Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 24TH - 30TH JANUARY 2020 | 25 Operations & Assets Utility of the Future T he UK Water Partnership (UKWP) is an alliance of UK water industry stakeholders and we have launched a 10-point action plan to help ensure that UK plc wins its share of the estimated $30 bil- lion market created by the digital revolution sweeping through the global water economy. The UKWP's recommendations are con- tained in a dra white paper and call to action, Digital Water – Understanding the Commercial Opportunities for UK plc, pub- lished for consultation in December 2019. The plan includes calls for increased col- laboration across the UK water economy, more focused research on the primary areas of commercial opportunity for the UK, and for more proactive marketing of UK digital water expertise. The UKWP provides a strategic vision for the development of the UK water industry. It brings together diverse water sector and related public and private sector stakehold- ers in a single alliance, promoting mutual understanding, cooperation and coordina- tion. It encourages the application of world- class research and innovation to address the challenges of global water security and to build resilience in a changing environment. Says Digital Water's lead author profes- sor Tony Conway: "We're looking to achieve engagement and consensus on these recom- mendations and to secure the stakeholder commitment needed to convert them into action. "We're seeking diversity of thought and the widest possible involvement of everyone with a stake in the digital water economy and beyond. We would encourage everyone to provide their feedback to us using the response mechanisms contained in the doc- ument and at www.ukwaterpartnership.org" Consultation on Digital Water ends on 28 February 2020. The white paper explains how digital will "impact every aspect of water, from man- agement of sources, treatment technology and efficiency, consumption and customer engagement, through to re-use, collection and recovery of economically and environ- mentally important resources". "It has the potential to revolutionise the water sector and its interaction with custom- ers and the supply chain in ways that were previously unimaginable," says Conway. While the total global water market is thought to be worth $500 billion, figures in Digital Water suggest that the market for dig- ital technology solutions in the water indus- try is rising by more than 7 per cent a year, reaching $30 billion by 2020. It describes "a host of digital opportu- nities for UK companies to significantly increase their global reach, through col- laboration between the water sector and the digital economy where the UK enjoys global prominence, in areas such as virtual reality and computer gaming". Digital Water explores digital opportu- nity across the wide spectrum of the water landscape, extending beyond the remit of municipal water and wastewater organisa- tions, to include agriculture, industry and the economy as a whole. According to Digital Water, those oppor- tunities include: • Exploiting vast amounts of real-time data to create enhanced actionable insight, which in turn leads to better decision making. Advances in sensor technology offer the potential for acquisition of data from a more distributed and diverse range of sources. • Employing digital insight to improve business process performance by making individual steps more efficient, eliminat- ing steps, or reconfiguring a business pro- cess as a whole. • Combining developments in artificial intelligence, machine learning and robot- ics provides the means to reconfigure business processes, increasing efficiency. • Utilising digital techniques to enable the creation of new markets, and hence the disruption of existing markets. Digital approaches can create new markets by making information visible, doing so in a timely way, and enabling transactions. • Enabling the creation of entirely new value-adding products and services. Launching Digital Water, UKWP chairman Richard Benyon said: "Smart technologies, intelligently applied at scale, can transform our ability to make real progress in the years ahead. The UK water industry is respected throughout the world and many of the digi- tal innovations that have changed so much of our personal and working lives have origi- nated here. For a copy of Digital Water, visit: www.theukwaterpartnership.org/initiatives/ digital-water The digital water market is worth $30bn worldwide There is a lucrative global market for digitalising water, and UK plc must ensure it gets a share – UKWP issues a call to action. UKWP's 10-point Digital Water action plan: 1. Focus research funding on the primary areas of commercial opportunity for the UK, linked to national economic outcomes. 2. Facilitate collaboration across the UK digi- tal water economy, involving research bodies, innovation agencies, supply chain organisa- tions and customer end-users. 3. Promote the adoption of the National Infra- structure Commission's report Data for the Public Good and The Gemini Principles from the Centre for Digital Built Britain. 4. Promote a new water sector Data Informa- tion Task Force, ensuring a common approach to data capture and management. 5. Establish a central register of UK Digital Water supply chain companies, describing what the UK has to offer. 6. Produce a marketing briefing pack on UK Digital Water capability, for Department of International Trade staff and others to show- case overseas. 7. Develop a Digital Water customer engage- ment campaign devised and driven by UK water economy stakeholders. 8. Promote collaboration between organisa- tions that have already procured UK Digital Water products and services, to showcase the UK's capabilities. 9. Adopt a strategic approach to exploiting UK Digital Water capability via an integrated, long-term programme of activities. 10. Track global sales of UK digital products and services to generate actionable insight. The Utility of the Future is the theme of Utility Week Live taking place at the NEC in Birmingham on 19-20 May 2020. Visit: www.utilityweeklive.co.uk

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