Utility Week

Operations & Assets UTILITY WEEK | 3RD - 9TH MAY 2019 | 23 of smart infrastructure and smart homes, it is unsurprising they are expected to have such widespread significance. Blockchain At the other end of the spectrum, blockchain is not yet seen as a transformational technol- ogy within utilities, with almost 60 per cent of respondents admitting it did not feature at all in their organisation's vision for the next five-ten years. Perhaps more surpris- ingly, nearly 40 per cent of industry leaders surveyed said the same of virtual or aug- mented reality, potentially suggesting that its capability has not been fully realised. SES Water's innovation manager, Jeremy Heath, echoes the survey results, claiming that "industrial IoT is going to be a transfor- mational technology for the water industry", especially when combined with the data processing power of AI. He believes that IoT networks will help revolutionise water companies' understand- ing of and responsiveness to their distribu- tion networks. "That's currently the big hole in our understanding of what's going on," he explains. "IoT capability allows us to look at the network to understand what's happening within our districts. These are very, very new technologies. It's only just starting now but it will mean we get far more data coming back from our network and the cost of deploying sensors will drop dramatically." Heath accepts that "scalability will be a challenge" – again reflecting survey insights, which showed that respondents felt wider deployment is needed before they could claim their organisation was truly ready to reap benefits from IoT. Thames Water's Beaumont also agrees, calling the realisation of IoT potential a "classic chicken and egg" situation. He says: "The technology exists [but] there's an integration issue and a cost issue. A sewer monitor today costs about £1,000; there's no reason it can't cost tens of pounds. No-one has thought about scale economics and as a consequence it's not cost-effective to deploy." That doesn't mean that our survey respondents don't see IoT as having a major impact on asset management in the future. More than three-quarters said they believed it would transform their approach to asset management, maintenance and planning. Meanwhile, nearly 70 per cent said it would transform customer experience and the over- all approach to operations. Just over half said it would cut costs and deliver greater value. Meanwhile, virtual or augmented reality HOW PROMINENTLY DO THE FOLLOWING TECHNOLOGY FIELDS FEATURE IN YOUR ORGANISATION'S VISION FOR ITSELF IN 5-10 YEARS' TIME? WHAT VISION DO YOU HAVE FOR THE WAYS IN WHICH THE INTERNET OF THINGS WILL ENABLE YOUR ORGANISATION TO MEET THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF TOMORROW? (SELECT ALL THAT APPLY) It will transform our approach to asset management, maintenance and planning 73% It will transform our ability to serve customers and their experience of our services 67% It will improve process efficiency and elevate trust across the value chain 40% It will transform our overall approach to operations 60% It will transform the way we deploy human resources and skills 33% It will cut our costs, enabling us to deliver better value services 53% My vision for using this technology in my organisation is not clear yet 20% Something else 13% DOES YOUR ORGANISATION HAVE A CLEAR VISION AND STRATEGY FOR THE ROLE TECHNOLOGY WILL PLAY IN ITS TRANSFORMATION IN RESPONSE TO INDUSTRY PRESSURES? continued overleaf Yes No Internet of Things 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Not at all To some extent Quite prominently Very prominently Artificial intelligence Virtual/ augmented reality Blockchain

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