President and CEO of Vodafone US Inc., leading Vodafone Business commercial operations throughout North America.
Let’s explore how proper cellular generation can provide water to grids, why it’s crucial, and how to integrate generation from the ground up.
More than one billion people worldwide do not have access to water and 2. 7 billion suffer from water scarcity for up to one month a year. As the climate crisis worsens, rainfall becomes less predictable and droughts increase, hurting access to new water. A population growing at a rate of 83 million people each year exacerbates the problem. To maintain sufficiently good and equitable access to water, the government will have to fight drought, pollution, growing demand and poor water management. Leaders will also need to create smarter, safer infrastructure, backed by knowledge and generation to save water, its quality, and use it more efficiently.
Desalination is one such solution, but it’s still expensive compared to other water recycling technologies, especially when energy prices are high. Wastewater treatment plants require an average of 0. 13 to 0. 79 kWh per cubic meter of treated water. This compares to Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation, which in 2021 set the record for the world’s most energy-efficient desalination plant, using 2. 27 kWh per cubic meter of treated water.
This is not a small difference when every drop counts for critical goods, services and utilities. Key to this network are energy and utility enterprises and the critical interplay between energy and water. The International Energy Agency notes that “each resource faces rising demands and constraints in many regions because of economic and population growth and climate change.” The IEA also notes that technologies used to achieve the clean-energy transition could increase water stress if not managed properly. While traditional fossil fuel industries are water intensive, so are biofuels and nuclear power.
The energy challenge underscores the need for utilities and infrastructure to be more productive, predictable and responsive. Data is needed to understand and respond to dynamic actors in the water supply chain, ranging from leaky infrastructure to inefficient networks and experimental technologies. be communicable and combined with cellular generation such as sensors and readers (a generation that can be added to infrastructure and is inherently cellular) to meet the demand for water sources.
The Internet of Things (IoT) collects knowledge that supports decision-making and underpins expected technologies, such as edge computing. IoT sensors or devices are placed in the water infrastructure and connected to IoT web connectivity. Percentage sensors of data on your performance, conditions and usage, and the knowledge gathered is helping to anticipate your long-term capacity and maintenance needs.
This is the knowledge to optimize the functionality of a hydroelectric dam, for example. IoT can also create a virtual dual of a physical asset, infrastructure, or proposed procedure to monitor and verify it more affordably and efficiently.
Edge computing requires high data processing speeds and low latency; High-bandwidth connectivity serves to manage intelligent network functionality and minimize downtime for a business service or business asset. At the same time, connecting devices, sensors, and equipment, from turbines to virtual truth helmets, helps connect on-site engineers with remote and dispersed planning teams.
Mobile generation can help implement renewable energy and processes that use less water. Mobile private networks (MPNs) can provide secure connectivity and resilient real-time computing, even in places that previously couldn’t be connected. When combined with edge computing, waste spaces in a plant or water distribution network can be immediately known, allowing for greater sustainability.
Distributed multi-access edge computing (MEC) offers cloud computing and network edge computing capabilities. This is especially used when connecting moving assets, such as turbines. Applications run locally, allowing for real-time responses and near-instant decisions. This prevents latency and helps businesses unlock insights across their ecosystem.
LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) network technologies are also crucial. LPWA is designed to connect devices with low bandwidth needs without requiring a lot of force, while offering wider and deeper network coverage. In this case, LPWA generation is for collecting and collecting water. statistics and distribute them over long distances. With MPN and MEC technologies, cellular responses can force smarter water networks.
Mobile and remote generation solutions also offer a boost to meet the looming challenge of water scarcity. Accurate and timely monitoring and reporting on reservoir levels or water intake can allow for rapid adjustments, ensuring that water scarcity does not lead to reduced quality of life.
Energy and infrastructure assets must be protected from cyber attacks, such as the recent cyber attack on a water treatment plant in Florida. Mobile technology can help protect site operations and visitor data from cyber threats with built-in security. At the same time, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a cloud-based architecture that combines networking and security functions as a service, offering a single cloud service to protect any access point.
Protecting and monitoring the performance of assets is more critical than ever. As the energy generation market adjusts to incorporate more renewables onto the grid, virtual power plants will be needed to monitor, forecast and optimize water usage. These plants need mobile-ready data, which must be understood, implemented and communicated from the ground up.
Like desalination, mobile connectivity isn’t a quick fix for the gargantuan challenge of supplying water to growing populations. Yet it improves infrastructure, supports business resilience and reduces waste. According to the European Environment Agency, 40% of the water supply in Croatia is lost in its water transportation network. Technology like sensors that recognize and locate a leak could be used to help remedy this loss.
Only 3% of the planet is made up of available water. Public and private sector organizations want to use water more successfully and take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to monitor and maximize it. In 2018, Cape Town became the first trendy city. city runs out of water, in part due to poor water management. This will never have to happen again.
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