Energy and Utilities

Serving citizens through digitized water management

Compagnie Intercommunale Liégeoise des Eaux (CILE) is a cornerstone of Belgium's water supply management. This public utility company is owned by 24 municipalities in the region and supplies half a million people with water through almost 3500 kilometers of pipes.

With Europe's growing population and urbanization, organizations such as CILE are facing significant challenges in meeting increased demand for water while maintaining environmental sustainability and infrastructure integrity. For example, water management companies lose about 30 percent of water in transport.

Fully embracing innovation and digitalization, CILE wanted to use remote sensors to measure performance, water flow, loss due to leakage, and usage. Taking on this challenge was William de Angelis, former CDO of CILE, charged with transforming the business to be more sustainable and efficient in its operations and improving ROI.

According to de Angelis, the company’s challenge was the high cost of the public communication network, at more than EUR €3.5 million per year to support 300,000 meters across the region.

"We decided to invest in our own private communication network: LoRaWAN with Cisco," says de Angelis. "It was the right solution because it's easy to deploy, cost effective, and it's a lower range of communication with radio frequency, which means it doesn't need official approval from urban planning."

Building a private communication network across 24 municipalities 

Working with NTT DATA, a Cisco partner, CILE analyzed Cisco use cases already implemented elsewhere in the world and started with just one antenna to explore its capabilities. Since then, the company has installed 48 antennas on high water tanks which allow it to cover all 24 municipalities.

Cisco LoRaWAN can span a large area, with one antenna covering 15 kilometers and amassing data from sensors that have a battery life of 15 years. CILE installed sensors every five kilometers to check for flow and leakage, as well as sensors to check individual clients' water usage. Deploying direct memory access (DMA) connected water meters at strategic points, provides consumption monitoring capabilities, and helps identify concealed leaks for high water users, such as swimming pools, agricultural sites, and hospitals.

Flow sensors measure water production and consumption. Furthermore, the sensors compare the water usage at the end of the grid to the amount of water that flows along its pipeline to pinpoint leakages.

All sensor data goes through the LoRaWAN network and into the company data lake, where data models help analyze the input. This system supports leadership by informing business decisions, such as replacing parts of the infrastructure and reducing energy costs through better control of power usage at water assets that include pumps, reservoir, and storage.

"If you want to make good decisions, you need data," explains de Angelis. "Our sensors and IoT are a good way to collect data along all the parts of our network securely." And security is paramount to CILE. All the data is encrypted from each sensor to the end point before being managed and analyzed. "Cisco, through NTT DATA, provided us with the solutions to measure, encrypt, and decrypt data as well as with implementing the platform itself. It was more than a provider of technologies. It was a provider of a solution."

The former CDO of CILE discusses the Cisco LoRaWAN network that checks for water flow and leakage along 3500 kilometers of pipes.

Showing what's possible for smart cities of the future

CILE now uses LoRaWAN IoT technology to complement supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems by connecting all LoRaWAN-enabled sensors—including pressure reduction valves, smart valve controls, water quality probes, flow monitoring systems, and water level sensors—and creating a digital twin of the water infrastructure. This implementation has resulted in improved water management and gives CILE the ability to balance supply and demand more efficiently.

The company is also growing its sustainability initiatives. There is no need to check any meters manually, saving employee hours and fuel, and reducing costs and carbon footprint. Additionally, customers can see their water consumption in real time and aren't faced with surprise bills, resulting in fewer calls to the contact center.

"This project is very sustainable," concludes de Angelis. "Not only do we reduce the cost of maintenance and reduce leaks, but we can also offer new services to citizens." This is vital to CILE, building on the idea that data can contribute to a greener, smarter future. "With data, politicians can vet their ideas and put them into action for citizens."

CILE's efforts are just the beginning, as the system will become increasingly smarter with a predictive model, and with AI having an impact on growing data sets. This will enable the company to predict which pipes will need to be replaced and when. With the deployment of smart meters, it will be possible to predict electricity usage based on how and when people consume water.

The ripple effect is even more significant. Currently, the network is  being used only for water delivery, but CILE reached out to the 24 municipalities to suggest the network as a carrier for other use cases. For example, cities could introduce smart metering for air quality, smart parking, and smart lighting. CILE has demonstrated what can be implemented with smart cities of the future.