The Digital Water/Wastewater Utility of the Future: Case Studies in Leveraging Smart Utility Technology and Best Management Practices

Utility leaders are constantly presented with nearly impossible “do more with less” demands facing an increasing regulatory environment; and complex issues of hiring the right talent in both the short and long term. The Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cloud Computing, Business Analytics, Utilities of the Future and Smart Cites are terms that increasingly becoming part of the daily vernacular for utility managers and their staff. In order to clarify these terminologies and how the key concepts of IoT, Big Data and Business Analytics are brought together into a highly useable and cost effective framework called, Intelligent Platforms, this paper will provide an overview of two relevant case studies from the UK and the USA, Thames Water (United Kingdom) and the City of Atlanta, Department of Watershed Management. In both of these case studies, an Intelligent Platform was deployed to bring together real-time and other data from a multitude of source systems to produce unprecedented results and improvements in both OPEX and CAPEX, particularly in the areas of sewer, storm water monitoring and water production.