Siemens, a multinational conglomerate corporation, announced that it has become a sustaining partner for The Water Tower and will sponsor The Water Tower’s Control Center, a state-of-the-art learning and demonstration center for automation and digital technologies.
The Control Center allows visitors to experience the physical and digital worlds side by side. It is an evolving platform that will be expanded as new and innovative technologies are developed for the water and wastewater industries.
“With the vast amount of process data collected and the ability to rapidly analyze this data, digitalization of water and wastewater plants has become more common,” says Jack Roushey, Siemens Water Industry Manager. “We can see this digital transformation in many different ways across a treatment facility, including in asset management, power management, remote monitoring, and leak detection. Our new platform is an excellent way to demonstrate how digitalization can help a plant operate more efficiently.”
The first phase of the Control Center includes a digital twin simulation of a wastewater plant, a remote monitoring demonstration system, and a complete control system training module connected to hardware in order to physically demonstrate the management of a pump drive. Several digital applications will also be available to illustrate how data can be used to help operators make better informed decisions.
“This is a dynamic and adaptable platform that will offer a place to demonstrate how data, machine learning and artificial intelligence can be used in water and wastewater treatment facilities,” says Roushey. “As The Water Tower continually grows, we plan to continue to build and grow this platform along with it.”
Siemens’s latest partnership announcement is an extension of its founding member partnership, which helped shape the water innovation center based in Gwinnett County, Ga.
The state-of-the-art Water Tower campus, which launched in September 2019, offers a mix of research, technology demonstration, training, and public outreach facilities. The Water Tower has set out to solve regional and industry-wide problems via relevant applied research and development by providing access to assets in Gwinnett County including labs, pump stations, treatment plants, and distribution and collection systems.
“We’re excited that Siemens is extending their support of The Water Tower by transitioning from a Founding Partner to a Sustaining Partner,” says Melissa L. Meeker, CEO of The Water Tower. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with a focus on digital technologies to bring leading-edge solutions to utilities across the country.”
