Clean Water Current

NACWA joined hundreds of utility representatives, technology providers and other stakeholders in San Diego on January 25 to explore current and future opportunities to deploy smart utility technologies and data analytics to enhance water and wastewater utility operation. 

Convened by the Smart Water Network (SWAN) North American Alliance and Cleantech San Diego, the forum included a number of case study presentations on how utilities are improving operations and asset management, reducing overflows and enhancing customer engagement at lower cost through the use advanced analytics and new sensors and other hardware.  Speakers noted that obstacles remain, including cyber security concerns, integrating proprietary solutions, questions on data access and ownership, and the lack of a common standard for use across the water sector. 

NACWA and the SWAN North American Alliance are exploring the possibility of a formal partnership to bring more information on these technologies to the clean water community, and to ensure that the utility community – not EPA – remains “in the driver’s seat” on their deployment.  NACWA’s Smart Utility Task Force will be featuring a draft of its Digital Utility White Paper at the upcoming Winter Conference in Tampa, FL.