Hi Everyone, welcome to our bumper May newsletter.
I’d like to start by congratulating the Australia Water Association (AWA) and the OzWater24 organising committee for putting on the best OzWater I’ve been to in my 30+years of going to OzWater!
One of the interesting conversations I had at OzWater was on the responsible use of AI – particularly relevant to our industry given the rapid rise of AI and the opportunity that it brings, as well as the risks it brings. AWA have summarised the conversation here: Addressing the risks of AI in the water sector
The other exciting conversation was with Dr Michael Storey, MD at Isle Utilities. IWN, VicWater and Isle Utilities are working together to establish the 2025 Victorian Water Industry Innovation Festival – stay tuned for progress reports as we develop the scope.
What did you see at OzWater that might make a good IWN Trial?
Feel free to drop me a line if you’ve seen an innovation at OzWater that IWN could trial.
A couple of weeks ago, we commenced the first phase of the North East Water (NEW) biosolids to biochar trials. The trials are a collaboration between IWN, North East Water, Gippsland Water, Earth Systems and the City of Wangaratta. The trial will blend NEW biosolids with FOGO from the City of Wangaratta to create biochar and other carbon related materials.
Our Data and Analytics team are busily working on setting up the inaugural IWN Hackathon hosted by Melbourne Water on 20 September 2024. The team have a working Problem Statement now which is……….How might we use Data and Analytics to better Care for Country?We will be using data gathered by Greater Western Water and Coliban Water during the IWN trials with the EcoDetection technology. We will be calling for team registrations soon!
Did you know that IWN and AWS (Amazon Web Services) have been exploring collaborative opportunities? In fact, AWS and IWN have already collaborated on 2 projects where AWS has contributed $34K for the Pressure Transients trial at South East Water and $67K for the Digital Twin Trial at South Gippsland Water. As part of this collaboration, I had the opportunity to attend the AWS Imagine Workshop last week attended by several hundred public sector and education leaders. We heard from Public Sector Leaders on the opportunities and challenges in digital transformation and adoption of AI. AWS have kindly agreed to share the workshop materials with you all – here they are:
IWN and AWS will shortly evaluate the use of Amazon Q on our Knowledge Hub to assist our members to find information faster and more accurately.
Have a great month ahead (how is it already June!) and be safe.
Cheers
JC
Helping the Digital Sewer Project
Jessica Holland is a joint PhD student between UQ and University of Exeter affiliated with the IWN supported Digital Sewers Project.
Part of Jess’ PhD research involves a survey of operations, maintenance and strategic planning people within water utilities to assess industry needs and directions for the sensor work under her PhD.
Jess says: “In this study, I am aiming to understand the current state, challenges, and opportunities relating to maintenance and asset management in wastewater across Australia's water utilities. I am looking to speak to operations, maintenance, and/or strategic planning staff in 30-45 minute informal interviews which will be recorded and anonymised. I aim to publish my analysis of these discussions as part of my PhD research. Further details and consent forms will be shared with participants before the interview.”
It would be much appreciated if you could consider helping Jess’ research. To do so, please get in touch directly and only with Jess via e-mail at jessica.holland@uq.net.au.
Note information gathered will be aggregated and anonymised prior to publication.
Meet Julian Tully - IWN’s South East Water Champion
Meet Julian Tully, a cricket playing, lifelong Melbourne resident who loves exploring natural wonders like the pink lakes of the Mallee, the Eyre Peninsula, and Tasmania. As the Technical Director for Civil and Environmental Engineering at South East Water, Julian brings nearly 30 years of industry experience to his role, where he helps ensure the delivery of healthy water, supports industry innovation, and mentors the next generation of engineers.
In the past few months, we’ve highlighted the establishment of the IWN Hub and Spoke model and the formal Program Working Groups that enable it. In case you missed it, please read about it here.
This month, we are calling for 4-6 Members to join our Pipeline Intelligence Program Working Group chaired by Kristina Machena from SE Water with Grant Powell from GWW as Deputy Chair.
The Pipeline Intelligence Program aims to digitise water and sewerage systems, utilising asset intelligence to support proactive decision-making. This will aid more effective renewals prioritisation, delivery of our customer promise, and evolve networks efficiently through market-guided trial to adoption processes.
The Pipeline Intelligence Program has a portfolio of exciting projects underway with a number in the Pipeline (pun intended).. Let us know if you'd like to join the Pipeline Intelligence Working group at enquiries@iwn.org.au.
As you may have already seen, Anita McKenzie has been appointed as the Chair of WaterAble. Congratulations Anita! Oh, but wait, due to that commitment, Anita has stepped down from leading the IWN Diversity and Inclusion Technology Program! Anita has done a sensational job in this role which we are deeply appreciative of and has all but completed the Program Roadmap too. So its pretty much a walk up start for someone to take the reigns of this program from Anita and join Peter Houston (South Gippsland Water) to establish the Working Group. Please drop us a line at enquiries@iwn.org.au if you are interested in leading the Diversity and Inclusion Technology Program.
