Water industry professionals are experiencing a data deluge. There’s a lot of data out there, gathered from sensors monitoring everything from water quality to pipe bursts — but altogether, it’s too much data divided among too many silos to make sense of what it all means.
The data generation and collection strategies at the center of manufacturing processes have evolved dramatically, especially in recent years. Process manufacturers now collect and store huge volumes of data throughout their operations, both on and off premise, across multiple geographic locations, in an increasing number of separate data silos. In this paper, we propose five questions we believe every process manufacturing buyer should ask when evaluating a data analytics solution.
Often the first notification of a spill comes from a member of the public, hours and sometimes days after the first spill. This can intensify public health and environmental impacts and the cost of clean-up efforts. Following a sewer spill at an environmentally significant site at Midway Point in August 2017, TasWater sought a way to reduce the likelihood and impact of spill events occurring in the future.
Like many other energy companies, Devon Energy, a leading independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company in North America, generates huge volumes of data. The company’s SCADA system monitors 6.5 million data points from multiple sites, with more than 10,000 updates per second.
In 2007, White House Utility District (WHUD), a water utility serving approximately 90,000 consumers and businesses in Tennessee, faced a dilemma: how to meet a projected growing demand for water within the budget and capital constraints faced by municipal and mid-sized utilities everywhere.
One of the nation’s largest four-service utility providers, Colorado Springs Utilities supplies energy and water to over 450,000 people. The state-certified laboratory of the Water Quality Assurance section processes over 14,000 samples and 80,000 analytes per year from eight watersheds, seven finished water treatment facilities, 38 finished water reservoirs, four post-chlorination stations, two wastewater treatment facilities, and over 2700 miles of pipeline.
“We have too much data” is the refrain we continually hear from water utilities. It’s no surprise that managing data from multiple sources and turning it into business insights presents a daunting challenge; however, data influx does not have to be a burden. When managed well, there’s no such thing as too much data, especially if your business is implementing a big data strategy — a topic that has implications and reach beyond the scope of this paper.
At 10am on August 24, 2017, a customer in Midway Point, a small suburb outside of Hobart, Tasmania, reported a sewage spill on his property. Midway Point stands adjacent to Pitt Water Nature Reserve, home to rare birds, butterflies, and the largest oyster lease in Tasmania, covering some 14 hectacres. In late August, Pitt Water oysters, prized for their briny flavor and consistency, were just coming into peak condition.
The OSIsoft PI System is at the center of Thames Water’s “intelligence Hub” (iHub), which merges disparate data sources to drive operational performance. Thames Water can now garner critical insights from its network of water delivery and sewage waste removal systems that span the greater London area.
Yorkshire Water produces 1.3 billion liters of clean water and treats one billion liters of water in its waste water networks every single day. The company has 686 treatment facilities spread across northern England and 83,000 kilometers of water pipelines, which is enough to circle the earth twice.
By 2020, the number of connected things will triple from 6 billion to 20 billion. Digitalization is creating new business opportunities and alternative business models.
This paper shows how the four pillars of operator effectiveness lead operators to greater awareness, faster response and better decisions.
In its quest to gain greater remote accessibility and increase ease of use, a progressive sewerage authority elects to think outside the traditional SCADA box.
Communities around the world are facing a growing storm. Complex challenges including water scarcity, changing demographics, extreme weather patterns, and aging or overly stressed infrastructure are colliding to threaten critical water, energy, transport, enterprise and health networks. The water industry is in the eye of the storm.
You can effectively analyze existing culverts and design new ones, from simple barrel crossings to complex embankment cross-drain systems, with different shapes and sizes, special tailwater considerations, and roadway overtopping considering watershed data, culvert characteristics, and even weir geometry. CulvertMaster will pay for itself on your first project as it streamlines complicated culvert hydraulics and delivers the results you need.
Positive displacement water meter with Sensus® Electronic Register+™.
Sensus accuSTREAM meters consist of three basic components: maincase, measuring chamber and sealed register. Maincases (including the bottom plate) are made of composite material with externally-threaded spuds. Registers are housed in a bonnet of synthetic polymer. Measuring chambers are of Rocksyn®, a corrosion-resistant, tailored thermoplastic material formulated for long-term performance and especially suitable for aggressive water conditions. The accuSTREAM can be installed horizontally.
Flygt’s MultiSmart Pump Station Control handles up to six pumps and monitors pump voltage and amperage to calculate real power consumption and optimize pump energy efficiency. Control panel costs are also reduced due to built-in functionality such as 3-phase current monitoring.
The goal of water plant operators is almost universal: to ensure they're providing quality water to customers while detecting leaks, running at optimal energy usage, and maintaining systems. The problem is traditional controls and SCADA systems have gotten so complex they can actually make the job more difficult. In this Water Talk interview, Malcolm Thompson, the chief financial officer of XIO, and Kevin Liscovitz, the chief operating officer of XIO, discuss newer technology making water plant controls as simple as possible for operators while providing better insight into asset management.
A watershed isn’t typically tied into a water system’s SCADA system, but students and others observing the health of the resources may have information that can be of great value to plant operators. This is just one example of when there is a need to enter remote manual data into a SCADA system. In this Water Talk interview, Dave Spencer, technical sales with VTScada from Trihedral Engineering, discusses advanced technology that promote improved oversight by allowing the transfer of data into, and out of, SCADA systems.
Do your eyes glaze over when the words "smart water" or "intelligent water" are mentioned? If so, a new collaborative paper between Arcadis and Bluefield Research may be your antidote. First, learn the who, what, where, and why from Jim Cooper, the Intelligent Water Lead for Arcadis, in this Water Talk interview.
Many of today’s small- and medium-sized water utilities have access to massive amounts of data with the potential to provide significant insight into their operations. However, municipalities typically lack the resources to harness this information in a way that makes it actionable. In this Water Talk interview, Tracy Nuckles, marketing manager and software solutions for Neptune Technology Group, discusses how Software as a Service (SaaS) allows water managers lacking dedicated IT personnel to affordably take control of their data for better overall system management.
For each of the past eight years, Black & Veatch has published its Strategic Directions Report, which provides keen insight into where technology, challenges, and needs within the water sector align, while providing a blueprint on how water professionals, municipalities, and industry can seize opportunities and solve problems. The key focus of the 2019 report, as explained by Cindy Wallis-Lage, President of Black & Veatch's global water business, is the leveraging of data to ensure sustainability, resiliency, and efficiency.
This video focuses on leading water and wastewater utilities use cases that have embraced and leveraged digital technologies such as smart sensors/devices, IoT, better connectivity, and software. You'll see examples from utilities that have created a data strategy and are using real-time data that is driving smarter decisions to reduce opex and capex, increase asset life, meet environmental compliance, etc. while reducing risk.
This video focuses on leading water and wastewater utilities who have embraced and leveraged digital technologies such as smart sensors/devices, IoT, better connectivity, and software. You'll discover that by creating a data strategy and using real-time data your water utility will drive smarter decisions to reduce opex and capex, increase asset life, meet environmental compliance, etc. while reducing risk.
