Digitalization of water supply

Main article: Digitalization of housing and communal services

2023: How the digitalization of water supply systems in Russia is going

On April 12, 2023, the company RuSat Infrastructure Solutions"" (RIR; "subsidiary" Rosatom""), developing ON "Digital Vodokanal" in several regions of the Russian Federation, published the results of its study on the digitalization of water supply systems. According to experts, for the period from January 1, 2020 to January 31, 2023, water supply and sanitation enterprises (VIVOS) concluded at least 1,340 contracts for a total of 8 billion in the rubles field of IT and digital projects. The largest market volume fell on 2021 (3.1 billion rubles in total for 471 contracts). The average price of one such contract was 7 million rubles. More. here

As of April 2023, water supply and sanitation enterprises spend a total of 5-6 billion rubles. on IT and digital projects. The forecast of RIR analysts suggests that by 2030, while maintaining the current pace of market development, the costs of such projects may grow to 8-9 billion rubles.

As of April 2023, 3,372 enterprises are represented in the water supply and sanitation market (VIVOS). At the end of 2022, the actual cash volume of the Russian VIVOS market is 536.5 billion rubles. (+ 9% per year). By 2030, the actual volume of the Russian VIVOS market may reach 939 billion rubles.

The largest enterprises (with revenues over 1 billion rubles) are concentrated in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Tyumen regions and Krasnodar Territory. They account for 70% of the market share in terms of total revenue. At the same time, more than 70% of VIVOS enterprises in quantitative terms belong to "small enterprises."

In April 2023, the communal sector accounts for about 80% of PPP projects implemented in the Russian Federation - of which 40% are implemented in the field of water supply and sanitation (40%). The total investment in such projects is almost 680 billion rubles. (of which 620 billion rubles are private funds), almost half falls on the VIVOS industry. It is expected that in 2024 about 130 PPP projects in the housing and communal services sector may be launched, total investments in which will amount to about 230 billion rubles. And subject to various measures of state support, we can talk about the launch of more than 210 projects and attracting about 380 billion rubles. investments.

For VIVOS enterprises, the problem of dilapidation of public utilities continues to remain relevant. More than 40% of linear objects need updating, annually about 3% of networks are recognized as emergency, while no more than 1-2% are updated.

Key points and trends identified during the study:

• As of April 2023, public-private partnership (PPP) mechanisms were taken into account within the framework of 5 main financial support tools totaling more than 1.4 trillion rubles.
• Thanks to investments in the housing and communal services sector within the framework of PPP and state initiatives to develop the industry as a whole, as well as the fact that housing and communal services are an industry with guaranteed demand (143 million consumers excluding industry), potential customers of solutions within the framework of the Digital Water Utility concept are assessed as solvent. But, first of all, this still applies to large (1 billion rubles +) and medium (300-999 million rubles) enterprises, as well as enterprises with investment attractiveness.
• Among VIVOS enterprises, within the framework of the CV, solutions with an effect that is recorded immediately are more often in demand.

It is important to note that the concept of the "Digital Water Utility" includes the automation and digital translation of all business processes of the water supply and sanitation market enterprises - from taking meter readings to directly invoicing themselves. As of April 2023, most of these functions are implemented manually with large production and time losses. Among enterprises, solutions with an effect that is fixed here and now are more often in demand, but this is not enough for the digital transformation of VIVOS according to the standards of Smart City. Water supply and sanitation is traditionally considered one of the most conservative sectors of the economy. As a rule, there are no own budgets even for the reconstruction of networks, not to mention automation. An analytical study once again showed that water utilities need large-scale mechanisms of state support. noted Viktor Rubezhnoy, Head of Digital Resource Support at RIR JSC

Regarding the global Digital Water Solutions market (DWS, the market for digital solutions for VIVOS), it is predicted that it will grow to $63 billion in 2025. At the same time, solutions such as digital twins (DT), focused on networks and treatment plants, will grow in double digits in the next 5 years. The main drivers of growth in the global DWS market are the growing demand for quality water services, the overall growing demand for digitalization of utilities, the desire of the entire utility industry to reduce CO2 emissions. Of course, the need for open and understandable data and loss reduction play an important role.

The global digital solutions market is divided into 6 major segments: Smart Water Metering, Smart Online Water Sensors, Intelligent Leak Detection, Intelligent Pipeline Network Management and Optimization Solutions (including Smart Pumps and Pump Stations), Digital Twins, Intelligent Operation and Maintenance (including Enterprise Asset Management and Asset Health and Health Monitoring).

