Electricity and Control July 2024

CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUTOMATION

Bridging the skills gap in water management Peter Marumong, Cluster WWW Segment Leader at Schneider Electric

The Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS) Annual Performance Plan for 2023/24 to 2025/26, published in May 2023, outlined the challenges faced by the South African water sector. These include poor maintenance, recurring droughts driven by climatic variations, inequities in access to water and sanitation, deteriorating water quality and a shortage of skilled water engineers.

Peter Marumong, Schneider Electric.

T hese challenges are widely recognised, each adding to the country’s water constraints and disruptions. With regard to the shortage of skilled water engi neers, the challenge is compounded by factors such as an aging workforce, limited educational opportunities, and low industry attractiveness. Here, automation and technology offer some solutions. Although they do not present the silver bullet to eliminating the country’s skills shortage in the water and wastewater sectors, they can provide utilities and operators with the tools to alleviate some of the immediate skills challenges. Evolution instead of revolution The marketplace for automation in water and wastewater is mature. Application-centric solutions decouple software from hardware, enabling end users to design adaptable systems that respond to evolving supply and demand. Automation offers native IT/OT integration, thus eliminating the need for complex gateways. This makes for user-friendly systems that benefit all stakeholders, including engineers, plant operators, systems integrators, and machine builders. Furthermore, designs can be simulated and tested virtu ally before being deployed, and once the design is defined as a digital asset, it can be ‘dragged and dropped’ in the

user interface. Additionally, automation enables stream lined maintenance and troubleshooting as system informa tion remains up to date throughout an asset’s lifecycle. This approach significantly reduces the workload of engineers, control room operators, and maintenance per sonnel. Access to up-to-date information improves overall uptime and reliability. The mean time to repair (MTTR) is shortened, as technicians no longer need to search through multiple sources for the data they need. Automation solutions do not require an all-or-nothing approach. Water and wastewater systems’ operators can use it at smaller scale, preserving current investments and minimising training needs. A ‘wrap and replace’ approach allows for existing and new systems to run together, and automation can be gradually scaled up as the financial benefits materialise. Where automation can help Automation technologies offer a viable solution to supple ment some of the skills lacking. By integrating automated systems and processes, utilities can reduce the need for manual intervention and specialised expertise. Automation also offers wider benefits such as: - Enhanced efficiency – automated control systems monitor water treatment processes continuously, op timising parameters and adjusting operations in real time. This reduces the reliance on skilled personnel to oversee complex processes manually. - Remote monitoring and asset monitoring enable ex perienced professionals to provide support and guid ance to less experienced workers from a distance. This kind of virtual collaboration facilitates knowledge sharing and skills transfer, even in geographically dispersed locations. Thus, automation offers some valuable solutions to bridging the skills gap and addressing other challenges in water and wastewater sectors. However, investment in skills development must continue to be a priority. Over the medium to longer term, the integration of automation and skilled personnel will play an important role in enabling water and wastewater utilities to overcome some of the most pressing challenges they face. □

Automation and technology can help the water sector overcome some of the challenges it currently faces.

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14 Electricity + Control JULY 2024