Application of digital products in the water and wastewater industry

The Water and Waste Water (WWW) industry is required to operate continuously to meet the demand for fresh water. The plants used by the industry to treat WWW face challenges of high-energy demands and unexpected failures of the process equipment. It becomes necessary to seriously consider the optimization of available energy and maintenance to sustain fresh water supply and reduce operating costs and CO2 emission. The industry is driven to employ technologies that provide decision makers, management, and operators with real-time information to make effective decision. The real-time information needs of decision makers, management, and operators are met using digitalization. This study conducts a review of three large WWW utilities in Gauteng (GT) province of South Africa (SA), which are considered representative of the industry, to evaluate energy utilization, operations and maintenance management and energy saving practice. The study’s key findings indicate that the maximum energy demand is exceeded; energy monitoring practice is not employed to prevent exceeding the energy consumption target; energy-intensive equipment is used for treatment process; and predictive maintenance is not applied. The study proposes solutions to optimize the results by integrating Energy Management System/Load Management System (EMS/LMS), Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) system, and Variable Speed Drive (VSD) system with the Enterprise software system using Industry 4.0 in the WWW industry.