Host: Matthew Klein
Guest: Gary Wong | Global Industry Principal of Infrastructure & Water | AVEVA
Category: 🌐 Digital
Podcast’s Essential Bites:
[2:18] “The water industry itself has been typically a laggard compared to other industries. And the pandemic has actually increased the awareness of digital transformation. Water industries always had SCADA and controls and automation systems, of course, for many years, but we're starting to see […] new sensors, new technology that exists outside of your typical SCADA and control system. So that actually, in a way adds to the complexity.”
[8:35] “If you walk into any city, it's likely the water wastewater treatment facility is going to be the largest power consumer. And moving to net zero energy operations using more green energy reducing the carbon footprint is, I think, absolutely critical. I have talked a lot about the whole Energy Water Nexus, for example, and how it’s so linked. And we have the ability to do a lot more in terms of reducing our energy and carbon footprint.”
[9:25] “We have the ability to store water, which means we're storing energy. So if you think of, for example, in the hydroelectric business, they're going towards more and more pumped storage, hydro power. Where they have the ability to during off peak demand, pump water from a lower reservoir to a higher one. And then when they need more electricity, then you start to release the water from that higher reservoir back down to the lower one to generate electricity. So you're very efficient from that perspective.”
[10:04] “If the water utility is able to basically forecast out the demand for water over a period of time, they absolutely have the ability to pump and fill up their reservoirs to the level that it needs during off peak times. So they're not wasting electricity, for example, when demand is higher. […] We really need to look at that entire value chain to be a lot smarter with this resource.”
[15:35] “There's definitely going to be more and more sensors and the software around […] analyz[ing] and visualiz[ing] exactly what's happening with every single drop of water. That full traceability of water is going to happen. […] Because I go back to that whole value chain of water. […] And water quality is absolutely one of those. And we're starting to see already some of the innovation in the electric industry on the power side of things, where they've rolled out more smart meters over time and you start to see that with water. […] However, […] there's still many places that don't even have meters in place. So we're not even talking analog, we're talking no meters at all.”
[35:00] “From the customer's perspective, I think they want […] the utility to be much more transparent. Tell me that there's going to be a water quality issue before I discover it and half the call into the call center, for example. […] So this is what's expected and this is what we should see more and more of in the future.”
[35:47] “It's estimated that we lose $40 billion a year on leakage and non revenue water in our industry worldwide. […] And it's likely that we'll need upwards of $200 billion a year to fix our aging infrastructure worldwide […]. So we need to be much more efficient with what we have. So all these technologies are going to help out and it's just a matter of time, I think. […] With the younger generation coming into the workforce, I think they see the potential, they're starting to demand that. And I think it's a great change for our industry.”
Rating: 💧💧💧
🎙️ Full Episode: Google | Spotify
🕰️ 41 min | 🗓️ 07/28/2021
✅ Time saved: 39 min
