Last week’s blog focused on managing incidents once you become aware of them, noting how i2O’s eNet solution can support you in being more effective at this.
Ron Bartel’s article for IoT for All was our inspiration. Ron’s article includes a second diagram.
It’s about mitigating the risk of an incident arising. Or it could be a diagnostic tree. Whichever, it shows the value of smart network solutions in ensuring that you reduce the risk of problems arising and have the earliest possible indication of a problem before it impacts customers or escalates into a major issue.
Below, we have set out the traditional and smart solutions you can use against Ron Bartel’s triage path to illustrate their value:
|
Ron’s decision tree |
Traditional solutions |
Smart solutions |
|---|---|---|
|
Normal condition or Unexpected activity? |
Customers call to report bursts or loss of pressure or water quality problems Find & fix crews identify leaks through a rolling geographic programme |
Pressure, flow and acoustic loggers with contextualised alarm thresholds can be used to flag unexpected activity You contact customers to alert them to problems Find & fix activity is directed towards areas of greatest opportunity |
|
Abnormal condition or Failure of mitigations? |
Time/risk based preventative maintenance |
Algorithms can be used to report on asset condition on the network Maintenance is done on the basis of condition |
|
Loss of mitigations or Lack of counter measures |
Crew dispatched to open/close valves or adjust settings |
Remote control of valves Automatic optimisation by algorithm |
There are 3 main components of smart solutions:
- Instrumentation
- Monitoring & Analytics
- Remote control & Optimisation
Each of which is embodied respectively in i2O’s dNet, iNet and oNet solutions.