Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | JUNE 2021 | 39 P roject lead Mumin Islam says the bid will pave the way for others in the sector to explore the potential of smart management of storage and rainwater harvesting tanks within their own networks. "Essentially it is giving our con- trollers almost double the capacity in terms of reservoir storage. This is unlocking hidden gems in the form of water tanks that have not been in our control. If we could control them in line with our own strategy it could really help with resilience and where demand is at its peak." Historically, such assets lack con- trol settings, so automatically • ll up from mains water to ensure they are always topped up. Islam says this means that in extended dry spells such as the summer of 2018 rainwa- ter harvesting systems do not reduce demand on the potable network when it most needs it. The type of large-scale tanks being considered will generally draw from the network and "always keep full". When there is huge demand on the tanks there is likely to be high con- sumption across the network too, so the smarter tanks approach will always try to top up the tank at times when the network has low demand. The trial will use smart demand management, and Islam says the intention is to quantify the scale of opportunity to implement smart water tank control on third-party assets to build resilience and lower disruption to consumers. The idea is to apply a strategy and monitoring system to such assets that are interlinked with the water compa- ny's water network control strategy to provide real-time control. Islam says two locations have been selected to apply the strategy to both a drinking water tank and a rainwater tank. "The aim is to develop a busi- ness model canvas that harnesses real-time monitoring control solution for existing water tanks to improve the e† ciency and resilience of a network at times of droughts or dry spells." The study, which was awarded £94,500 from the Innovation in Water Challenge fund, will last six months to assess the feasibility of using exist- ing assets, then move toward design prototypes. "We are paving the way for the industry to take this onboard to explore diŒ erent solutions for these assets," Islam explains. "These assets are not under our control, so there is a sense of risk, but winning the bid will allow us to go into these areas to work with third parties." The idea is to allow water compa- nies to balance the networks in case of bursts or other issues to help opera- tionally and has potential to be scaled up nationally. Islam says the idea has attracted support from other water companies since being awarded the Ofwat funding. The holistic approach has sparked interest in exploring how smarter tanks could be used for integrated water management to link rain water and drinking water management with wastewater and sewers. Islam says there is potential to link sustainable urban drainage solutions with smart networks and even metering. The collaborative nature of the bid, with partners at the University of Exeter and Aqua Civils, could unlock potential that risk-averse companies have ordinarily shied away from. Islam says overcoming the hurdle of working with assets not in the com- pany's control could unlock huge ben- e• ts for the network as well as third parties. "This has never been touched upon before, so our project is just the begin- ning of something bigger," Islam says. Ruth Williams, water correspondent Smarter tanks to improve resilience One of Affi nity Water's two successful bids has the potential to improve network resilience by unlocking untapped resources previously deemed too risky to consider. water companies to be a part of the project. A† nity, Severn Trent, Southern, Thames, South East and United Utilities have all expressed an interest to become involved. "All the organisations are at slightly dif- ferent points in their carbon journies so that involvement is exactly what we need. We've learned so much not just from a tech- nology perspective but also from a cultural and behavioural perspective about how you embed carbon thinking into the psyche of an organisation so we want to share it." Taylor describes the partnership with the @One Alliance as the incubator for the pro- ject and highlights the experience Sweco and Skanska have from comparable initiatives in other industries. "If we can make it work on proper pro- jects with our capital delivery partners, we know we can make it work anywhere and everywhere," Taylor says. "I truly believe this could be completely game changing for the water industry. Then there's no reason not to copy and paste it to other sectors. Everyone can use these tools – any sector could pick the approach up and run with it when we've shown it works." As well as applications in other indus- tries, there is potential to develop similar data visualisation tools for biodiversity net gain or climate change resilience. Taylor says it could be used to feed the data into a digital twin to run scenarios for understanding the impact and costs of assets for two-degree or four-degree warmer climate. "If you don't start making some of these informed decisions around whole-life carbon costs as early as possible, especially in the design phase, it's essentially a missed oppor- tunity," Taylor says. "If we can create these visualisation tools that allow our teams to see where the carbon and cost hotspots are, that will drive innovation." Furthermore, it will help inform invest- ment decisions to decide the most sustain- able solutions to problems. "This project has an opportunity to really change how the industry manages whole-life carbon and cost, if we get this right it could be truly game changing," Taylor says. "We're on the precipice of wanting to deliver net zero and this is one of the key tools to change the way the industry delivers projects. "We could never do this as Anglian Water alone, the collaboration and partnerships are essential. We're hugely proud to have this opportunity to develop this with and on behalf of the industry. It really is the next step the industry needs to take in terms of carbon and cost management." Ruth Williams, water correspondent

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