Digital Twins in the Global Water Industry 2021: Frost Radar Report

A Benchmarking System to Spark Companies to Action-Innovation that Fuels New Deal Flow and Growth Pipelines

Water utility networks are data-rich environments, but information silos can make it difficult for operators to ensure that energy- and cost-intensive assets are working cohesively and at peak performance. An operator may be able to identify a problem in isolation but not fully understand how it could affect an entire system; any delay in rectification could prove even more costly as effects cascade through the network.

A digital twin (a digital replica of physical assets) provides a complete visualization of water intake, treatment, and distribution processes so that utility operators can make more informed decisions about design, construction, and operation from a single source of truth. In the operation and maintenance phase, data-driven analytics allow for leak detection, asset optimization, predictive maintenance, and what-if scenario analysis. In addition to urban water and wastewater treatment plants, desalination plants present an opportunity for vendors to explore and generate new revenue.

A vendor’s challenge is to prove a solution’s return on investment in the form of lower capital and operational expenditure (including energy and chemical costs savings), fewer carbon emissions, higher productivity, and less unplanned maintenance.

This report reveals the market positioning of companies in an industry using their Growth and Innovation scores as highlighted in the methodology. The document presents competitive profiles on each of the companies based on their strengths, opportunities, and a small discussion on their positioning. The publisher analyzes the established companies in an industry and benchmarks them across 10 criteria on the Frost Radar™, where the leading companies in the industry are then positioned.