AIWW - UTILITY LEADERS FORUM

Transcription

1 AIWW - UTILITY LEADERS FORUM OCTOBER 31, 2017 REPORT

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3 SUMMARY UTILITY LEADERS FORUM 2017 Global challenges need local solutions. During the Amsterdam International Water Week, the AIWW Leadership programme was organised on 31 October 2017 to bring leaders from various sectors, utilities and organisations from all over the world together to exchange ideas and knowledge. The Utility Leaders Forum, together with the Resilient City Leaders Forum and the Industrial Leaders Forum are the three tracks organised in the AIWW Leadership program. The Utility Leaders Forum in 2017 catalysed discussions and partnerships between CEOs of local and international water and wastewater utilities. In cooperation with the Global Water Leaders Group, the forum created the opportunity to take the next step towards a better tomorrow for the performance of major water utilities. The programme contained three sessions. In the first session, called Global Dialogue, CEOs of major water utilities from around the world discussed challenges and solutions in megacities. across both potable and wastewater operations. In session three, called Roundtable discussions, speakers from the earlier two sessions delved further into their presentation topics, allowing for greater discussion amongst the CEOs in the audience. The roundtable session presented a unique opportunity to have high-level discussions with CEOs and water managers from all over the world. The presenters, in turn, benefitted from the discussions and feedback on their performance strategies and innovations. In session two, which focused on the Global Water Leaders Group s initiative called Leading Utilities of the World, utilities from economicallydeveloped cities in Europe and North America discussed how they have achieved such high levels of performance and outstanding innovation UTILITY LEADERS FORUM 3

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5 SESSION 1: GLOBAL DIALOGUE The first session, Global Dialogue, was an interactive discussion with five CEOs of water utilities in large world cities experiencing diverse challenges and performance approaches. Each panel member gave answers to the following questions: Describe your utility What experiences do you have that could be useful to other water utilities What challenges are you facing where you want to learn from other utilities. Panel members included: CEO of Aysa, Buenos Aires, Mr. José Inglese Deputy Director of Beijing Water Authority, Mr. Liu Bin Chief Executive of PUB Singapore, Mr. Peter Joo Hee Ng Deputy General Manager of DC Water, Washington, DC, Mr. Charles Kiely CEO of Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company, Kenya, Mr. David Onyango. Results These CEOs spoke about the challenges faced by their utility and their solutions for these challenges. Interestingly, finance as a challenge wasn t dwelled upon until the end, when an audience member mentioned this. The panel suggested that often money was a problem and that s why they innovated. The leader from Beijing acknowledged the financial opportunities, both public and private, which are available in Beijing. There was also a question for Peter Ng about how citizens of Singapore can be persuaded to drink reused wastewater. Mr Ng s answer was simple citizens drink the reused wastewater because they have to if they want to drink water. Large cities in the world face diverse challenges that have to be solved by integrated solutions. Measures have to be implemented for solutions relating to water use, air pollution, floods and droughts. Cities like Buenos Aires and Beijing face an increase in inhabitant numbers who must have access to fresh clean water. Buenos Aires will incorporate 3.3 million inhabitants to the water services and 6 million to the sewerage system by One of the main challenges is to achieve economically self-sustaining operations and maintenance based on available tariffs. The amount of investment required is challenging, to include the maintenance and the increase in the scale of the assets. Beijing is a megacity with 20 million-plus inhabitants with a serious water shortage. It has to develop sponge city measures and groundwater recharge. Water saving and water conservation have to be implemented for agriculture, with improvements in the efficiency of irrigation systems. Industry needs to save water, using recycling and reclamation of water. For domestic water, measures aim to encourage inhabitants to conserve water. Beijing Water Authority and other actors face a challenge of influencing landscaping and spatial development to achieve an increased role in water saving for use of reclaimed water and rainwater. There is a challenge of investing to fulfil the city needs. How are water utilities able to scale up UTILITY LEADERS FORUM 5

