AQUADVANCED Urban Drainage Steps Up to the Challenge of Overhauling Wastewater Management

Stormwater flooding and combined sewer overflows (CSOs) are in the spotlight following the UK public’s outcry over raw sewage discharges. It has become critical for water companies to address the issues. Ofwat, the UK regulator for the sector, is urging water companies to follow the rules or face dire consequences.

Clearly, stormwater and wastewater managers are facing a multitude of challenges to their operational processes and systems: increased flooding risk due to climate change; the pressure of stringent regulations and threats of fines due to overflows; public scrutiny; and cost control. 

With increasing incidences of extreme rainfall attributed to climate change, wastewater network operators have been trying to manage overflows, pollution, and flooding. In the UK, the historical underinvestment in infrastructure has given rise to a blend of physical, environmental, and operational challenges. 

Government regulators are now looking at a system view of wastewater compliance with tougher rules against discharges from plants and networks. Utilities are now required to be transparent in their reporting of overflow frequency and volumes. If they don't comply and don't show improved network performance, they face heavy fines. 

All these expectations of enhanced network performance and maintenance can drive costs through the roof for water companies. Not only does it impact their capital expenditure (CAPEX), it also affects their operational expenditure (OPEX). 

Continuous monitoring, real-time optimisation, automated control, and other advanced processes are what network managers need to manage flood risks, comply with regulations, and boost financial and operational performance. This is where AQUADVANCED® Urban Drainage comes into play.

AQUADVANCED® Urban Drainage, part of the SUEZ digital solutions portfolio, is designed for the real-time, continuous monitoring of wastewater systems, resulting in improved network operations. This innovative tool offers an all-in-one solution for managing sewer and stormwater systems, seamlessly integrating into existing networks without requiring costly infrastructure upgrades.

With a user-friendly interface linked to a utility's SCADA and GIS systems, the software collects all field and systems data, from sensors like rain gauges to client databases and hydraulic models. Operators have a quick overview of the wastewater network’s real-time performance and this enables them to manage their network more efficiently. 

The AQUADVANCED® Urban Drainage software system offers operators three levels of decision support, namely, Monitoring, Anticipation, and Advanced Control.

Monitoring, the first level of support, gives operators a real-time 360-degree view of network performance and overflows. This involves data acquisition, validation, and reporting, as well as anomaly detection, analysis of rain events, and features a customised dashboard. This level helps utilities prioritise repair and maintenance actions, reduce OPEX, and report network performance to regulators transparently.

Anticipation is the second level of decision support that helps predict overflows and flooding every five minutes and anticipates hydraulic network behaviour up to three days ahead.

Advanced Control, the third level, provides the ability to set up inline storage of flows, effectively using existing networks as storage. This approach, in coordination with wet weather strategies established with the client, allows for a significant reduction in overflow frequency and volume without the need to build expensive new assets, such as storage tanks.

Wastewater firms in the UK are taking storm overflows seriously, investing hundreds of millions of pounds to reduce these risks. 

According to Roseline Klein, International Development Manager at SUEZ, real-time optimisation of wastewater network operations is the key to significant and meaningful reductions in overflow frequency and volume. The solution typically results in a 30% reduction in overflow and decreased the need to build new assets to increase capacity by 50%.

To put this into perspective, at a recent innovation event, Roseline shared a case study for a city with 30,000 wastewater connections. The city had planned on building a €13 million storage tank to capture overflows. By implementing AQUADVANCED® Urban Drainage they ended up not needing to build the tank, saving them a huge amount of money.

“We saw a significant reduction that went beyond our expectations, achieving close to 100% savings in CAPEX while nearly eliminating overflows by avoiding the need to build the tank to prevent overflows,” says Roseline. 

She added that while there was a cost to implementing this advanced digital tool, it was a fraction of the original €13 million budget.

As wastewater network challenges persist, AQUADVANCED® Urban Drainage stands ready to reveal its true potential. It is more than just a tool; it is a catalyst for transformation, resilience, and a sustainable future.