Grundfos and Aarhus Vand gather important user experiences with intelligent software
For the past 1½ years, Grundfos has been testing a software product in Aarhus Vand's innovation environment, Water Living Lab. Hands-on experience has great value for Grundfos' own dialogue with customers, and Aarhus Vand has gained knowledge about intelligent software.
It is all about credibility when Grundfos chooses to test their software product in Aarhus Vand's systems. Over a 1½-year period, Grundfos Utility Analytics (GUA) has been installed in Aarhus Vand's innovation environment, Water Living Lab.
Knowledge of the operation has provided great value
Grundfos particularly wanted to be wiser on the operators' experience of using the product in practice in order to be able to credibly communicate value creation to future customers.
We must be able to look people in the eye and know that the value we promise in operations also applies in practice. We can now confidently communicate this value to our customers because we have tested the use of GUA in Aarhus Vand's systems over a long period of time.
The software was installed in the Water Living Lab, which is a water supply area with 17,000 households and 420 km. pipe lines. Grundfos gained access to the Scada system, GIS data, OT data and events registered in customer service for this area.
We have built up a uniform data structure and a strong data flow around the Water Living Lab, which makes it possible to test software such as Grundfos Utility Analytics.
Opportunity to increase digitisation at Aarhus Vand
He further explains that Aarhus Vand also has been interested in entering the project due to a desire to digitise the supply even more by using available data.
We entered into the collaboration with Grundfos as we would like to test an intelligent software that can collate our data. We want to become even more proactive and efficient with regard to leak detection and the network, says Michael Rosenberg.
The Living Lab environment is also an opportunity for Aarhus Vand to test new solutions and develop internally.
IT specialists and operations personnel must look into the same system
The data platform Grundfos Utility Analytics integrates data using AI and machine learning to show the system a condition in the pipeline. What is displayed is controlled by a number of KPIs. The user interface can be a traffic model with red, yellow and green, which illustrates where there are, for example, leaks.
We want to take data from specialist programs and display these to more employees, so that our operating personnel get an overview without being IT specialists. That way we can all see into the same system and reality.
Good dialogues along the way
He further explains that GUA has been adapted to Aarhus Vand's needs. Grundfos has a team ready and ongoing meetings ensured that the GUE met the needs of the utility. The interest in helping and ensuring user-friendliness has been very positive for Aarhus Vand. Grundfos, on the other hand, has been happy to be exposed to the operating experiences.
We have met physically with Aarhus Vand's employees both from operations and the planning department. Having time and an ear has been very rewarding. The system can be set up in many ways, so knowledge of the day-to-day operations is incredibly important to us, Ulrik Højbjerre, Grundfos A/S.
In relation to whether Water Living Lab also has a size that provides sufficient insight into how a product performs in reality, the answer is:
Water Living Lab is a unique opportunity to have something tested and 17,000 households is a large enough environment. In my opinion, you should have a prototype ready and focus on the value for Aarhus Vand as a utility if a test in the environment should make sense.