We welcome Alex Mobilia (GWW) as the new Program Manager for our Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration Program and express our deep appreciation for the amazing work done by Blair Smith (Melbourne Water) over a number of years in this role. We wish Blair well in his new role at Melbourne Water.
Please drop us a line at enquiries@iwn.org.au if you are interested in becoming Deputy Program Manager of the KSC Program.
We also welcome Prith Roy (South East Water) as the Program Manager for the Asset Management and Optimisation Program. We express our deep appreciation for the work done by Callum Tate (TasWater) in the role – and our inaugural TasWater Program Manager. Please drop us a line at enquiries@iwn.org.au if you are interested in becoming Deputy Program Manager of the AMO Program.
May Webinar Series
Functionalised Biochar Production Pyroco Mark 2 Trial update
12-1 pm - Thursday 30 May
In May's Webinar we'll hear the latest update from our most recent Pyroco trial. As an IWN member, you can register for access to all IWN Webinars and Webinar recordings via our IWN Knowledge Hub.
Please email us at enquiries@iwn.org.au if you have any ideas you'd like to see us include in our Webinar series.
Registration and attendance is free for IWN members!
Agenda update:
Our MC will be our very own Kate Bardy - IWN's North East Water Champion.
We are lining up some great speakers, including:
Mark Williams from Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water to discuss Digital Transformation.
Victor Perton will be moderating an Executive Panel discussion.
You will have the opportunity to speak with our sponsors at the live trade displays!
Our Program Leaders will be launching our the IWN Program Roadmaps to set the strategies and opportunities for each IWN program for the next few years as well as report on the exciting innovative trials we have been working on.
Stay tuned for more live agenda updates!
💡Registrations now open for this FREE event available to all IWN Members. Seats limited, so get in quick.
💡For the first time we are offering free registration to our University partner students.
We are looking for up to 2 members to participate in this free trial.
The world is embracing sustainable energy, with wind and solar power playing an increasingly vital role. However, these renewables have a challenge: they fluctuate with weather conditions. This "intermittent" production makes grid stability difficult.
Here's where your Recycled Water Treatment Plant blowers, aerators & VIOTAS come in.
Utilising Recycled Water Treatment Plant blowers, and aerators VIOTAS offer a solution for effectively harnessing renewable energy while ensuring grid stability: flexible demand solutions.
VIOTAS utilises innovative technology to maximise the revenue of your site’s assets. Reach out to us at enquiries@iwn.org.au if you are interested in learning more.
Digital Innovation with AWS
Following the success of Amazon Culture of Innovation Webinar presentation, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is offering an opportunity to work with IWN Member organisations on Digital Innovation (DI) engagement .
This offer, in partnership with IWN, is:
available to one or more IWN member organisations
free of charge up until the build phase, but a commitment of time is required.
looking to solve a strategic problem for Water industry using technology (e.g. detecting contaminants of concern), with the ultimate outcome of building a solution.
The video from the Culture of Innovation presentation is linked here and the support information from the Webinar regarding the DI process are available in IWN's Knowledge Hub.
Interested in participating?
Please think through the key problem statements that you would like to consider and we will connect you to the AWS team to discuss further.
Contact us at enquiries@iwn.org.au if you would more information or to be involved in this opportunity.
Opportunity to Pilot Net Zero Cloud with Salesforce & the Big Zero
Following on from the interest in our Lunch & Learn earlier this year, we are offering an opportunity to pilot the Net Zero Cloud solution. Salesforce and The Big Zero, are offering IWN members an opportunity to pilot the data-driven decision-making solution to evaluate whether it might assist water authorities to achieve Net Zero emissions.
Want to know more?
If you missed the Lunch & Learn and want to see the recording or learn more about the pilot, please contact us at enquiries@iwn.org.au.
Reduction of Electrical Waste with Samotics
Electricity used by AC driven assets is a significant contributor to CO2e emissions.
IWN is seeking an IWN member water authority to trial the Samotics Technology (link to presentation) which uses Electrical Signature Analysis and reduce energy waste and unplanned downtime.
The technology is used extensively across the UK (Yorkshire Water, Scottish Water, Welsh Water) and Europe.
AI Optimisation of Recycled Water Plant Performance
The wastewater treatment process relies on several complex, nonlinear processes making it challenging to optimise performance. Building sovereign AI capability through optimising algorithms may assist in achieving an optimal state minimising cost and GHGs while meeting recycled water quality standards.
In partnership with Spiral Data, we are looking for 2 IWN member water authorities to undertake a discovery and co-design process on the potential of using AI to optimise recycled water plant performance. Should a trial result, all on-site trials will be disconnected from the internet, thereby mitigating cyber risk. Please drop me a line at enquiries@iwn.org.au to express interest in this ground breaking work.
On 16 May over 200 people joined in online and in person as a united Victorian water industry at a collaborative event recognising #IDAHOBIT. Hosted at South East Water.
Did you know we have 12 different delivery programs?
You can head over to our website to see what's happening on our program pages.
Check out our operating structure....
VicWater, Level 2, 466 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Vic 3000, Australia
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