Utilities are under increasing pressure to make better use of water. A new entrant to the Australian water analytics market shows the potential of this burgeoning field for the sector.
Water network analytics company Idrica is entering the Australian and New Zealand markets in partnership with the local specialist in smart water network management services Aqua Analytics.
The entrance of the partnership into the local market highlights the next generation of water management, with analytics firms promising to unlock value from utilities’ distributed data generated by increasing digitisation of water infrastructure.
Analytics firms are combining information from smart metres and IoT sensors, as well as CADA, GIS, ERP information on platforms that use advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.
When introduced to utilities, these systems can target efficiencies in everything from water loss to asset management and customer service.
Internationally, the water analytics industry has had some monumental successes. One firm in Tennessee discovered a leak spilling over 550 million litres per year, which reduced the utility’s costs by over $1.3 million and postponed at least $20 million in upgrades.
Another case in Manila, one of the largest cities in the world, was able to recover 640 million litres per day that otherwise would have been lost through leaks. The find also reduced the cost of some repairs from over $2 million to under $2,000.
Analytics has also been able to develop predictive models, which enable utilities to forecast demand with an accuracy as high as 98 percent.
The Idrica-Aqua Analytics partnership will introduce the flagship GoAigua technology solution to the Asia Pacific water sector. The firm says that the platform has helped save billions of litres of water every year, reduce energy consumption by over 15 percent and mitigate carbon dioxide emissions by thousands of tonnes.
by Elle Hardy