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7 the investments and create more assets for water supply? At the same time, new technologies have to be implemented for removal of micropollutants. Beijing pays attention to the regulation and management of the quantity of water in rivers and lakes. With respect to scarcity of water resources, reclaimed water will be used to increase water supply to meet ecological water demands. Ecological water treatment technology has been adopted to restore diversity of aquatic flora and fauna. New innovative financing models are needed to achieve rapid expansion. Using innovative finance models, the people of Kisumu in Kenya have easier access to bill payment and also greater access to the services of water utilities. Megacities also face challenges of developing resource recovery, which is much needed to create a sustainable environment and to stimulate productivity, both required to support population growth. The ability to store energy and to store recovered resources further helps cities meet their needs. For PUB Singapore the challenge is to connect and optimise the water cycle. Water use and maintenance of its sewerage systems influence the measures used in the production of drinking water and the water management system. The water cycle is a closed loop for 40% of the water, and the challenge is to get to 50%. By doing this, PUB is creating an increase in water supply. To do this, the utility has to tune the different functions of production, sewerage and distribution for better performance of water quality and water services. clean wastewater during rainfall events before it ever reaches the rivers. By implementing a combination, this project protects the public from chronic sewer flooding that has existed for many years. A challenge for DC Water is with regards to water treatment. DC Water primarily uses conventional water treatment and is studying the next iteration of advanced water treatment. What benefits would be derived from a $300 million-plus investment in what some consider older treatment technology? At the same time water quality is a major subject in the 21st century. Many parts of the DC Water distribution system are overdesigned and oversized for the supply demand of today. Water turnover is a challenge in resource-challenged utilities of today, making it imperative to have solid data on the water distribution network in near real time. Another challenge is sustainability. DC Water is fortunate that it is in a resource rich area of the United States, where supply is a non-issue and investments continue to be made to ensure a continuous supply. However, as learned from the past, this landscape can change rapidly due to climate change, storm surges and man-made source interruptions. A transmission system connecting different plants in other jurisdictions may be a viable path to ensuring sustainability over time. DC Water in Washington, DC has financed tunnelling projects which are needed to restore rivers. A clean river project is on-going to reduce combined sewer overflows into the district s waterways, as well as to capture and UTILITY LEADERS FORUM 7

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9 SESSION 2: INAUGURATION OF NEW MEMBERS TO THE LEADING UTILITIES OF THE WORLD NETWORK In session two, five new members of the network of Leading Utilities of the World were inaugurated. The five, all from the economically-developed world, presented their most innovative solutions. All the new utility members were nominated by the network s Advisory Board and were represented by their CEOs who pitched their innovations. The five new members gave answers to the following questions. What are the experiences of these CEOs that would be useful for other utilities? What are their Gold Standard innovations? What are the future plans to continue the upward spiral of performance and innovations? The five new members are: CEO of Hamburg Wasser, Germany, Mr. Michael Beckereit Chairman of Scottish Water International, Mr. Geoff Aitkenhead Planning Director of HOFOR Copenhagen, Denmark, Mr. Brian Hansen CEO of Evides, The Netherlands, Ms. Annette Ottolini Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, USA, Mr. Vincent Sapienza Results One of the challenges for water utilities is how to respond to floods, storm water and droughts. HOFOR in Copenhagen takes increasing care of the spatial water management on public land. The city and the utility take care of urban space for improvement in connection with cloudburst measures. The water utility becomes more and more a spatial utility for water management. For Hamburg Wasser, a major challenge is to create an integrated water and energy service. There is a need for more mixed renewable energy resources. By connecting water with energy, Hamburg Wasser is able to contribute more sustainable energy to the community, for example integrating a heat pump at a wastewater treatment plant and developing an innovative aquifer storage facility. An aquifer storage facility in salty groundwater has the potential to heat thousands of households. An innovative project by Hamburg Wasser is turning waste into resources by recycling phosphorus from wastewater sludge ash. In 2018/2019, the innovation will be scaled up with the ambition of recycling metal salts (aluminium and iron) and gypsum as marketable products. Hamburg Wasser also has the challenge of responding to flood and storm water management. Rainwater management is a task for the entire city, including Hamburg Wasser, requiring improved conservation of waterways, improved protection against flooding and high water in response to climate change, and a step forward towards a natural water balance. UTILITY LEADERS FORUM 9

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11 New York Department of Environmental Protection The New York Department of Environmental Protection must deliver water each day to over nine million customers. Its water supply protection and treatment programme includes agricultural protection and landscape acquisition. The utility undertakes several wastewater programmes and water stream management, and advanced water purification by an ultraviolet disinfection facility. The challenge is to reduce the climate footprint with respect to energy. The aim is an 80% reduction of emissions by 2050, net-zero energy wastewater treatment plants and zero waste to landfills by On the other hand, technical innovation at the ultraviolet facility, retention facilities and biological nutrient removal will deliver the step forward to achieve greater energy efficiency. Scottish Water For Scottish Water, a challenge is to address discoloured water. It is the most important aesthetic water quality factor reducing both customer and regulator confidence towards the water utility. By adopting an in-service discolouration management strategy which is based on cleaning, there has been a positive impact for customers. Another challenge which Scottish Water faces is treating bacteriological water quality. If risk to water treatment and quality is not evaluated, it is difficult to make good investment decisions. Scottish Water is able to monitor bacteria real time in the drinking water. It is possible to determine the effectiveness of bacterial barriers. The result is that the investments are delivering the outcomes customers want. Evides Evides faces four major challenges: climate change, increased demand of consumers, a changing world, and a high need for sustainability. Evides implemented a pilot to get more information on the water flow inside its pipeline system. By collecting this data, Evides is able to be more in control, better managing cleaning and construction of the pipeline system, replacement, detection of problems and inspection. Its approach to nature preservation and prevention of drought in highly protected water extraction areas is to infiltrate excess clean surface water from other areas. Through excellent knowledge applied to managing its area and nature preservation, Evides has achieved recovery of water bodies, improvement of biodiversity and protection of resources. UTILITY LEADERS FORUM 11

