AROUND THE WORLD, water and wastewater managers are dealing with acute infrastructure challenges, including pipe leaks, main breaks, sewage and stormwater overflows, energy-intensive operations, and inefficient decision-making and asset management. Cities are expanding at a rapid pace and putting water networks—already suffering from a historical lack of investment—under immense pressure. In Europe and the US, non-revenue water accounts for 24% of supply on average (Source: Global Water Market 2017: Meeting the World’s Water and Wastewater Needs until 2020, Global Water Intelligence, April 2016). In the US, the EPA estimates at least 23,000–75,000 combined sewer overflow events per year (Source: “Sanitary Sewer Overflows,” US Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/npdes/sanitary-sewer-overflows-ssos). Rising global energy prices and an increasingly stringent regulatory environment add further complexity. In short, water managers are under pressure to do more with less.
Smart water solutions—including physical intelligent equipment and treatment; wireless smart networks; and digital solutions such as cloud analytics, powerful data modeling, and the internet of things—offer new ways to address the industry’s challenges and opportunities. These are not prototypes being tested in a laboratory; these are proven solutions that are already delivering dramatic improvements in water productivity, quality, and resilience.
There are many value levers from smart solutions, including:
- Safety: Increased safety and control throughout water and wastewater operations.
- Operational cost: Reducing the energy and maintenance cost in the distribution network.
- Resilience: Identify, predict, and prevent failures and downtime in critical equipment.
- Flexibility: Increased flexibility to handle different situations (e.g. volumes, parameters) with existing infrastructure.
The good news is that utilities are already adopting these smart technologies, driven by the need to mitigate water scarcity, improve operations, and efficiently meet emerging regulations. In fact, utilities are expected to invest $14 billion in smart water technologies through 2024 (Source: “Digital Tide: Envisioning the water industry of the future,” Arup (2016), www.arup.com).
CITY OF SOUTH BEND SEIZES THE SMART WATER OPPORTUNITY
In 2008, the City of South Bend, IN, became the first city in the world to build a citywide commercial mesh network of precipitation, level, and flow sensors throughout its collection system to observe the hydraulic behavior and ultimately mitigate sewer overflows to the St. Joseph River. Such overflows occurred almost every time it rained, equating to approximately 1–2 billion gallons of wastewater annually. The real-time monitoring system, originally comprising 120 sensor locations throughout the city, was developed by Xylem’s EmNet brand. Today, the infrastructure can sense flow and divert water to prevent flooding. It recognizes which pipes are becoming congested with water and which pipes have capacity to allow more water flow to the treatment plant instead of overflowing into the river.
HARNESSING THE INTERNET OF THINGS
Innovative, smart systems like this are becoming increasingly popular in cities across the US, connecting infrastructure (often hundreds of years old) to the Internet of Things in order to bolster its sustainability and efficiency. As well as preserving the quality of the local river water, the system installed in South Bend initially promised to save the City $100 million in new sewer infrastructure. However, once implemented, the system delivered performance beyond the original projections.
In 2012, after a thorough data review, the City, together with EmNet, engineering firm Greeley and Hanson, and local construction firms, installed and commissioned a distributed, real-time decision support system (RT-DSS). This additional layer of smart technology augmented the real-time monitoring system that was in place since 2008.
The RT-DSS consists of nine auxiliary throttle lines with valves, governed by an agent-based optimization strategy where distributed computing agents trade available conveyance capacity in real time, similar to a commodities market. The RT-DSS feeds information to operators via SCADA screens, smartphones, tablets, and web portals. The operators can override the system at any time and take control. Since 2012, the now 152 monitoring sites and 13 automated gates and valves have eliminated dry weather overflows and reduced combined sewer overflows (CSO) by more than 70%.
Originally, the system was designed to reduce CSOs. When combined with data analytics, the system proved useful for other purposes. For example, a data-driven maintenance and cleaning program has increased the hydraulic performance of the sewer system.
Eric Horvath, director of public works for South Bend, believes there is much more benefit to be gained from the RT-DSS approach. Additional sites for real-time control have been identified in the system, which will soon be equipped with monitoring and control devices. Eventually the system will be expanded to equip the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) with real-time water quality data to add to the quantitative information already being gathered. The alternative plan includes several tanks and additional control measures that will be integrated into the City’s existing RT-DSS.
The City of South Bend has reaped multiple benefits since installing the system; dry weather overflows have been eliminated, E. coli concentrations in the St. Joseph River have been reduced by more than 50% on average, and CSO volumes have been reduced by more than 70%, or approximately 1 billion gallons per year. In addition, it is estimated that the city will reduce capital expense by as much as $500 million, thanks to the innovative monitoring and control system. In 2011 South Bend entered into a consent decree with EPA Region 5 and the US DOJ, agreeing to a long-term control plan (LTCP) estimated at $860 million. In 2014, the City began to rewrite the LTCP on the basis that half or more of the capital assets were no longer needed to achieve the same level of control and environmental benefit.
Following South Bend’s innovative lead, similar approaches to collections system management have been installed in more than 20 cities across the US with great success. In Buffalo, NY, for example, the Sewer Authority has saved approximately $145 million by installing a similar system in addition to its Green Infrastructure program and other measures. Xylem’s EmNet brand follows a “Glass Box” design approach to RT-DSS, allowing third-party verification of its work product by building all the RT-DSS logic into the hydraulic and hydrological model. This approach also allows the control logic to be distilled into a format that is familiar to that of each utility client. Xylem believes that this client-specific approach is of the utmost importance to the long-term sustainability of the RT-DSS system, which ultimately may be managed by the utility operator.
A SMARTER FUTURE IS IN SIGHT
Key to realizing the smart water opportunity is providing forums for utilities to share their learnings and moving away from digital jargon to focus on the core benefits delivered by these solutions. South Bend’s story shows us that a bright future is possible if we are open to novel approaches and embrace all the possibilities of smart technology.
What can utilities do to follow South Bend’s lead?
- Focus on a limited number of high-impact use cases: Don’t try to do too much at once—first hone in on your most critical challenges and then consider these as the initial use cases for exploring digital solutions.
- Don’t be afraid of workarounds today while laying the foundation for tomorrow: While a digital strategy and a team of dedicated experts is beneficial, these don’t need to be in place to begin driving significant value from piloting digital solutions.
- Begin to build a set of technology and thought partners: There are a number of technology partners, utility peers, and industry networks which are driving the thinking on digital water. Leveraging these partners can help utilities more quickly build the capabilities needed to be successful.
- Set the ambition across the organization: To fully realize the value from digital solutions, the ambition needs to be set across the organization—including the CEO-level and the Operator-level.
Even at this early stage in the adoption of smart water solutions, several studies involving qualitative research with global water utilities and economic analyses indicate that annual savings of $12.5 billion to $15 billion could be realized through reductions in capital and operational expenditure (Source: Global Smart Water: Market Trends, Competitive Shifts, & Project Activity, Year-End 2017, Bluefield Research, February 2018). Approximately 260 smart water projects globally were announced in 2017, and as of July 2018, 180 smart water projects have been announced this year.
There’s a lot done with more to do. Let’s seize the opportunity for a smarter water future.
