The design delivered is game changing for the future capabilities of water infrastructure.
Client Story: Anglian Water – SPA Project
Anglian Water’s Purpose is to bring environmental and social prosperity to the region they serve through their commitment to Love Every Drop.
“Water is vital to health and wellbeing, to the economic prosperity of the East of England, and to maintaining a thriving natural environment that we can all enjoy. Yet we face growing challenges to supply from population growth in our region and the escalating climate emergency.”
To meet these challenges, we all have to play our part in balancing the needs of society, business and the environment to enable a sustainable future. Providing a sustainable and resilient water supply is fundamental in supporting this Purpose. A great example is providing supplies where there is insufficient water available – essentially building a 400 mile long pipeline connecting up areas or water deficit to those with water to spare.
This is one such challenge that the complex major infrastructure project, the Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA), has been created to resolve. The Alliance is made of up partners Anglian Water, Costain, Farrans, Jacobs, Mott MacDonald Bentley.
The strategic pipeline plays a vital role in Anglian Water’s plans to meet future water demands and provide the region with resilient, sustainable water supplies, not just for today but for tomorrow. Thus, enabling greater flexibility in production planning.
Why choose Terzo Digital
- The SPA team of experts are focusing on:
- Water resource zone areas
- An integrated pipeline linking the north and south of the Anglian region
- Operating the pipeline efficiently balancing customer demands, cost and carbon
Once the requirements for the pipeline had been set out, the next phase was to analyse the feasibility and translate the strategy into a digital architecture design that would minimise the carbon footprint, maximise the efficiency of the processes and ensure that it’s practical for those who will be operating the systems.
This is a unique challenge.
Terzo had previously worked with Anglian Water on telemetry projects, so Neil Tubman, founding partner at Terzo, was the obvious person for Matt Walker, Strategic Programme Manager at Anglian Water to turn to when it was clear he was unable to employ someone with the right skills to create the design.
Leigh Taylor, Operational Technology Solutions Architect at Terzo was the perfect person for the project, due to his 32 years of experience in the water industry and his extensive design expertise.
Matthew said, “IR35 has complicated the process of working with external experts, but Neil was extremely helpful in finding us a perfect solution with Leigh, which meant we weren’t wedded to big suppliers as we have been in the past.
Leigh came on board quickly and was able to hit the ground running and his approach and knowledge helped Anglian Water come up with a new cutting edge solution that is a first in the UK Water Industry.”
Unique Digital Architecture Design
The Strategic Pipeline SCADA Project will use an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform to first connect, collect and store asset data with context, using edge-driven lightweight report-by-exception open protocols.
This new information will be hosted in a common data core or unified namespace, which can then be used to look for patterns and to optimise the operation of the physical assets.
In the longer term, Digital Twin Technology will be added to enable data-driven decision making rather than reactive decision making.
Matthew said, “The design that Leigh has delivered is game changing for the future capabilities of our water infrastructure. He’s used Fourth Industrial Revolution technology to produce a unique design.” That technology blurs the lines between physical, digital and biological spheres.”
Because the design was cutting edge, using technology yet to be deployed, Leigh worked collaboratively with peers to regularly review and gain feedback. He also had weekly calls with his Terzo colleagues, Neil and Mark, to explore ideas and draw on their wider industry expertise.
Winning hearts and minds
Matt said, “Leigh was adept at explaining complex issues and concepts. He was sympathetic to everyone’s views and with these regular communications, he was able to win the hearts and minds and build trust with all stakeholders to deliver a unique and positive outcome.”
Conclusion
The Strategic Pipeline Alliance will deliver a ground-breaking infrastructure project to move water around the Anglian Region. Terzo Digital has played a key role with Leigh Taylor delivering a cutting edge, Industry 4.0 architectural design, meeting the needs of a diverse group of stakeholders.