ACCIONA Agua, a pioneering company in the smart management of the urban water cycle
With more than 3.5 million kilometers of distribution networks in Europe, and bearing in mind their complexity, water utility companies have to face a number of challenges to carry out the efficient management of those networks.
In recent years a variety of technologies have been developed which have the potential to change the paradigm of the management of water distribution networks, turning them into smart water networks.
A smart network consists of a large number of devices that measure a wide range of parameters present in distribution networks in an automatic and continuous way. Data is sent in real time to a storage system that has specific programs to analyse and treat all the data received immediately. Finally, the information obtained is used to generate projections and models that contribute to the proactive and predictive management of a supply network from both the operational and strategic points of view (prioritisation of investments, for example), allowing online remote monitoring of the network.
Working with Aguas de Burgos and another 20 European entities, ACCIONA Agua has implemented the first smart network for water distribution in the city of Burgos as part of the European project ‘SmartWater4Europe’. This project sets out to demonstrate, for the first time and at different locations with different characteristics, the benefits offered by a smart water distribution network to respond to the following challenges: i) maximise water quality, ii) detect and locate leaks at an early stage, iii) reduce energy consumption associated with water distribution, and iv) improve interaction with users.
The ultimate objective of the project is to obtain the key parameters that a water supply network should have for implementation in any locality regardless of its characteristics. These parameters will be obtained during the last year of the project following an analysis of the experiences observed in the demonstration cities: Leeuwarden (Holland), Reading (United Kingdom), Lille (France) and Burgos (Spain).
