Stanford, B

Dr. Stanford is an Associate Vice President with Hazen and Sawyer in the Denver office where he works in utility management services and leads the...

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About Stanford, B

Dr. Stanford is an Associate Vice President with Hazen and Sawyer in the Denver office where he works in utility management services and leads the implementation of innovations in water, wastewater, and water reuse. Ben earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from UNC Chapel Hill and has conducted a range of studies across big data/analytics, science, engineering, and public health protection. Dr. Stanford has over 60 peer-reviewed publications, and his work has been cited over 2000 times in peer-reviewed literature.

Stanford, B

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Description: Technology Strategy, Smart SCADA, and AI-Based Analytics Implementation at City of...

Technology Strategy, Smart SCADA, and AI-Based Analytics Implementation at City of Chino, CA

Abstract

Buzz words in technology innovation and adoption abound, but remarkably few case studies have been presented in the water sector demonstrating the power of a technology strategy and the use of tools such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI)-based decision support systems, despite the availability of packages and platforms that can be implemented at water utilities. While there is much interest in innovation at utilities, there is often a perceived barrier that new technologies are too expensive, require too much time to implement, and have an unknown return on investment. Likewise, few case studies have been made available to demonstrate how these technologies can be implemented and what benefits they provide to the utility, making it more difficult to garner support from key decision makers. The City of Chino (CA) began a digital transformation journey starting in 2019 to improve access to information including maps, SCADA, hydraulic models, and various enterprise systems. As part of this project, a technology strategy was used to identify key objectives including creating a connected digital environment that could be easily expanded in future years. Likewise, the City identified the importance of building upon existing digital assets while creating the space for new applications to be incorporated in the future. Using the digital strategy as a guidepost, City staff and Hazen evaluated several vendor-driven technologies that included intelligent SCADA systems with advanced analytics and capability to incorporate their hydraulic model from Innovyze, the GIS maps from ESRI, their advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) data from Sensus and Neptune, their SCADA data, along with laboratory, maintenance, asset, and other enterprise data. The City selected a platform called GoAigua due to its ability to connect systems and processes together, bring artificial intelligence to analytics of SCADA, meter, and hydraulic data and providing real time visibility and operator access to their systems and processes. In its current state, the platform integrates production data, real-time demand analytics, sensor data, and distribution system data, among other sources, with a powerful AI-guided system to provide operators with information to support critical operational decision making. This presentation will cover the key aspects to the technology strategy, how the strategy influenced final vendor selection, and will discuss the implementation and final state of the platform. We will also provide information regarding challenges and strategies to manage those challenges from project start to completion.

This paper was presented at the WEF/AWWA Utility Management Conference, February 21-24, 2022.

SpeakerStanford, B

Presentation time

08:30:00

09:00:00

Session time

08:30:00

10:00:00

SessionDigital Transformation II

Session number30

Session locationHyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida

TopicData Analytics, Decision Making, Innovative Technology, Smart Data Infrastructure

Author(s)

B. StanfordT. YokoyamaA. Coker

Author(s)B. Stanford 1; T. Yokoyama 2; A. Coker 3

Author affiliation(s)Hazen and Sawyer 1; Hazen and Sawyer 2; City of Chino 3

SourceProceedings of the Water Environment Federation

Document typeConference Paper

PublisherWater Environment Federation

Print publication date Feb 2022

DOI10.2175/193864718825158191

Volume / Issue

Content sourceUtility Management Conference

Word count14

Base text size -

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