Water & Wastewater Asia November/December 2021

IN THE FIELD
Meanwhile, it considers factors
that influence water use. Examples
include the time of day, events such
as holidays and festivals, and a
feature that recognises and predicts
deviating water consumption due to
weather conditions.
Dutch drinking water
provider Vitens
utilises Aquasuite
OPIR to monitor
the performance
of its drinking
water production
infrastructure
The application interfaces with
existing control systems and
processes via SCADA and PLCs,
and provides set points for
controllable assets. The setpoints
ensure minimum energy usage and
the lowest achievable pressure.
Meanwhile, they also ensure
minimum pump switching to reduce
pressure transients, and a constant
production flow to improve water
quality. As a holistic, integrated
optimiser, Aquasuite OPIR enables
water supply companies to meet
customer requirements and demand.
At the same time, it reduces
expenditure and leakage. With
Aquasuite OPIR, the company added,
approximately 60% of drinking water
is supplied in the Netherlands with
leakage rates of around 5-6%.
ABOUT VITENS
As a drinking water provider in the
Netherlands, Vitens supplies more
than 5.6 million people with clean
drinking water. Established in 2006
from a merger of five provincial water
companies, Vitens supplies around
350 billion litres of water per year.
Vitens has faced challenges ranging
from prolonged drought and the
global pandemic to an ageing
workforce which will result in onethird
of their employees retiring or
leaving within the next 10 years.
Vitens was seeking to optimise
drinking water production and
distribution in its 96 production
facilities across five provinces.
Streamlining this complex process
requires centralised management
and automation, with an operating
system that pulls information from
all locations. Vitens was also keen
to harness the knowledge of its
employees.
Doeke Schippers, director of water
production and distribution at Vitens,
said: “Our operators have a great
deal of insight and expertise, so how
do we retain this valuable information
should they leave Vitens? It’s
important to take this into account,
especially as the labour market
matures. It’s much less common
today for people to stay with the
same employer throughout their
career.”
AQUASUITE OPIR PREDICTS
WATER REQUIREMENTS
Royal HaskoningDHV worked with
Vitens to implement Aquasuite OPIR.
Based on local system information
and big data, the control software
calculates the optimal settings for the
waterworks intake and production
pumps and control valves, and
controls them centrally.
Vitens chose Aquasuite OPIR for
two reasons. First, because the
software was developed for Dutch
drinking water companies. For the
last 25 years, Aquasuite OPIR has fit
Vitens’ infrastructure – it is designed
for flat terrain, adjustable pumps
and large supply areas. Secondly,
the application was able to identify
energy savings through the creation
of a more uniform and efficient
water production process.
Robin Wong, regional director, Asia-
Pacific, Aquasuite, explained: “In
Asia, many utilities have increasingly
complex, interconnected water
supply networks that need to
cater for rapid urbanisation and
expansions as well as to cope with
the challenges of climate change
and maturing workforce. The use of
an AI-powered predictive autopilot
can help utilities improve the level of
automation, precision and efficiency
for the water supply system. We are
seeing more utilities in Asia adopt
our Aquasuite digital tools in their
centralised operations centres
for smart control and decision
support.”
32 WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021