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INDUSTRY 4.0 AND WATER NETWORKS: POTENTIAL AND APPLICATIONS by Armando Martin
THE AUTHORS Armando MARTIN - Strategy & Marketing, Seneca Srl Registered with the Order of Engineers and Journalists, Armando Martin began working as a project and field engineer specialised in industrial and contract management software, and gradually developed his skills in marketing, management, public relations and advisory activities in the automation field. SENECA has been active in industrial automation for over 30 years, where it has achieved a prominent position in the Italian electronics market by making its strengths innovation, reliability and qualified support. www.seneca.it
ENERGIA MEDIA Energia Media is a communication and public relations agency operating mainly in the energy, utility and smart city, and smart land sectors. It develops communication strategies, facilitates relationships, and processes content and information. www.energiamedia.it All images and photographs included in this document have been correctly purchased from data bases. Should the author believe that copyright rules have been violated, he is requested to contact the following address: comunicazione@energiamedia.it
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INDUSTRY 4.0 AND WATER NETWORKS: POTENTIAL AND APPLICATIONS by Armando Martin
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INDUSTRY 4.0 AND WATER NETWORKS: POTENTIAL AND APPLICATIONS Industry 4.0 makes concrete an approach which involves utilities in the fields of energy, water, waste, transport, and smart cities. This is an opportunity to transform mindsets, production processes and types of relations with suppliers, customers and staff. In particular, the water industry has great potential for development thanks to the close relationship between technological innovation and efficiency in integrated urban water management. Utilities can gain many benefits from Industry 4.0. They are activities combining a strong industrial connotation (in often strategic supply chains) with a growing need for better user and consumer relations. Digitization of procedures can improve both industrial processes and customer relations, through a more efficient management of networks and plants. Public service companies also have available very useful data and information which can be used to improve services, quality of life and city quality, in an “open data� logic and in compliance with the privacy regulations. IoT, Cloud and Big Data platforms designed for public service networks offer new opportunities for digitization, providing technologies which allow the growing operational complexity of networks and the management of assets to be successfully addressed. On the economic side, there is the need to ensure long-term sustainability of the infrastructure component closely linked to the level of investment. On the social side, the main thrust involves access to services and specific user needs.
ACCADUEO - PAPER 4 -2018
On the environmental side, we need to ensure that services are not only environmentally friendly but can also consider environmental matters a factor able to radically change business models. In technological systems, the added value of freely accessible data is directly proportional to the number of systems which can be analysed and the available data collection technologies. This is especially true in the management of utilities and water networks, where collected data are fundamentally important for providing customers/users with an increasingly extended and organised service. If databases of fundamental water parameters were shared between utilities and managing bodies in a transparent, collaborative form, a significant improvement in data analysis, management cost reduction and water crisis prevention would be possible. Data collection, remote support and telecontrol systems are becoming increasingly important for responsive, predictive and real-time maintenance, ensuring availability 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In other words, with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, added value is created beyond plant boundaries. Value is gained by acquiring, exchanging and sharing data by means of reliable communication systems. Investing in the best technologies available (BAT, Best Available Techniques) for telecontrol, remote meter reading, smart meters, wastewater treatment, reuse of water resources, energy efficiency and new uses of sewage sludge, appears to be the master path for modernising the water sector, which still suffers from many inefficiencies. This is a challenge for public service companies which are required to continually improve service quality and constantly lower costs. Already, Industry 4.0 models, Digital Transformation and IoT (Internet of Things) have innumerable possible applications in water sector utilities. Performance improvement processes come with the technological renewal of infrastructure and connection to IT networks. Smart Metering and Smart Grids are examples of this. Investment planning is a prerequisite for infrastructure rationalisation and efficient management. Then there is the issue of optimal use and preservation of natural resources: from efficient use of water resources in the collection and distribution phase,
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to wastewater treatment, and on to reuse of purified water and sewage sludge. Major benefits can also be derived by implementing strategies for the energy efficiency of plants and networks, promoting energy recovery with a reduction of emissions and a contribution to decarbonisation. As water is an “energy intensive” service in which electricity accounts for 11-26% of production costs, the margins for improvement are great, as is room for innovation. This objective can be achieved on the technological side to reduce plant consumption, optimise volumes of transported water resources and self-generate energy in the aqueduct and purification segments. However, despite the high potential and the existence of technologies allowing a rapid return on investment (ranging from a few months to a few years), some barriers to the adoption of good practice remain. The Internet of Things and the Industry 4.0 revolution are an extraordinary enabling factor. However, a concrete commitment is needed in order to support innovation and eliminate barriers to change. But what are some examples of concrete application? One of the most interesting is Smart Water, a “4.0” project proposed by the A2A Group (A2A Smart City and LineaCom), which provides for a different way of managing water plants. This project is structured around parameters related to water quality, leak control, network monitoring, remote meter reading and automatic meter management, and plant control and maintenance. The service will be implemented by means of LoRaWAN technology which uses specific radio frequencies to allow thousands of different sensors to communicate effectively such to ensure safe, efficient performance. Sensors can be installed on water plant pipes to analyse and detect useful data for determining water quality (temperature, PH, conductivity), in addition to monitoring pressure and flow rates. These data can be read and analysed using PC or mobile device software, allowing operators to select the best functionalities for avoiding waste.
