Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | MAY 2022 | 29 Pan-utility Simon Navin, geospatial lead at construc- tion solutions consultant Jacobs, describes location data as "a glue" which holds a pro- ject together. "We need to know … what the local rela- tionships are going to be, what the context might be of the geology, what the context might be of the local habitats or local settle- ments," he says. However, obtaining accurate location data about a site is one of the biggest friction points in project delivery. Each utility company holds its own data, so sourcing from numerous parties, and dealing with inconsistencies between how data is collected and recorded is time consuming. "The challenge isn't about if there are records; the challenge is those records haven't really been shared," he says. "They haven't really been put into an environment where they can be shared safely, securely with the right levels of privacy and with the right ethical constraints around the use of location data." How new approaches are bringing project efficiencies Wessex Water made investing in technology to improve and enhance its ways of working one of its key priorities for the current regu- latory cycle. Although BIM was already being used within the company, the pandemic has helped push it closer to being business-as- usual practice, says Wessex Water's strategic digital manager, Adam Bear. Its use allowed the company to continue to meet the fast pace demanded by the Asset Management Plan (AMP) period while also allowing remote working with an entirely digital approach. BIM 360 is a single connected cloud- based platform that brings data together in a common data environment, allowing all involved parties to access and update "live" documents. Earlier collaboration between differ- ent supply chain partners is one of the key benefits, as is improved certainty of design leading to fewer changes and reduced time on site. Developing standard products and shi"- ing to a production-based approach rather than a traditional construction one has been a major benefit of a new digital approach on Anglian Water's Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) project. "We are developing standard products and factory environments. We can build a temporary structure in a field as our factory environment and build sections of valving within that," says Guy Gregory, SPA digital twin and data officer at Anglian Water. "It's a sterile environment and we are already seeing huge benefits in productivity and cleanliness; a clean environment helps us get it right first time while meeting water hygiene standards." Anglian has been able to take this approach because of the development of a digital twin of the project, which utilises a common data environment and enables improved collaboration with Anglian Water's supply chain partners. Contractors can access a Geographic Information System, a content store for doc- umentation and a model store for drawings and models online. "We allow the supply chain entry to all of those models to collaborate. If there is a change, everyone sees it at the same time – everything done via direct entry into the common data environment," says Gregory. Bear adds that there is excitement around "breaking down the silos" within these engi- neering projects by everybody being on the same platform and able to access the same data. "Overall, the industry and those involved are very keen to be able to have a method to share, so better decisions can be made. But it's not without its sensitivities and chal- lenges," says Jacobs' Navin. The benefits of overcoming data-sharing barriers are clearly shown by the efficiencies gained on the Thames Tideway project – a £3.8 billion tunnel which will prevent waste- water flowing into the river Thames. The use of a fully integrated BIM model obviated the need to produce physical draw- ings until the detailed design stage, and the use of a common data environment ena- bled a level of collaboration not previously possible between the 12 different design disciplines. Why digital twins could be used for scenario planning in the future Water companies are already exploring the creation of digital twins to bring about huge efficiencies in project delivery by digitalising the design and scoping stages. But the benefits of developing on geo- spatial digital twins could be huge, says Neil Walker, director, asset management systems at project management consultancy Atkins. These benefits would go beyond just improving project efficiency for big capital investment projects and would allow utilities to optimise the design and operation of their systems. Work carried out by Atkins on a waste- water twin identified around 40 benefit areas on just one asset, one of which is the ability to carry out scenario planning and system optimisation. "There are so many opportunities for what we define as data twins and digital twins; we are seeing a lot of water compa- nies going a"er wastewater treatment plants because of net-zero challenges. Net zero is a big visionary objective for the water indus- try," says Walker. "A lot of people say they have twins, and they have visual representation of the built environment, but the higher maturity twins are benefiting from scenario modelling plan- ning and rehearsal." For the gas industry, increased data- sharing on this scale between industries would allow it to pre-plan where it is likely to invest in its network in the future. Gas distribution network operator Cadent is currently in the process of creating a heat map of its network ready to inform its net- work optimisation plans during the transi- tion to low carbon heat. The map, which is due to be at street-level granularity by the end of the year, will be used to help the company predict which low- carbon technologies households are likely to transition to for their heating needs in a given area based on Energy Performance Cer- tificate (EPC) data. This could then be cross-referenced against their own network to understand the capacity for both hydrogen and electric- ity in particular areas, and where to focus investment. Cadent net zero manager Philip Halsey believes that local factors such as whether there is a heat pump manufacturer in the area, or the capacity of heat pump installers, could also affect uptake. Halsey admits that the map will be based on a set of "brutal assumptions" but it will not be able to account for one important fac- tor – customer choice. He hopes that in the future, artificial intel- ligence could be used to map different sce- narios on the map, such as customer choice, social and demographic factors or the intro- duction of a financial incentive scheme. Lucinda Dann, features editor in association with Get the report Eradicating Delays and Friction: Transforming Project Delivery with Better Data, free at at the downloads section of utilityweek.co.uk

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