The digitization of the water sector is the central theme of the study by the Agici Observatory for a Sustainable Water Industry (OSWI). Corporate Finance, presented in Milan at an event organized by Agici.
The report identifies key gaps to overcome and opportunities to accelerate the development of digital in companies in the water sector, but also analyzes the legislative and regulatory context in the digital field, examining the funding opportunities for digitization. This in order to identify possible legislative/regulatory interventions for an acceleration of the development of digitalisation.
The study shows that 4.0 technologies are characterized by intelligent and networked systems that interconnect, digitize and simplify work and production phases. At the heart of these processes is information and communication technology. “These technologies, applied to various asset classes, allow a better infrastructure management and of the resource”, argues Agici, highlighting that the tools that most enable the digitization of assets, the workforce, the relationship with customers and suppliers include Cloud computing, Workforce Management, intelligent automation and the Blockchain .
“However, digitization, to realize all its benefits requires a systemic approach and the introduction of changes also in the organization and corporate culture. This is possible through the data-driven organization model”, reads the document.
The development of digital technology can also have very significant impacts on how to manage relations with the user. It will also be important to protect the entire sector from increasingly frequent cyber attacks.
The study contains a questionnaire addressed to water operators, divided into three parts (strategies for digitization, investments, most used technologies) from which it emerges that digitization ranks second (the first is the search for losses) among the priorities identified by the interviewees. The overall impact of the digital transition in the water sector is considered high/high in 95% of the answers. Furthermore, over the next 5 years, the areas most affected by digitization will be the aqueduct and purification, with the introduction of increasingly advanced meters and IoT systems, with a view to permanent real-time monitoring of the quality/quantity of the water and leak detection.
The second part of the questionnaire focuses on investments. According to the analysis, planned investments in digitization have accelerated both as a share of total investments and as average annual investments per inhabitant. A trend probably due to the introduction of the technical quality regulation.
“An appropriate development of digitization in the water sector requires a combination of a series of interventions along four programmatic lines: governance (e.g. directing all players involved in the multilevel management of the water service towards digitization); legislation (e.g. by promoting the integration of the digitization issue within the specific legislation of the water sector); regulation (e.g. adopting a more adaptive and reactive regulation with respect to technological development and encouraging the massive adoption of smart meters); partnership (e.g. encouraging cooperation between utilities, technology providers, universities, research centers and innovative companies)," concludes the report.
"The motivational and technological bases for digitization are widespread, even if not homogeneously, among the various companies of the SII - he claims Paul Cutrone, director of the Agici Observatory for a Sustainable Water Industry – but even for those who have developed digital technologies much remains to be done. To accelerate the digital transformation of the sector, it is necessary to look not only at the assets but also at all the processes, support and management, which are the basis of the functioning of an IIS operator".
