02.06.23 -- Cellular Technology For Advanced Metering And The Internet Of Things: The Time Is Now

Advancements in cellular-based advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) make it a viable way to provide reliability and cost-effectiveness in practical solutions for water utilities and municipalities.

Water utilities have become America’s unexpected source of front-page news, enduring multiple ‘once-in-a-century’ events in recent years. Droughts, pollution, unprecedented cold, flooding, and storms all take their toll on our infrastructure and push services we take for granted to the brink.

The city of Shelby, OH, recently upgraded its activated sludge wastewater treatment plant to double its capacity to 5 MGD, while expanding its capability to treat and disinfect combined high-volume stormwater and wastewater flows generated by wet weather conditions.

Water treatment plant (WTP) and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operators are increasingly supporting better decision-making by leveraging digitalization capabilities available through instrumentation and plant management systems. Successful adoption of digitalization starts with identifying the right balance of tools (i.e., web-networked instrumentation) and systems (i.e., analytical data management software). Maximizing the value, however, is as much about exercising a mindset of efficiency as it is about tracking raw numbers.

Water utilities are on a path to transformation. How can the digital twin fast-track progress?

Any process plant constantly generates a high volume of status data. Today, this data can be extracted from the plant, stored, analyzed, and prepared to meet operator needs and lower marginal costs.