Qatium generated a lot of interest across the business, it presented an opportunity to visualise and democratize hydraulic data across our company operations, putting information into the hands of frontline teams so they can self-serve in ways we haven’t done before. It forms part of our wider digital transformation journey which aims to embed new capabilities, positively impacting both our customers and employees.”
Andy Smith, Head of Smart Water, Anglian Water Services
Anglian Water is the largest water and water recycling company in England and Wales by geographic area, supplying services to almost seven million people in the East of England and Hartlepool. In total, their network consists of around 80 systems.
From climate change to aging infrastructure, Anglian faces the same escalating challenges as the rest of the water industry today. But on top of that, their system is growing and expanding, and they’re trying to shift from reactive to proactive planning and operations to minimize the impact on the customer.
As villages and towns expand, our network system is continually growing, placing more demand on our systems and giving us less room for resilience… With any adjustments in our system, whether that be from a burst main, expanding our network to new developers, or customer supply problems, we are always looking at how our network reacts and how we can learn in the future to minimize disruption to customers.”
Gary Clarke, Senior Optimisation Manager, Anglian Water Services
To prepare for the future, the utility embraces new, innovative technologies, so they can be more agile in the face of inevitable change. Ely, a rural city located approximately 15 miles north of Cambridge and with a population of around 18,000, acts as an innovation center for many of Anglian’s new tech projects.
Anglian’s search for a real-time digital water system replica
Our work can be highly demanding in certain situations and necessitates collaboration with surrounding teams, such as the modelling team. Their expertise supports us in understanding how our network will respond and in making informed decisions regarding our buried assets.”
Gary Clarke, Senior Optimisation Manager, Anglian Water Services
Almost six years ago, Anglian was already ahead of the “digital twin” curve. They were searching for technology to simulate their water network in near real-time. They wanted a tool that gave them access to useful insights, so they could optimize their water system assets and understand system impacts as much as possible while also reducing the workload on modeling teams.
In their search for a digital water network solution, they used a traditional IT procurement process using tenders. It mostly attracted larger established vendors, which, while more thorough, can be slow to produce results and has less participation from innovative start-ups. They delivered the first version of their digital twin, but continued to windowshop the market for industry innovators.
Then, at the 2022 SWAN Forum in Washington, DC, Anglian’s Smart Water Strategy Manager Andy Smith watched Qatium’s Director of Innovation Luke Butler share a case study of the City of Waterloo in Canada
In his presentation, Luke talked about how Waterloo went from a concept to a working proof of concept in one month. Why the proof of concept first? Waterloo wanted to gain internal support quickly, instead of making the time-consuming business case for a new tech investment.
Andy felt inspired and wanted to replicate the same approach at Anglian Water, both as a benchmark against their traditional tools and to see if an easy-to-use water management platform like Qatium could lead to wider adoption of their digital twin among approved staff.
Proof of concept shows value in less than 3 weeks
The Anglian team agreed. The best way to prove value to leadership was to stand up in front of them with a live simulation of their water system. So they set the ambitious goal of having a proof of concept in three weeks.
Although a tight timeframe, Anglian did have some advantages in their favor: an existing and up-to-date hydraulic model and Ely, their testing ground for new tech. Ely meant they had extra sensors and equipment as well as a readiness from operators who were used to implementing projects like these.
But the project was still ambitious, and hurdles remained because of Anglian’s strict security measures. Qatium had to be vetted to ensure it passed Anglian’s strict data handling requirements, especially with the transfer of live data.
In order to overcome this quickly, the team exported four weeks of past data. A service then mimicked the flow of live data being sent, creating a live data loop. As a result, they could understand how the system looked with live data coming through continuously.
The benefits of creating a live data loop
The loop allowed the project team to evaluate their system model in Qatium without setting up a service on their telemetry system.
They could see how the system adapted as data came in and how Qatium dealt with modifications to the system in real time. The team could also assess the quality of the base model and update it.
They could also run operational scenarios, like checking supply during times of demand, testing fireflows and flushing, or seeing the impact of main shutdowns. They could make operational changes, like reducing set points to look at pressure management or changing the cycle of pumps to see the impact on storage.
And they did all this within an intuitive, user-friendly interface that anyone can use without needing to be a hydraulic expert.
The verdict, next steps, and learnings
With Qatium, we’re trying to develop a system that can enable the service team to see system impacts ourselves and to help us make better decisions in a much shorter time. Qatium’s an easy-to-understand network tool to help us envisage how our network currently operates and what would change if a problem occurred.“
Gary Clarke, Senior Optimisation Manager, Anglian Water Services
Once the working proof of concept was up-and-running, it was time to show the system to leadership.
First, the team provided a demo of their water system in Qatium, then everyone could jump in on their own computers and play with Qatium themselves. Leadership was impressed and gave the greenlight to move the project out of pilot into the implementation of a real system.
The current status of the project is implementation. The team is running additional trials with field operators to fully understand their use cases. There also remains the step of swapping the data loop for a constant stream of live data, while also adding a status system for operators.
So far, favorite features voiced by the team are visual flow direction and instantly visible pressures thanks to coloured hexagon overlays.
In terms of learnings, the project team understood the importance of agility. Quite possibly, they could still be arguing for a greenlight from leadership without something that had proven the value in just three weeks. Moreover, if Anglian fostered the right innovation in other companies, they could advance much more quickly than by owning everything in-house.
Are you a water utility seeking a cost-effective solution to enhance your network’s efficiency and service levels? Explore Qatium’s water intelligence platform to seamlessly create a digital twin, better understand your system’s needs, and improve services to your community.