12 SESSION 3: ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS In session three, the ten CEOs of utilities from the earlier sessions presented their cases and solutions in more depth, allowing for more discussion with the CEO-level audience. The roundtable discussions offered the opportunity to continue the discussions from the Global Dialogue and Leading Utilities of the World sessions. It provided a space where CEOs and directors of water utilities could continue their conversations in a formal, yet conversational, context. During these sessions participants really got a chance to discuss strategic challenges and solutions with CEOs and Commissioners of the water utilities. This unique concept, combining the case holder as table chair, high level water professionals, experts for new solutions and young water professionals, created a setting for discussions to take crucial steps forward by confronting the water and wastewater utilities with new insights of experiences today. By discussing the cases and solutions at the roundtable, participants were able to discover new insights and make real breakthroughs together. 12 UTILITY LEADERS FORUM

13 All the ten roundtable moderators and participants were full of energy, bouncing ideas off each other and getting excited about their conversation which they feel will continue in future. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection, for example, really sees the value of the Leading Utilities of the World network, because it wants to be informed about specific innovations and work with other innovative utilities to achieve its goals. This session had such an exciting variety of high level speakers from around the world, and many participants of water experts from all over the world enjoyed it. UTILITY LEADERS FORUM 13

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15 OVERALL CONCLUSIONS AND FOLLOW UP Utilities play a more and more crucial role in bringing experts, technical solutions and decision makers together. Utilities have a growing role and face challenges of how to organise and design additional tasks of sustainable environment, renewable and new concepts of energy, closing the water cycle, and designing new water solutions in spatial development. All these additional measures have to be organised with different sectors and a level playing field. The challenge for utilities is how to create the right situation and environment to implement the new solutions. The community of cities actually needs new concepts regarding the behaviour of water utilities. From that perspective, water utilities play a crucial role that is necessary for the creation of a circular and resilient water environment in high density living. Utilities are challenged to think further about the water cycle. Measures and development in the sewerage system affects measures and developments in the production and distribution of drinking water. The next step in the water cycle in high density urban areas is to recycle the water and create more knowledge about the quality of water in different water systems (sewerage, surface water, and production and the distribution of drinking water). Monitoring techniques in drinking water production and distribution can be used in monitoring the water quality of wastewater sewerage and wastewater treatment plants, and vice versa. Utilities are increasingly becoming a strategic partner in water management and city spatial development. Water and spatial development come together in the themes of climate change, droughts and floods. This new role of an asset-based utilities as environment and spatial development experts requires another service level from water utilities. With this new work field, other networks have to develop, for example between local, regional and national departments of spatial planning and city development. FOLLOW-UP The Utility Leaders Forum has the ambition to present new themes and create new ways to prepare utilities with other partners to develop solutions. The Utility Leaders Forum is about translating shared knowledge into action. With our Mix, Meet and Match concept defining the case, bringing together the high level community, looking for opportunities to implement, and scale up we aim to achieve real breakthroughs. The results will be presented in other events and conferences. For example during the Leaders Forum in Singapore and World Water Week Stockholm. By doing this we get further in the discussion about the challenges and solutions. Together with the results of the City Leaders Forum and the Industrial Leaders Forum, we create an integrated approach. By presenting the results in other conferences and settings, more knowledge will be created and this will be presented at the next Amsterdam International Water Week Utility Leaders Forum of UTILITY LEADERS FORUM 15

16 The Amsterdam International Water Week (AIWW) is a global movement towards a sustainable water future. This biennial event gathers experts from cities, industries and utilities from all over the world to combine real life water cases with innovative solutions. And so creating a circular and resilient water environment in high density living areas. In 2017 we hosted the fourth edition of this event and we are looking forward to the next edition (our fifth anniversary) in The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economic affairs and Climate Policy and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management are supporters of the AIWW, through the Partners for Water programme. Various loyal sponsors active in the water sector also committed themselves to this event making it a public-private collaboration. Roelof Kruize, CEO of Waternet, is the driver behind the Utility Leaders Forum (ULF), part of the AIWW Conference. Colophon: Amsterdam International Water Week Utility Leaders Forum - report 2017 UTILITY LEADERS FORUM 2017 Content and Concept: Job Rook, Waternet Report editor: Keith Hayward, Aquafluency Photo credits: Rob Kamminga ROELOF KRUIZE Member Management Board AIWW and CEO of Waternet, Amsterdam. The Hague, The Netherlands March, 2018 Support: JOB ROOK Senior Advisor water supply team Assetmanagement and policy Waternet.