By Agnethe Pedersen, Digital Twin Lead, VCS Denmark | Jennifer Rebeiro, Chief Transformation Officer, Greater Western Water | Andy Smith, Head of Smart Water, Anglian Water | Darren Coleman, System Performance Manager, Anglian Water | Gigi Karmous-Edwards, SWAN Ambassador | Shayna Ramboz, COO, SWAN Forum
The Challenge
In the water industry, utilities are predominantly operating within their own silos, developing and implementing technologies and assets independently, without active communication and collaboration with one another. Additionally, solution providers often deliver solutions based on their own criteria and asset data sets, leading to further division. It has become apparent that a fundamental need exists for structured collaboration among global utilities, enabling them to collectively take ownership of their digitisation process and overcome the challenges associated with fragmented approaches.
Amidst this context, a pivotal question has emerged: How can we, as a unified utility voice, navigate and drive the digital transformation of the water industry? This question led to the need for a collaborative platform that fosters collective action and facilitates meaningful dialogue. The newly formed, SWAN Interoperability Utility Group envisages a future where utilities collectively define and shape their digitisation process.
The Revolution is Coming
One of the primary objectives of this group is to develop best practices across the water industry. By bringing global utilities together to establish and promote an open common best practice, the group will ensure that utilities can easily integrate and exchange data, fostering interoperability and enabling the efficient utilisation of technologies.
Through the SWAN Interoperability Utility Group, utilities can collectively advocate for their needs and requirements as a united front, empowering them to drive common best practice efforts to better share information and influence the development of interoperable tools and systems, thereby accelerating digitisation of the water sector, both for larger as well as smaller utility companies. By focusing on asset data structure (agreed upon asset metadata/properties) and an interoperability reference architecture, we aim to create a more flexible, innovative, and efficient water sector.
Our Mission
In the first year, our primary focus is to establish best practices and criteria for a few common assets (e.g. a centrifugal pump), to be utilised globally, recognising that a broader range of input leads to better results. By doing so, we aim to convert existing national standards into a standardised international model that reflects the best practices identified through our research and collaboration. Secondly, we aim to develop a comprehensive understanding of the digital future envisioned by utilities, along with the challenges involved in realising this vision.
Ultimately our mission is to develop a digital ecosystem that supports interoperable applications and consistent asset data structures, simplifying digital solution adoption and procurement for water utilities worldwide.
Our vision is to create a digital interoperable ecosystem where each utility, founded on its own data set with its own standards, is then converted to a global data standard, ensuring that apps can be developed with specified input and output in a collaborative platform – See Figure below. The apps from the different vendors can build on top of each other and be puzzled together to the specific needs of each utility company. Potential apps can easily be tested by the utility company because of the low implementation costs due to global data standards.
We Need Your Help!
While Interoperable Utility Group meetings will be closed for Utility Members, we are seeking to leverage insights from the entire SWAN community. One of the significant advantages of the SWAN Member Ecosystem is its diverse membership, which includes a wide range of expertise, from idea to pipe. We can tap into a wealth of knowledge and experience from solution providers, regulators, academics, engineering firms, and industry experts, ensuring a comprehensive and well-rounded understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and assets.
