On May 27, Grundfos, the world leader in pumps and water solutions and Baseform, a technology leader in online software for water utilities, have formalised a strategic partnership to bring powerful digital services to all water utilities across the globe.
The Grundfos global value proposition is being up-scaled to serve the water digital market with Grundfos Utility Analytics, a state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine-learning utility management technology provided by Baseform. The Grundfos Utility Analytics digital solution will allow utilities to better plan their network renewal investments (CAPEX), actively manage water losses or infiltration and inflow (I&I), and optimize their energy usage while enhancing operational efficiency and effectiveness (OPEX).
Standing strong on the partners’ complementary core values, the Grundfos Utility Analytics offer will be served in a SaaS base to utilities, allowing an unlimited number of users and connecting to an unlimited number of data sources in the utility, bringing a holistic view to the decision-making process of transforming data into valuable information.
As water utilities strive everyday to sustain high-quality water services to cities, globally an estimated 126 billion m3 of treated, pumped water is lost per year1. Bluefield Research2 estimates that smarter, more advanced asset management strategies will save water utilities US$41.9 billion in CAPEX by 2027. Utilities must respond to these challenges amidst ever stressed resources, increasing demands and scrutiny, and the new digital complexity. It is decisive to be able to rely on the best and most usable analytics for the purpose.
Kim Jensen, CMO Group Head of Water Utility at Grundfos, said “Water networks are at a tipping point and this is a key moment to step up our comprehensive digital journey. The strategic partnership with Baseform will allow us to enhance our customers’ service to the community and help them achieve their goals. Through such strategic partnerships, we aim to become a key player in the digital solutions and a valued service provider.”
The collaboration began in November 2018 and has developed into the strong strategic partnership now formalized, with Grundfos stepping forward to bring Grundfos Utility Analytics to new customers, starting deployments from next month onwards in selected markets in Western Europe and USA
“Our simple goal is to provide the best analytics for the utility’s business outcomes, enhancing the individual human experience and judgement, and leveraging our ever-growing data pool. The partnership with Grundfos brings not only validation of our vision and technology, but a unique opportunity to share a common strategic path. It will help us realize our common goal of reaching out to every utility and city on the planet” added Sergio T. Coelho, Baseform CEO and co-founder.
The value proposition addresses water supply and sewage network, separately or jointly. It is an end-to-end environment bringing together the most advanced engineering, AI/machine-learning, data science and computing knowledge to leverage existing data and achieve actionable, optimal results for the utility.
Built on decades of research and on direct, tried-and-tested utility experience condensed into the simplest form possible, Grundfos Utility Analytics brings about, among other results:
- support to operations with real-time predictive monitoring and event management
- on-demand, accurate water balance to drive Non Revenue Water (NRW) and I&I management
- increased predictability of maintenance requirements – world-class asset failure prediction and risk analytics
- enhanced CCTV inspection planning to optimize O&M, and sewer condition prediction to support I&I reduction
- asset replacement planning, with quantification of predicted impact in terms of cost, service levels, fail rate, risk exposure
- a common, enterprise-wide environment where financial, O&M, planning, engineering, water quality and compliance, all have access to the same unified experience and analytics
Aarhus Vand, in Denmark, was one of the first customers to apply Grundfos Utility Analytics. Michael Rosenberg Pedersen, Drinking Water Project Manager at Aarhus Vand, said “After implementing Grundfos Utility Analytics we quickly gained new insights. Other data integration projects we have been involved in, usually underestimated the tasks of data exchange and involvement of internal resources. Other projects covering our entire water distribution network had to use a year and a half to get to the point Grundfos Utility Analytics reached in just four weeks.” Based on the positive experience of this phase, Aarhus Vand has decided to expand the solution to a larger part of its network.
References
1. R. Liemberger, A. Wyatt 2019; Quantifying the global non-revenue water problem. Water Supply 1 May 2019; 19 (3): 831–837. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2018.129
2. Bluefield Research 2018; Advanced Asset Management Strategies to Drive $41 Billion in Water Utility Savings over Next Decade, https://www.bluefieldresearch.com/ns/advanced-asset-management-strategies-to-drive-41-billion/
