Severn Trent Water, a utility that serves some eight million people in the Midlands region, has gone to market with a £4.8 million RFP to replace its existing SCADA systems with a new solution that will plug a range of data sources into Azure.

“The proposed solution, which we are calling Vision, will integrate with all existing disparate data sources (GIS, asset data, weather etc), into an integrated Azure hosted platform aligned with the utilities’ cloud strategy” the company said.

The move comes as water utilities across the country look to make greater use of data to conduct preventative maintenance, fix leaks, support customers and reduce carbon emissions from unnecessary site visits. As data storage costs fall, the viability of capturing essentially everything they are capable of tracking has become viable.

“Predictive analytics for situational awareness”

“The solution will provide the capability to perform insight and predictive analytics for network situational awareness, alarm monitoring and resolution, scenario generation and forecasting to manage the operations and control of assets more effectively”, Severn Trent Water said in a contract notice posted today, August 28.

Expressions of interest need to be in by September 20.

“Successful delivery and implementation… will form a cornerstone of our emerging asset intelligence strategy and programme” the company said.

The investment comes after Severn Trent Water won praise from regulator Ofwat for its 2020-2025 strategic plan. Among recent innovations, the company has introduced a virtual assistant that can offer a third of customers an end-to-end service.

Ofwat made its final determinations for spending earlier this year; with a £51 billion, five-year package for the UK’s utilities. This includes £13 billion for “new and improved services that go above and beyond water companies’ day-to-day operations.

You can learn more about the digital challenges of water utilities by joining the CIO of award-winning Northumbrian Water, Nigel Watson, for a live Q&A as part of our CIO Town Hall Live, September 9th. Register >> here << today. 

See also: CIOs of Johnson Matthey, Northumbrian Water to Join CIO Town Hall Live: September 9th