Siemens launches water quality analytics service

Technology giant, Siemens, has launched a data analytics service for drinking water operations that it has claimed “provides UK water utilities with the real-time water quality data and insights they need to get ahead of network issues and improve maintenance regimes.”

Siemens’ technical lead for its Water Quality programme, Dr John Gaffney, said the service ends the absence of “scale deployments of clean-water quality sensors in the UK water industry” by removing the obstacle created by “unknowns around how best to manage sensors and also the time-consuming nature of manual data analysis.” He said the service “gives every UK water company the opportunity to change how they manage their real-time water quality.”

Siemens’ Water Quality Analytics as a Service comprises the installation and management of sensors, data connectivity, data visualisation, integration into existing data sources, and “analytical insights from the treatment works to the customer’s tap.” According to its creator, it “empowers companies to push the standard against the demanding performance commitments that will be set for AMP8.”

The systems analytics, Siemens said, enable water utilities to review the estimated travel time through the network, helping operators to manage the risk of bacterial growth in water that’s been in the system for extended periods, optimising water safety processes and reducing the risk of discolouration complaints and the cost of flushing programmes. Additionally, the analytics will “inform the scheduling of service reservoir cleaning to be driven by performance and accumulation of material, reducing operational costs and risk.” 

The technology, Siemens said, can improve resilience and response to incidents by combining real-time data with District Metered Area level simulation of water age and chlorine levels. It added: “In the long run, this can allow users to review the relationship between leakage events and changes in water quality parameters to inform potential changes in network management.” 

Long-term Siemens partners in the development of the service are Northumbrian Water and The University of Sheffield. The service emerged from Northumbrian Water’s 2020 Innovation festival.

Head of water quality for Northumbrian Water, Alan Brown, said: “Our goal is that nine out of ten customers choose tap over bottled water, and real-time water quality information will help us get there by getting ahead of problems so we can intervene before customers become aware.”