PUB launches roadmap to transform into smart utility

Singapore’s National Water Agency, PUB has launched its SMART PUB roadmap as a part of its initiative to digitalise the country’s entire water system, enhance operational excellence and to meet future water needs.

The launch forms part of PUB’s continual investment in digital solutions under which the water agency aims to achieve smarter water quality management, network improvements, integrated customer engagements, and smarter work processes.

Under the technology roadmap, PUB aims to improve operational resilience, productivity, safety and security with its digital solutions and smart technologies.

Smart water technology is expected to help Singapore in water resource management, enabling PUB achieve greater efficiencies, faster response time in planning, operations and service delivery.

Singapore’s National Water Agency chief information officer Michael Toh said: “The integration of smart technologies in Singapore’s water loop – from storm water management to potable water production and distribution for used water collection and reclamation – opens up new opportunities for us to enhance our system oversight and situational awareness.

“Data driven insights will also help PUB attain higher levels of operational efficiency, improve our incident response times, and ultimately serve our customers better.”

PUB has developed a remote micro-invertebrate detector, which provides real-time detection and identification of images using AI, with split-second imaging to indicate the presence of micro-invertebrates in the water samples.

The Agency’s Autonomous Boat will observe the quality of seawater intake to the plants and perform water quality monitoring in real-time while Leak Management System will detect potential pipe failures and prevent pipe leaks.

Furthermore, PUB is planning to issue Request-for-Proposals for smart sewer analytics and predictive management capabilities.