Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/971076
www.wwtonline.co.uk | MAY 2018 | 13 "I believe we are on the flightpath to smart networks. "Data, data collection and data analysis are fundamental to the journey." Mike Strahand, managing director Europe, ATI THE SPEAKERS "The water business has masses of data but it doesn't trust it. Dark data has been defined as data that is collected but isn't used." Alexander Mahon, dark data specialist, PA Consulting "The new approach is distinctly holistic in style and is intended to encourage the industry to move from reactive to proactive network management." Ian Pemberton, principal engineer, analytics, Ofwat "One of the challenges of reducing water consumption will be how to work in a proactive way while adhering to the letter and spirit of GDPR." Ben Earl, Water Efficiency Manager, Southern Water To Take Away 1. Emerging technologies such as low power wide area networks (LPWAN) are taking water networks closer to real- time monitoring. Ofwat's PR19 approach should incentivise investment in such proactive approaches 2. The sea of 'dark data' which is collected but not immediately used, can nevertheless be mined for insights which can result in network and operational improvements 3. Perfection in monitoring is impossible, and marginal inaccuracy should not be a barrier to creating a smarter network. 4. Openness and collaboration – even among competitors – is the right way to unlock greater potential benefits of smart technology. outliers. The taxi stopping to pick up a fare, in Jeremy Heath's example, is not the important information: the flow of the mass of vehicles on the same street is what matters. The challenge is the same as that faced by all industries, as IIoT is established and Industry 4.0 is realised: identifying that data which is important to the organisation out of all that it has available. The dark data approach, taught by PA, helps business to identify what is of value and provides the evidence to make decisions. The benefits Strahand sees flowing from smart networks include reduced risk; mitigation of event impact; better event predictability; better customer relation- ships (telling them what is going to happen, rather than hearing about events in the form of complaints); reduced operating costs; and the demonstration of control to the operator. "Smart is on the agenda because it is possible," he said. It's costable and plan- nable and, in my view, is worth it." 'Target 100' Ben Earl, water efficiency manager with Southern Water, announced the launch of 'Target 100', which aims to drive down water usage to 100 litres per head by 2040, including both domestic and non- domestic. Over the next 20 years, Southern Wa- ter's population is set to rise by 20% and there will be over 210,000 new homes. Climate change will see summer rainfall down 20%, while winter's will rise 20%. Target 100 will build on the achieve- ments of Southern's existing water efficiency campaign, which has cut consumption to 131 ltrs/head, against the average of 150. The introduction of univer- sal metering has been a key element but it has found that incentives – community, even more than individual – helped, as did the implementation of tailored solu- tions. "Analytics is crucial to the success of Target 100," he said. "One of the chal- lenges will be how to work in a proactive way while adhering to the letter and spirit of GDPR."