Smart Industry 1/2016

Smart Business Pipe Dreams
Boosting circulation
photo©: SUEZ
■ RAMSES
Water companies not only take care of the water supply; they also need to make
sure that wastewater is being cleaned and returned in a natural cycle.
In Bordeaux, the French company Suez has installed a smart water remote-control
center called RAMSES (Régulation de l’Assainissement par Mesures et Supervision
des Equipements et Stations/Regulation of Sanitation by Measures and Supervision
of Equipment and Treatment Plants) that utilizes data provided by the France
weather forecast service, including rainfall measurements, RAMSES accurately determines
the threat posed by heavy rain and thunderstorms in real time. The system
is able to predict the location and volume of potential floods 24 hours ahead in dry
weather, and six hours ahead in rainy weather. The system also provides a birdseye
view of the entire sanitation system using meteorological, metrological, hydrological
and hydraulic data. This enables authorities to prevent flooding or overflow of
retention systems. But RAMSES can do even more: It ensures that surface water can
be stored using the capacities of a wide range of existing sanitation infrastructures
such as pumping stations, main sewers, and surge ponds. The system makes sure
that these infrastructures are fully utilized by means of dynamic management of
incoming water and by redirecting the movement of water towards available infrastructures
until the network resumes its usual flow, thus creating an economic and
financial solution which makes best use of storage capabilities at the right place
and at the right time.
Support from Brussels
■ The ICeWATER project
Municipalities are not always alone in their efforts to
develop or aquire systems to increase the efficiency
of their water distribution. In 2013 the ICeWaterproject
was launched in Italy with funding from the
European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme.
The project is hosted by a consortium of companies
including the Rumanian water supplier Aquatim,
along with Toshiba and Siemens who conducted
studies aimed at increasing the stability of freshwater
supply to citizens in urban areas by adjusting the
water supply to the actual consumption, thus minimizing
energy use through smart-grid integration, as
well as reducing water losses through leak detection.
In a pilot-project in the center-south of Milan several
steps were taken to move closer to the intelligent
town of the future. A decision support system using
advanced simulation and optimization algorithms
and cloud computing was installed. Benefits included
•
• planning of the water supply system with respect
to ope ra tional and strategic aspects
• energy reduction and water quality control
38
intelligent water waste and consumption reduction
system that supports leak detection and water spill
with a “fix before break” approach
• a water demand management system that is
highly adaptive and supports dynamic pricing for
water asset management
• networking components, service infrastructure and
communication platform for interconnecting all
subsystems.
The ICeWater project took three years to complete
and went operational in October 2015. Final results
haven’t been published yet, but the project operators
are sure many communities will profit from this
pilot project since it proves how important information
and communication technology will become in
the field of water supply.
photo©: icewater-project.eu