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Another excellent case is Abbanoa, the managing body of Sardinia’s integrated urban water management system. It has entrusted Engineering, a leading Italian Digital Transformation group, with the project to complete SIRIS (Sistema Informativo Risorse Idriche Sardegna – Sardinia Water Resources Information System). Split across the three main action areas (revenue, expenditure/accounting, production cycle), this project provides for complete support for the organizational, operational and monitoring phases of field activities. The application solution is based on an ERP system which can integrate all Abbanoa’s main processes and any future requirements. In the review of 4.0 innovations, mention must be made of the Smart Metering project launched by the Cap group, the state-controlled company managing the water supply in the territory of the metropolitan city of Milan and in several other Lombardy towns, serving 2.5 million citizens. Cap, which intends to invest euro 455 million in infrastructure and innovation by 2020, has begun the gradual replacement of traditional meters with smart meters. The trial began last year in the city of Magenta with 240 smart devices and the upgrading of a further 4000 meters, with the objective of installing another 170 000 over three years. The smart meters enable remote collection of data on network management, input flow rates, pressure, indication of leaks, consumption and other significant water quality parameters. On a more experimental front, Smart-Plant – acronym for “Scale-up of low-carbon footprint Material Recovery Techniques for upgrading existing wastewater treatment Plants” – is a project to renovate existing purification plants (selected from 174 proposals financed by the European Community as part of Horizon 2020) with innovative technologies allowing the recovery of renewable matter (cellulose, biopolymers, fertilisers, water) and the subsequent processing of these materials to produce recovered consumables. The objective is to close the value chain and adopt the circular economy in the management of municipal wastewater treatment plants.
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Smart-Plant, presented in Venice, has a euro 9.6 million budget and involves 25 European partners (17 small and large companies including 7 water utilities, as well as 8 Universities and Research Centres). In Italy the innovation site will be the Carbonera (Treviso) purification plant managed by Alto Trevigiano Servizi. Finally, Intcatch is a cutting-edge innovation project. Presented at Ecomondo 2017, this is an innovative system to prevent water pollution, tested at four European sites: the basin of Lake Garda, the Thames in London, Lake Yliki in Athens, and the River Ter in Barcelona. The work of Intcatch researchers has led to an advanced water monitoring system combining robotics (aquatic drones), artificial intelligence, nano and bio-sensors, and cloud management of big data. It will be possible to assess watershed pollution levels in a timely manner using fleets of drones equipped with innovative sensors and a platform of biotechnological and informatics tools capable of detecting the genome of bacteria.
REFERENCES Industry 4.0, challenges and opportunities for “Made in Italy� http://www.editorialedelfino.it/industria-4-0-sfide-e-opportunita-per-il-made-in-italy-3555.html Focus on Industry 4.0 - 9/2016 - Energia Media https://issuu.com/energiamedia/docs/focus_n.9_2016_-_industria_4.0-draft IoT designed for Utilities https://www.innovationpost.it/2016/11/15/liot-pensato-le-utility/ Smart aqueducts: start of the Smart Water project https://www.a2a.eu/it/acquedotti-intelligenti-nasce-smart-water Robots and artificial intelligence, the new border against water pollution http://www.adnkronos.com/sostenibilita/risorse/2017/11/03/robot-intelligenza-artificiale-nuova-fr ontiera-contro-inquinamento-idrico_S61HJt0sMiXNTiiU03bZQP.html The start of Abbanoa/Engineering collaboration for Sardinia Water Resources Information Sstem. http://www.abbanoa.it/notizie/-/asset_publisher/vhxtduuto1rF/content/collaborazione-abbanoaengineering-per-siris 7
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