THE HYDROLEAKS2.0 PROJECT WINS THE AWARD FOR THE BEST INTER-COMPANY COLLABORATION PROJECT AT THE 2022 NATIONAL CLUSTER CONGRESS

09 Feb THE HYDROLEAKS2.0 PROJECT WINS THE AWARD FOR THE BEST INTER-COMPANY COLLABORATION PROJECT AT THE 2022 NATIONAL CLUSTER CONGRESS

In the last and fifth edition of the National Cluster Congress that took place last November 7 and 8 in Valencia, the HIDROLEAKS2.0 project won the award for best project in the category of collaborative projects between companies. It has been a project led by CWP and participated by the operators Aguas de Vic and Aguas de Manresa, and the companies offering solutions B’GEO Open GIS, Createch Solutions and Neurite, with the support of the cluster of the Basque Country, ACLIMA. The project ended the implementation period in August 2022 and has been financed through the funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan by the call for Innovative Business Clusters (AEI) 2021b of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism.

HYDROLEAKS2.0 has aimed to develop tools that allow water distribution network management entities to better control their parameters, with special emphasis on the early detection of leaks. Therefore, it has proposed the creation of a data repository filtered according to quality criteria and automated, generated with network, meter, subscriber and geospatial data. From the combination of the repository with a hydraulic model of high temporal resolution and a high level of detail of the elements and connections, a digital twin was generated, capable of simulating in a virtual environment, the behavior of Vic’s water distribution network. In parallel, an artificial intelligence module was designed to work on the digital twin network, being trained with time series and with the ability to anticipate breaks and identify leaks. These tools as a whole also allow obtaining information on other relevant parameters such as chlorine concentration, pressure, sedimentation patterns in pipes or abnormal consumption patterns by subscribers.

Finally, all the data are integrated and visualized in a remote management platform that has a dashboard to plot the information on the network map, program alarms or obtain specific network information, either as a whole or by subsectors (DMA). This project was based on the results obtained in the HYDROLEAKS project, a first phase of HYDROLEAKS2.0 tested in the city of Manresa. Its objective was to generate an innovative tool that allowed to increase the knowledge of the network by combining a hydraulic model and a basic artificial intelligence module to extrapolate the values of several key network parameters such as flow rate or chlorine concentration. HYDROLEAKS2.0 has represented the next step, including behavioral prediction and allowing much more detailed observation and detailed network control.

The recognition of HYDROLEAKS2.0 as the best collaborative project between companies in 2022 by the National Federation of Clusters and AEIs (FENAEIC), highlights the importance of the application of digital technologies to improve efficiency in water management. The value of Innovation and Development for the improvement of the management of such a strategic resource in Spain as water through digitization, is especially relevant in the current context of drought. It is to be expected that due to the effects of climate change and the resulting intermittency in the rainfall regime, water will become progressively scarcer and improvements in its management will be increasingly necessary. The percentage of unregistered water in the network is a recurrent problem in distribution networks and can be high in some cases, involving not only important economic losses, but also a high environmental impact that must be reduced through collaboration between the different agents in the water sector. Future actions are currently being planned by CWP and its partners to facilitate the sector’s progress towards digitalization and ensure access to such a precious and transversal good as water.

Viewing of the digital twin Dashboard map of the Vic network on the telemanagement platform. Visualization of the pressure maps.

Jordi Cros, president of the Catalan Water Partnership, at the award ceremony for the best collaborative project between companies in the HYDROLEAKS2.0 project.