 seconds. This allows for the automation devices and the PLC to come back online and become operational into an active running network. All of this allows a more robust solution that the water district doesn’t have to worry about because it can self-maintain. Figure 2: The secure, noise-immune fibre-optic com- munications network includes the OCP plug-and-play fibre-optic module from Phoenix Digital Corp. that provides fault tolerant, redundant communication. Online portal now available for water quality assessment The IIWQ World Water Quality Portal is now available online to “assist with global water quality assessment and capacity building for streams, lakes and rivers.” This portal was developed by EOMAP GmbH & Co. KG to support the International Initiative on Water Quality (IIWQ) of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme. It was launched earlier this week at UNESCO headquarters. “In view of scarce water quality information at the global and national levels, the portal will be a valuable tool to obtain water quality information, especially in remote areas and in developing country regions such as Africa, Asia, Latin America,” said Dr. Sarantuyaa Zandaryaa, program specialist in the Division of Water Sciences at UNESCO-IHP. “It is also a decision-support tool and will help countries identify the most pressing water quality problems such as pollution hotspots.” The portal is based on EOMAP’s web service and provides users with near real-time data, campaign planning support, and access to remote and inaccessible areas, according to a press release. Such water quality parameters as turbidity, chlorophyll, and indicators for cyanobacteria blooms can be mapped via satellite globally with weekly or even daily sampling frequencies under cloud-free conditions. Users can select specific locations to view, such as the Itaipu/Parana reservoir shown above (impounded by Itaipu Dam, which supplies water for a 14,000-MW hydroelectric plant). Or they can set a virtual station on a map of the world. Historical data is available back through 2016. Page 18
  • 19. March 2018 WEX Global 12-14th March 2018 Lisbon, Portugal Hosted by WEX Global Latest Developments in Water Sensors 7th March 2018 Cambridge, UK Hosted by the Sensors for Water Interest Group 9th Global Water Leakage Summit 13th -14th March 2018 London, UK Hosted by London Business Conferences WWT Smart Water Networks 20th March 2018 Birmingham, UK Hosted by WWT April 2018 Sensors for Water & Wastewater Maintenance 18th April 2018 Manchester, UK Hosted by the Sensors for Water Interest Group Smart Water Systems 25th-26th April 2018 London, UK Hosted by SMi Group May 2018 Condition Based Monitoring TBC May 2018 TBC Hosted by the Sensors for Water Interest Group SWAN 2018 21st-22nd May 2018 Barcelona, Spain Hosted by Smart Water Networks Forum November 2018 Water, Wastewater & Environmental Monitoring 21st-22nd November 2018 Telford, UK Hosted by International Labmate Page 19 Conferences, Events, Seminars & Studies Conferences, Seminars & Events Conferences Coming Soon Latest Developments in Water Sensors Where: Clare College, Cambridge When: 7th March 2018 Physical and chemical sensors are at the heart of virtually all measurement systems. Amongst the most popular for water monitoring applications are temperature, conductivity, turbidity, colour and pH. During the past decades, they have become smaller, more rugged and stable, leading to better reliable systems. Also during this time, significant advances have been made in the measurement of species such as trace metals, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and E. coli, using electrochemical and optical techniques. This workshop will highlight developments and improvements to sensors and sensing technologies, with emphasis on, but not exclusively, these latter, chemical, materials. WEX Global 2018 Where: Lisbon, Portugal When: 12th -14th March 2018 WEX GLOBAL is an action oriented summit which places business meetings at its heart. A programme of pre-selected mutually agreed one to one meetings are combined with an outstanding conference of internationally renowned ex- pert speakers and numerous other networking opportunities such as themed lunches, a gala dinner and other receptions. It is a unique opportunity to form strong international business partnerships at a single exclusive location. Every delegate receives a personalised agenda which means that at WEX, you will shorten your sales cycle with a top down selling approach that initiates rela- tionships directly with senior decision makers. 9th Global Water Leakage Summit Where: London, UK When: 13th -14th March 2018 Regarded as the world’s premier water leakage summit, The Global Leakage Summit features the most innovative and successful examples of delivering and maintaining reduced leakage levels across the world. Returning for its 9th year, the 2018 speaker line-up will include water network practitioners from Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Jordan, Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Singapore and Malaysia, while the UK water industry is represented by: Affinity Water, Anglian Water, Bristol Water, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Northumbrian Water, SES Water, Severn Trent Water, South East Water, South West Water, Thames Water and Yorkshire Water.
  • 20. Circular Economy Strategies for Water & Energy 13–14 MARCH 2018 | LISBON, PORTUGAL Kick off next spring with a visit to beautiful and lively Lisbon to attend the eleventh WEX Global Summit: Circular Economy Strategies for Water & Energy. The World Economic Forum’s 2016 global risk report emphasised ‘the potential for climate change to exacerbate water crises.’ WEX Global 2018 will shine a light into the future, and bring together world-leading experts and practitioners to make sense of a fast-changing environment, where continuous innovation and knowledge- sharing become essential. Forward-looking institutions, companies and stakeholders are invited to join this trailblazing summit, to determine how to grow and strategise the circular economy. WHAT IS WEX GLOBAL? WEX, the water and energy exchange, occupies a unique place in the water conference calendar. Business meetings and conversation lie at the heart of WEX, along with the principle of ‘exchange’: the exchange of ideas and philosophies, of business cards, of solutions, and of methodologies, to form strong networks on which to build. Get in touch to discuss the different options available for attendance! SPEAKERS 2018 With more than 30x countries represented to date and counting, WEX hosts speakers from both commercial and technical backgrounds, working across the public and private sectors. Meet directors or equivalent from companies including the following live at WEX:- MEDIA PARTNERS • Acciona • Aguas de Portugal • Algerian Energy Company • Aegea Saneamento e Participacoes SA • APG-Neuros • Aquasave • Asian Water • Azersu JSC • Bishkek Vodokanal • Budapest Waterworks • City of Cincinnati • Cole Engineering • Czech Water (VAKHB) • EBRD • EPAL Grupo Aguas de Portugal • eWater Consult • FCC Aqualia, Future Water Association • GEA Westfalia • Ghana Water Company • GKW Consult • Government of Jamaica • Headworks • Hydrolia • IBRD • Intqual-Pro • Islamic Development Bank • Isle Utilities • KFW • Krevox • King Saud University • L’Oreal • Metropolitana Milanese • Ministry Of Finance – Egypt • Ministry of the Environment – Poland • Nairobi Water & Sewerage Company • National Water Commission (Jamaica) • NWWEC – Iran • ONEE • Prishtina RWC • PUC Belgrade Waterworks • Royal Haskoning DHV • SC Apa Canal SA Sibiu • SEDIF • SEWA • Sonede • South East Water • Southern Water • Suez • Caribbean Development Bank • United Utilities • Utico • WRC • Yorkshire Water …and more being added every day! +44 (0)5603 683104 info@wex-global.com www.wex-global.com “WEX is a tremendous event because you get such high quality people with intensive interaction, and you have time to have in depth conversations with everyone.” Frank Rogalla, Director of Innovation & Technology, Aqualia PLATNIUM GOLD SILVER Page 20