SA Water, business enterprise wholly owned by Government of South Australia, is undertaking a new trial of the advanced smart sewer technology for $5 million. This trial is mainly taken out for reducing impacts and incidences of the sewerage network errors on its wider community and existing as well as emerging customers. Smells penetrating out of the sewerage networks would be monitored by the new 88 odour detection sensors as well as 10 weather stations for building greater understanding of the odour movement and behavior. It also helps in improving the proactive management of issues over time.
SA Water to be the First Technology User
SA Water had mentioned that the focus of North Township of Adelaide is to improve the odour management, where detectable levels are consistently above average in various areas of the town. SA Water is considered as the former Australian water utilities for using technology in an in-depth whole of the suburb approach.
According to Peter Seltsikas, Asset Management’s Senior Manager had mentioned that the main aim of utilizing this smart sewer technology is to limit the amount of odour emission affecting the nearby residents. He further mentioned that the vent stacks in the smart sewer technology pulls in fresh air, thereby extending life of pipes. Weather stations are expected to highly benefit in monitoring climatic conditions such as air temperature and wind direction, thereby impacting on the movement of odour.
Forward-Looking Expansion Plans by SA Water
SA Water is also planning to pilot their smart wastewater network, which is located at Stonyfell, in Adelaide foothills. The company has been focusing on monitoring of sewage movement by means of level and flow sensors. This in turn helps in detecting pipe blockages as well as prevents overflows.
Development of the two pilots are also a part of smart water network expansion of SA Water towards Port Lincoln, Penneshaw, North Adelaide, and Athelstone. Success rate of this smart sewer technology is expected to substantially increase the company’s wastewater operations in the forthcoming years. Technological built between wastewater and water networks, which is considered as a leading analytics platform along with expertise in smart network is likely to help SA Water with enhanced customer experience.
Globally, the water industry has been witnessing a successful journey towards digital transformation. Smart water solutions help in improving the operating efficiencies, thereby driving the capital of the technological world. Private equities are witnessing opportunities in the smart water industry with increasing number of smart water M&A.
Apart from this, SA Water has been planning to make heavy investments of nearly $9 million throughout the roll out of company’s extensive smart wastewater and water networks. Installation of each equipment is ongoing as well as planned for transmitting near the real-time information. All the exclusive operations are expected to be in place by 2019.