Phil Beecher, CEO and President of Wi-SUN Alliance, discusses the need to find new solutions to help manage climate-related extreme weather events and how, with IoT, the prospect of technologies designed for advanced weather and smart water management are gaining traction among utilities and other companies.
The UK has become wetter over the last few decades, with 2011-2020 9% wetter than 1961-1990. The 2023 State of the UK Climate report states that since records began in 1862, six of the 10 wettest years across the UK have occurred since 1998.
Climate projections show that, on average, winters will become wetter while summers get drier. Any rain that does fall in the summer months is likely to be more intense, increasing the risk of flooding and the danger of surface water. Communities in flood-prone areas of the country will face this more and more. Local authorities increasingly will need to rely on innovative solutions to help mitigate the effects.
Built-in climate risk profile
Flooding, storms and other climate-related events also need to be built into the risk profile of every utility company as we see the impact of these extreme weather events.
Wi-SUN Alliance’s research of utility professionals earlier this year reveals that companies are already investing in smart technologies. These aim to boost their network resilience in response to power outages caused by extreme weather and disasters. Advanced weather prediction tools top the list of initiatives, but there’s also more focus on things like disaster response planning.
Pilots and proof of concepts will serve as catalysts in promoting these technologies. They can collect and analyse data from networks to provide more efficient ways of dealing with risks. Mitigations could include managing floodwater capture and run-off and issues with pollution and sewage. Providing a platform to experiment and optimise new technologies and initiatives before rolling out programs on a larger scale is key to success.
Our 2022 IoT study examined levels of IoT maturity among global decision-makers across a range of industries. It showed that half of organisations with smart IoT strategies have already successfully completed projects, up 10% from the first IoT report published five years earlier.
Efficient data monitoring and collection
There are many opportunities in the water industry for smart metering and remote equipment monitoring. Therefore, it’s not surprising that sensors in the water and wastewater treatment industries are forecast to grow to $2 billion globally by 2030. This is according to a report published by IDTechEx.
IoT sensors can provide remote monitoring, maintenance, and assessment of data across a range of applications. These include distribution pipelines and storage tanks to treatment plants and more.
The problem with water infrastructure monitoring here, however, is that it has been based on traditional SCADA systems. These often fail to provide sufficient insight for managing issues like fault finding and leak detection.
According to the UK water regulator Ofwat, leakage in England and Wales is at its lowest levels. However, it admits that companies need to go further to preserve water and better service customers.
The use of IoT sensors allows for real-time monitoring of water and wastewater networks. This can provide companies with a transparent view of their pipelines and operations. With predictive analytics, water companies can help conserve water and identify leaks. In addition, maintenance teams can be alerted to any problems and malfunctions on the network so they can be dealt with quickly.
Real-time monitoring systems also provide insights into the status of water collection systems, particularly when they are nearing or surpassing their limits. Such advanced tools can also identify areas with excessive run-off and allow for the necessary adjustments to flood water infrastructure.
In terms of water quality, IoT technologies can help measure purity, ensuring compliance with water quality standards and providing data about the environmental impact of flood water.
Network standards and security
IoT innovation needs a proven return on investment – the business case if you like – to ensure it is adopted more widely within organisations. Employing IoT technology based on open standards can ensure reliability, resilience and security.
Communications technologies like cellular fail to offer the energy and cost efficiencies required, while struggling with often challenging or remote environments they need to operate in. On the other hand, standards-based field area networks (FAN) based on wireless mesh technology supports a wider choice of IoT device and sensor manufacturers. They can help deliver cost efficiencies and reduce the risk of vendor lock-in.
Floodwater management solutions have additional challenges. They also need to work across a large area using a wide range of devices – pressure sensors, flow meters, water quality measurement devices – all without interoperability issues. Integrating FANs to create a canopy network from which water companies can attach leaf nodes for edge devices should be viewed as an investment rather than an expenditure.
Security is also a concern as there are a growing number of attacks on critical infrastructure. The importance of investing in smart devices certified to meet strict authentication and encryption standards is essential. Such devices and networks are then safeguarded from spoofing and data interception, significantly reducing the risk of sabotage or DDoS attacks.
The prospect of more flooding and extreme weather events means that utilities will need to balance innovation and change with the investment to upgrade an ageing infrastructure to one that’s fit for purpose.
Wi-SUN Alliance: https://wi-sun.org/
Wi-SUN Alliance is a global non-profit member-based association made up of industry-leading companies. Its mission is to drive the global proliferation of interoperable wireless solutions for use in smart cities, smart grids and other Internet of Things (IoT) applications using open global standards from organizations, such as IEEE, IETF, TIA, TTC and ETSI. With 300 members worldwide, membership of the Wi-SUN Alliance is open to all industry stakeholders and includes silicon vendors, product vendors, services providers, utilities, universities, enterprises and municipalities and local government organisations. For more information, visit: www.wi-sun.org.
