Helsinki Region Environmental Services (HSY) is Finland’s largest water and wastewater utility, serving 1.6 million people. It operates over 600 pumping stations and manages more than 3,000 kilometers of water and wastewater networks.
THE CHALLENGE
Finding the right tools for operational management and efficient planning was challenging in such a vast network. After several years of searching for a solution, HSY realised that the best approach would be to develop one in collaboration with a reliable partner, Smartvatten Neuro (formerly known as Neuroflux when the collaboration began in 2016).
HSY’s primary objective was to develop a tool to detect network blockages promptly, as these often lead to overflows. Previously, they would only discover blocked inlet pipes during major maintenance or from reports by citizens.
THE SOLUTION
With Neuro, HSY now receives timely alerts, enabling its team to quickly investigate and resolve issues. HSY had been searching for a tool like Smartvatten Neuro for a long time. After evaluating various options, they found no suitable supplier, prompting Smartvatten for Water Utilities to embark on developing a solution with the Smartvatten team.
Following the implementation of the service, their response time decreased from 2 months to just a week—an impressive improvement. The aim was to utilise an analytics tool for automated data analysis of their wastewater network. Instead of manually analysing 1,000 time series, HSY now benefits from automation that processes and visualises data efficiently.
RESULTS
HSY’s dedicated leak reduction team has achieved several annual goals with Smartvatten Neuro’s assistance. They’ve successfully improved the percentage of wastewater leakages and set new performance targets.
Perttu, HSY’s Development Engineer uses Neuro weekly to assess capacity, new network connections, and trends related to increased water volume. Perttu emphasises the need for continual improvements in data quality and to emphasise the importance of not just having functional pipes, but understanding their performance metrics. In conclusion, their focus remains on addressing leakage issues effectively in the medium term.
– Olli, Maintenance Supervisor, HSYWe use Smartvatten Neuro in conjunction with our maintenance system, sharing data seamlessly. The service empowers us to respond effectively to network maintenance inquiries
– Perttu, Development Engineer, HSYI appreciate the Smartvatten team’s responsiveness and our dedicated Slack environment for feedback and support.
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