The Société du Canal de Provence relies on data to optimize the management of water supply networks and the use of this resource in the face of climate change

For more than 60 years, over 600 employees of the Société du Canal de Provence - located in France, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) region - have been dedicating their expertise to this resource, which is essential to the life of the territories. More specifically, as an operator in the water sector, the company manages a large-scale hydraulic asset that it operates and maintains for the benefit of a large number of players in the South of France, including industrialists, local authorities, private individuals and farmers. 

As a concessionaire of the raw water distribution network for the PACA region, a service company, an engineering company, and a producer of renewable energy, the Société du Canal de Provence has a clear objective in mind: to manage water resources with qualitative and efficient means that adapt to the context of climate change we are experiencing today. The company has been supporting this strong ambition for a long time by massively investing in new technologies.

"REImu" was born in this approach to innovation: this ambitious technological project is centered on data and still in the service of water. Denis Buscaglia, Information System Manager at the Société du Canal de Provence, and Frédéric Bonnadier, Project Manager in charge of REImu, tell us about it.

Efficiently collecting consumption information from distribution networks

REImu - “Réseaux d’Eau Intelligents Multi Usages“, French for "Intelligent Multipurpose Water Networks" - started in 2020 and essentially has to do with the Société du Canal de Provence's concession activity. "While the concession's transportation structures or stockage facilities are equipped with measurement and regulation systems, the distribution networks of raw water are not very well equipped yet," Frédéric Bonnadier notes. Indeed, remote transmission and remote management are already effective for the supervision of hydraulic assets. But until now, only the annual manual reading could assess the level of consumption of each of the distribution network's customers. And particularly of the 50,000 rural customers, who represent 6,000 kilometers of pipework serving 65,000 metering points. "Rural customers account for a significant proportion of the region's water consumption, especially in the context of agricultural irrigation activities," Frédéric Bonnadier explains. These represent up to 20% of the volumes of water consumed, and their flow prevails during periods of peak demand.  

The company intends to better understand this consumption perimeter that is as significant as it is strategic. "The objective of REImu is to enable us to collect and use the data from these distribution networks in order to obtain a much clearer picture of water consumption”. The aim is to gain efficiency in the way water consumption is monitored, to the benefit of customers and territories through online services and new contractual solutions, while strengthening the design of new networks and the renovation of existing infrastructures. "We are part of a global approach on a regional scale, in line with today's climate imperatives”. 

Building a data-centric infrastructure with smart meters and the Cloud

With the help of JEMS, Europe's leading data processing company, the Société du Canal de Provence's teams are working on the development and deployment of REImu. "REImu is a particularly complex project; its deployment and impact will span over several years," Denis Buscaglia points out. This is why both companies decided to turn to technologies - IoT, Cloud, data visualization, Big Data - that are easily deployable and have scalable infrastructures. The Microsoft environment was chosen for this purpose: "We chose Microsoft technologies after considering the technical recommendations of the system integrators who took part in the project, together with our purchase constraints," explains Denis Buscaglia. 

The REImu program is divided into six technical and functional projects for the deployment of the necessary equipment, including smart meters, and for the development of use cases. But the heart of REImu is above all the "Big Data" platform, an essential tool for collecting, storing and exploiting data, based on several Microsoft technologies, such as Microsoft Azure Data Lake, Data Factory and Databricks, Purview and Power BI. "This platform is now fully operational and secure. Our teams manage and improve it as we develop new use cases and install new smart meters in the field," Frédéric Bonnadier is pleased to say.

Deploying representative and relevant use cases with Microsoft solutions

Use cases are actually a prerequisite for the success of REImu. "JEMS supports us in the implementation of use cases that must be both representative of our concession activity and able to collect and correctly exploit the data coming from various sources, including the smart meters.” The very first use cases implemented was the processing of remote consumption readings from smart meters for billing purposes, or the implementation of services for customers, such as the monitoring of water consumption through graphics, notifications in the event of suspected leaks or exceeding water consumption. 

Other use cases concern the use of weather observation and forecasting data to refine watering advice for individuals; and the use of agro-meteorological insights to support the agricultural sector in preventing climatic hazards.

Another notable use case is the direct use of data from smart meters by the Société du Canal de Provence’s teams. Coupled with Power BI, this data gives the company the means to have a seven-day, hour-by-hour view of consumption levels. "Thanks to Power BI, we are not only able to precisely visualize water consumption but also to identify the areas with the highest consumption at any given time. This is a real decision-making aid," Frédéric Bonnadier elaborates. "Power BI gives us the means to visualize and monitor consumption while taking into account the geographical aspect. This is an essential function for our business," Denis Buscaglia adds.

Saving time, improving performance and raising awareness: the promise of technology

Even though the project has not yet been finalized, the first benefits of REImu are taking shape and are having an impact on the company's activity at various levels. For example, the optimization of the processing of remote consumption readings offers immediate time savings: "This technology facilitates the feedback of information throughout the network. Thanks to this, our operators no longer need to go to the field to manually read each meter," Frédéric Bonnadier points out. 

REImu also generates numerous performance gains, with better information available to customers and the possibility of increasing the density of the distribution networks when necessary. At the same time, the project fully participates in changing the mindset of water users, as Denis Buscaglia explains. "REImu is a tool dedicated to encouraging responsible consumption. It is important to raise awareness of the precious nature of water resources among our customers and the general public”.

Rightfully protecting resources is a long-term investment

The year 2022 was clearly marked by widespread droughts. 2023 is also marked by increasingly severe and early droughts. "This situation is bound to recur in the years to come," Frédéric Bonnadier deplores. This places the rational and controlled use of water at the heart of the concerns, encouraging the Société du Canal de Provence’s teams to invest in a long-term approach. Like so, new innovations will be introduced in the future, such as the creation of new digital services with high added value and the implementation of tools that can detect any leaks in the networks. 

Finally, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is also a priority for the coming months. The idea here is to go even further in exploiting the data collected by smart meters: "We are currently carrying out exploratory work to study data exploitation by AI and to improve our consumption forecasts as well as our knowledge of the uses of water in the broadest sense”. 

In the PACA region, the future of water is being written with new technologies...