SUEZ launches the Digital Hub: an innovative device for accelerating 15 to 20 high-potential digital projects every six months.
Ahe Digital Hub brings together multi-business, multicultural teams and partners (tech startups, incubators...) working in agile mode in a collaborative space located in the heart of Paris. The first season, which has just ended, has enabled the development of new solutions, several of which are dedicated to optimizing the performance of water networks and waste treatment.
Digital technology to improve the performance of water networks
Drinking water and sanitation networks, which are often inaccessible to man, can suffer degradation due to the nature of the soil, operating conditions (pressure, water quality, etc.) or surface activities (works, traffic, etc.). For this reason, it is essential to know the condition of this buried heritage in order to optimise the maintenance and renewal of pipelines, and thus guarantee their performance. Digital solutions now make it possible to detect the most vulnerable pipes and to optimise the investments related to their maintenance for local authorities.
The first projects developed by the Digital Hub complete SUEZ's range of digital solutions (AQUADVANCED, TURBOMAX) dedicated to the performance of water and wastewater networks:
- AquaCircleTM is a web-based simulation tool that develops a global diagnosis of the performance of a drinking water network and proposes a targeted action plan taking into account the best cost/benefit scenario. AquaCircleTM provides an exhaustive vision of performance by analysing all the influential parameters: volumes of water consumed and lost, state of the infrastructure, economic and operational efficiency.
- In addition, SUEZ has developed NetScanTM: an innovative solution for the asset management of drinking water networks that reinforces the performance improvement strategy proposed by AquacircleTM. By coupling the latest network inspection technologies with Machine Learning algorithms, NetScanTM makes it possible to assess the wear and tear on pipes in the short and medium term, identify sections at risk and thus better target pipe renewal. This solution is currently being deployed by the Aquavesc Water Syndicate, which supplies 31 municipalities and 520,000 inhabitants in Yvelines and Hauts-de-Seine, and by the Singapore National Water Agency (PUB).
- With regard to wastewater networks, in view of the new prospects opened up by image recognition and artificial intelligence, SUEZ has joined forces with start-ups such as FieldBox.ai to devise a solution for the automatic detection of pipe damage using drones. The tool developed by FieldBox.ai, integrated into SUEZ's Visual Inspect offer, provides sewerage network managers with a complete and unprecedented diagnosis (videos / 3D images / recommendations) of their sewerage networks for optimised asset management.
Digital technology at the service of traceability and waste treatment
To ensure real-time traceability of waste flows, from their collection to their treatment, SUEZ is experimenting with Blockchain technology. The use cases of this technology will be examined in greater depth during the second season of the Digital Hub, which began in April. This new season will also focus on several "computer vision" projects, including a solution for detecting non-compliant waste at the entrance to Energy Recovery Units (ERUs). The performance of the installations and the treatment of waste will thus be optimized.
"The Digital Hub illustrates the profound digital transformation of SUEZ. It is an unprecedented collaborative mechanism for accelerating, with our partners, the development of digital solutions and offering our customers - local authorities and industrial companies - new services with significant financial and operational benefits. "said Loïc Voisin, Director of Innovation, Marketing and Industrial Performance at SUEZ.
Source: CP Suez