2022: Rosatom assessed the potential of the digitalization market for water supply systems

The company RuSat Infrastructure Solutions JSC (RIR, part of Rosatom State Corporation) on March 11, 2022 shared the results of a study in the field of resource supply. The company develops its own software "Digital Water Utility," designed for control, monitoring and dispatching of technological and production processes of water supply enterprises. To comprehensively assess the situation in this area and understand the picture in the country and regions, RIR conducted a marketing study of the Digital Vodokanal market and competitors. This helped to identify key data of existing solutions in the market and outline ways of development.

During the preparation of the study, RIR experts in the first half of February 2022 collected and analyzed data from various sources. The current volume of the Russian digital water channel market is no more than 2% of the world. At the end of 2021, the actual cash volume of the Russian water supply and sanitation market (VIVOS) amounted to 486.8 billion rubles. According to the conservative forecast, by 2025 the minimum possible growth of the automation and digitalization market for VIVOS enterprises will amount to 30.6 billion rubles, and by 2028 - 35 billion rubles.

The current level of total IT costs of water supply and sanitation enterprises is estimated at 4.3 billion rubles. If the industry does not go "digital," then in a conservative forecast, the IT costs of VIVOS enterprises by 2025 will grow by only 25% and amount to 5.3 billion rubles.

{{quote "It is important to note that current IT costs typically include supporting the existing IT infrastructure, purchasing licenses and equipment more to solve the current problem than to modernize and improve the operation of VIVOS with a future perspective. While the concept of "Digital Water Utility" includes the automation and digitization of all business processes of enterprises in the water supply and sanitation market - from taking meter readings to directly invoicing themselves. As of March 2022, most of these functions are implemented manually with large production and time losses, - said Viktor Rubezhny, head of the Digital Resource Support department at RIR JSC. }}

RIR estimates the potential of the digital projects (digital water utilities) market at 20.3 billion rubles. with the possibility of growth to 30 billion rubles. and more by 2025. The growth rate depends on the stimulation of the sector by the state, the desire of the enterprises themselves for digitalization and global trends

The driving factors of the market growth for March 2022 are, firstly, the management of operating costs at a new level that meets the demand for high-quality water supply and sanitation services, subject to the mandatory digitalization of repaired and modernized facilities. Secondly, the growing digitalization of the public utilities sector as a whole and the stimulation of the development of the concept of "Smart Cities" by the state.

In general, the housing and communal services market and in particular VIVOS is a promising area for introducing various digital solutions and, first of all, solutions based on the Internet of Things (IoT). By the type of solutions offered, the market can be divided into solutions based on IoT, solutions for accounting and data analysis, working with big data, dispatching solutions, billing systems, Smart Accounting solution groups (online water monitoring).

The CV market is quite young and as of March 2022 has a small number of real projects. Nevertheless, since the enterprises of the VIVOS market produce an increased need for digital solutions, more and more players are coming to the market offering appropriate digital solutions. At the time of the study, it was found that at least 25 companies in one way or another offer solutions in the field of CV. It should be borne in mind that all of them differ in the width of the product portfolio and in key areas of work (they offer different modules).

Since 2013, only Rospatent 50 programs for installation at ViV COMPUTER enterprises have been registered in the register of "." At the same time, more than half of them (26 programs) were registered from 2017 to 2020, that is, during the period of active development of the concept of digitalization within the framework of the national program Digital economy of Russia"." For most of the registered solutions in the Rospatent register, there is no deployed one, and information they were often developed for their own needs by VIVOS enterprises or their partners.

Most programs - 12, that is, 24% of the total - are registered for commercial accounting of water consumption and other energy resources and dispatching. In second place is automation of settlements legal with and individuals (billing systems) - 11 programs (22%). software The Mobile Controller type accounted for 12%. There are only two electricity accounting solutions registered.

In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that the accelerated digital transformation of the housing and communal services sector is not only a key task of large cities, such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, other Russian cities with a population of one million, but also medium and small cities. It is important to proceed here not only from the fact that the large-scale introduction of domestic digital technologies allows consumers to ensure the necessary level of quality, reliability, availability and safety of housing and communal services, which is certainly very important. And resource-supplying, management organizations complex transformations in their activities make it possible to ensure a high level of labor productivity and economic efficiency. This means that in general and the entire industry, which meets the goals of sustainable socio-economic development and cities, and regions. Therefore, it is important that measures to digitalize housing and communal services with appropriate sources of financing are reflected in regional and municipal programs for the modernization and development of the industry, - said Alexander Zorin, Deputy General Director of Digital Platforms and Smart City Solutions JSC (part of the RIR).