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SWAN 16th Annual Conference: Make Water Work 036 · Make Water Work Podcast

• 0:01
  Welcome to the Make Waterwork podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm Isaac Pellerin and I've been for the
• 0:05
  past three days at the Swan Conference
• 0:07
  at their smart water networks forum.
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  It's an annual conference bringing
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  together water utility leaders,
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  practitioners, engineering firms, and
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  everyone who's really focused on what
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  does it take to help drive innovation?
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  How does innovation get adopted across
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  the sector? And I think what's
• 0:25
  interesting about this conference in
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  particular is that because it's global,
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  we get to compare how things are done.
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  We know that in the in the US the market
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  is very fragmented because we have 50
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  states. So it's not as centralized as it
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  may be in some parts of Asia or Europe
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  or in Australia. And so it brings up
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  different ways that we solve for
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  innovation. And so one of the things
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  that that I got to do that was really
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  exciting was to run a round table with
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  Anthony D. Roza from ASDA when I was
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  talking to the folks at Swan. Um they
• 1:01
  were like, you know, with it being in
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  Tampa this year, we'd love to have some
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  conversation about how regulators play
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  into digital transformation. What and
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  how do utilities adopt new ideas, new
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  practices, and those kind of things. And
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  so it was a really natural fit to see if
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  Anthony could represent the regulator
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  persona at a round table so we could
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  have a conversation about how regulation
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  is part of the equation and and it's an
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  important part and it's not always
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  something that hinders but we did have
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  some really great takeaways that I would
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  love to share. Um we actually took two
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  hours in two separate sessions with
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  about 15 folks at our table really just
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  to explore the regulators impact on
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  digital transformation. So here's what
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  we came up with. a table challenge
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  statement was that the waters sector's
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  regulatory framework was built for a
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  different era when we're thinking about
• 2:01
  how can utilities adopt AI what's the
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  value of adopting that kind of thing
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  there the governance is immature and
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  that makes sense like this is moving
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  really really fast and and so it's
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  important to have some considerations
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  not just about how we use it but also
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  how we take into account security and
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  those kind of things and without a
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  regulatory framework work, we're kind of
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  left with some question marks to really
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  say, hey, utilities are left to
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  modernize at their own risk, not knowing
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  if future regulation will change the way
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  they need to work. And so we kind of
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  came back with it would be helpful to
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  have a regulatory framework that creates
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  enough of a container that allows for
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  utilities to explore and and adopt that.
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  Some of the key themes that we kept
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  talking about was how we have the
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  freight regulatory framework lag and
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  that it's important for governance to
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  come and for some of that to be
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  governance and practices that are built
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  right into the utility operations that
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  it needs to be something that they think
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  about and talk about and that there's
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  funding misalignment. And this is really
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  important. A lot of the ways that we
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  would build and have solutions that
• 3:18
  could be adopted are not necessarily
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  built into the current procurement
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  processes. And so whether it's capital
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  expenditure or operational expenditure,
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  that can be a barrier. And then in our
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  second session, we really hit more of
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  what are the barriers to break through,
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  what are some of the things that we can
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  do practically to start doing that. And
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  so at as a table, we talked about how we
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  could find first movers and amplify
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  them, how we could solve the most common
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  problem, not just the hardest one. And
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  this this was a really important theme
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  where we were noting how it can be
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  exciting to engineer and build for new
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  types of of problems or to try to solve
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  the most complex problem but not the
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  most common one. If you only solve the
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  most complex that's going to hinder
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  adoption. And so when it comes to things
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  like standardizing reporting, how we um
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  treat data as a as an asset in the
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  sector that is maybe the utility has a
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  data set that has to be reported up to
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  the regulator or um it contains
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  information that needs to be
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  communicated out to the public. Those
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  are things that have to be done in a way
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  that is accessible and understood both
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  by regulators and by utilities. And so
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  in doing that, it can help create those
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  first use cases that help us standardize
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  and centralize on how we're going to get
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  things moving. And then the this was an
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  important thing that someone brought up
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  at the table that as we design
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  solutions, we have to be designing for
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  who's going to use it. And so when you
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  look at the the US market 60 workforce
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  is a field um someone who is working in
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  the field not necessarily at a desk at a
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  laptop. So the tools that they use have
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  to be AI powered AI enabled and built
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  for to be used in the field and that
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  lastly that reform funding has to
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  include sustainability not just
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  deployment. So we can't just deploy
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  funds to have a solution and then those
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  funds go away. We have to figure out
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  ways to have those funds be embedded and
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  so that we can have so that utilities
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  can work with tools that are sustainable
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  and they're improving along along with
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  them because again data is an asset. It
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  has to be updated. It has to be groomed.
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  it has to be kept up to date so that it
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  moves at the pace of of innovation. And
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  so it's been such a joy to be at Swan to
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  interact with everyone here. It's a
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  phenomenal network that really is
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  bringing ideas to help push the industry
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  forward and ensure that we're not doing
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  it at the cost of leaving others behind.