Utility Week

34 | JULY 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Utility Week Live Summit special report Making the case for investing in smart water networks Water companies can now deploy multiple sensors and advanced smart meters to give a real-time view of operations. But does the investment case stack up? Elaine Knutt reports from the UWL Summit's Smart Water stream. A s networks focus on releasing e - ciency, carbon and operational gains by upgrading their infrastructure with "smart" sensors and meters, they are simul- taneously grappling with basic economic conundrums. Just when will the signi cant investment in advanced metering infrastruc- ture (AMI) deliver tangible value? Without a strong regulatory driver for digitalisation, or Ofwat investment allowances to back it up, will the water sector have the resources to build "smart"? How do you build a business case when smart rollouts to date – including automated meter reading (AMR) devices – have had limited impact? And while these questions are being debated, the drive towards open data in the wider utilities sector, and the "smart cities" agenda accelerating in some part of the UK, are opening up the potential for new cross- utility synergies, but also considerable new challenges – not least selecting the right communications protocol so that Internet of Things (IoT) sensors from diˆ erent vendors or utilities can share data over open or pro- prietary networks. These challenges – set against the ticking clock of net-zero deadlines and encroach- ing climate change – were laid out in the Capita-sponsored Smart Water panel debate on "Delivering a Smart Water Network" at the Utility Week Live Summit, which was followed by an online workshop session for water sector specialists. Workshop participants discussed how to respond to current opportunities, balanced against the 30-year perspective that util- ity companies need to take, and how water companies are struggling to see immediate returns from the smart meter rollout, big data and IoT. Straight talk From Capita, Charles Whitworth, director of strategic initiatives, said: "There are lots of competing requirements for limited capital budgets. Conceptually, everybody can see the value we're going to get from this. But when it comes down to actually putting pen to paper, and building out the business case to support the investment, it's more di cult to convert that into something quanti able and measurable." One workshop participant, possibly speaking from experience, summed up the dilemma: "How do we justify the expense of AMI when we've already invested in AMR? What additional bene t is it going to drive for us? How do we justify that, and what are the wider bene ts across the whole system? And how do we capture that in a way that is compelling, to help justify the investment in smart systems?" The discussion also turned to the fact that "business case" wasn't necessarily the most useful concept when "smart" was a trans- formational change that would aˆ ect every business activity. Niko Louvranos, commercial and product lead for 5G communications at the Digital Catapult, suggested that water companies need to adopt a wider de nition of value, visualising bene ts across the full spec- trum of their activities and into new terri- tory – such as the digital modelling of their systems, bene ts œ owing in to call centre e ciency, or new partnerships with other Utility Week Live Summit Utility Week Live Summit united a stellar line up of speakers, solution providers and handpicked, frontline industry leaders in an exclusive closed-door, virtual think tank that focused on the most business critical challenges facing utilities today, including: creating the conditions for innovation; delivering on net zero; transforming • eld operations and workforce; delivering a smart energy network; delivering a smart water network; managing, maintaining and planning assets; delivering system flexibility and the EV rollout; improving wastewater treatment and resource recovery; delivering the smart meter rollout; and transforming customer service post pandemic. The content is available to view on demand at: www.utilityweeklive.co.uk Our special thanks go to the event sponsor, Capita

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