Infrasync Newsletter #19 -What is Missing from your Utility - How to Make and Use a Smart Water Blueprint

One utility was struggling with sanitary sewer overflows in their system. They kind of knew where the overflows were happening. At least where they were reporting to be happening. This was a new and growing problem for them. They have plenty of technology vendors all with their own specific equipment, software, or service that said would solve their problems. During each meeting they would get excited as a utility and think they finally found what would solve their issues but somehow the pieces never came together.

If you don’t have a specific document for your smart water project, you aren’t going to make it. After dozens of projects ranging from a simple sensor to fully integrated digital twins there is a common theme of what allows them to be successful and get a great start vs those who never really seem to take the first step. It’s a simple thing but often a bit of work to put together. That simple thing is a plan of action.

You can call it a master plan, roadmap, approach, but I like to call it a smart water blueprint. This is a document that outlines what you have, what you need, and how to pull it all together. This blueprint will likely end up becoming a long and detailed document but it’s a simple thing to start.

The smart water blueprint consists of 7 items:

Infrastructure – All the physical components of the utility including manholes, pipelines, treatment plants, meters, water tanks, etc.

People – The team that runs the system on a daily basis including operations, engineering, planning, and administrative.

Processes – The standard procedures and systems in place for how changes are made, what to do on a daily basis, and how to respond during emergencies.

Equipment – Any sensors, pumps, devices that collect information or allow for physical changes to the system.

Software – The data and interface program that collects the data, preforms calculations, and provides recommendations or visualization of data for actions.

Services – 3^rd party contractors or services including engineers, technology consultants, or temporary help to install the equipment and software.

Integrations – Not a permanent component but this connect everything together during the planning, implementation, and maintenance phases of the smart water system.

A Wastewater Example

That wastewater utility took this blueprint process and started to slot in the different technology and utility components into it. Most of the planning was done by a core team from planning and operations but shared widely within the utility. They spent an afternoon pulling the first version of the blueprint together. The first pass was rough but looked like the following:

This was their start of the blueprint. Not all the details were known but the corner stone pieces were there. They wanted to get some sensors, a data dashboard, and some emergency cleaning all set up to help with this problem. Based on this document they could now go and meet with others in planning, engineering, operations, and other departments around the utility. They even met with another agency of the health department because they wanted to better control the amount of grease coming into the system from the restaurants in the utility.

After a few weeks of collaborating with others and adding in additional components it looked more like the below.

They now had a plan, it was shared with everyone, and there was alignment on the external technology needed plus the internal changes and support needed. They then moved onto procurement, implementation, and eventually maintenance. The end system in place looked a bit different. They never really got a good solution for the grease traps, but they were able to reduce their sewer overflows and get back in control of their system.

Your utility or even technology company needs to have a blueprint in place. If you don’t have one yet, what is holding you back?

Know someone who could benefit from this info? Forward this newsletter to them!

Make sense to connect?

Are you working to help your utility or technology company take the next step forward? If you want to talk through a challenge or share something interesting your team did please shoot me a note at [email protected] or schedule a utility technology review here.