Treatment Plant of Tomorrow – report from the event

On April 11-12, at the invitation of Water and Sewerage Company in Tarnowskie Góry (PWiK Tarnowskie Góry), a member of the Veolia Polska group, we took part in the second edition of the Meeting of Wastewater Treatment Plant Operators entitled THE TREATMENT PLANT OF TOMORROW. The event, held in Zabrze, brought together nearly 120 people from companies and institutions associated with the water and wastewater industry (wastewater treatment plants, water supply companies, associations, or suppliers of services and solutions for this industry).

The agenda of the two-day conference was filled with speeches by industry experts, a study visit to the Leśna Wastewater Treatment Plant, debates, and workshops on the implementation of innovations. There was also time for networking in the area with exhibition stands. The program was certainly enriched by a trip to the UNESCO-listed Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry.

VIX Automation has a track record of numerous software implementations for over 200 customers from the water and sewage industry, so we could not miss this event as an industry expert. Moreover, Proficy systems around the world serve over 3.5 thousand companies related to wastewater treatment or water supply – both the largest companies (such as the fourth largest water and sewage company in the world – Brazilian Sabesp) and small local treatment plants.

Apart from the exhibition stand, we had “air time” during the lecture session. VIX Automation CEO – Mariusz Benna talked about cost optimization for wastewater treatment plants. He began his lecture by drawing the audience attention to the topic of innovation, which surrounds us from all sides, resulting from the real need for its continuous implementation. He also told the attendees how to reduce energy costs by as much as 20%, thanks to a solution using artificial intelligence and machine learning – Proficy CSense.

The lecture was also an excellent opportunity to introduce the new face of the Proficy software manufacturer, the GE Vernova brand.

Energy efficiency seems to be an extremely important issue for the conference participants themselves, as evidenced by the results of the survey. In the trade fair part of the event, there were boards with question (What is the biggest challenge for Treatment Plants?) on which everyone could vote. As you can see, energy efficiency (“efektywność energetyczna” – the first box in top row) is a more important challenge for many people than sludge disposal, rising prices of waste collection, materials and services, or increased wastewater treatment standards.

This is how the votes were shaped at the beginning of the conference…

…and after a few coffee breaks

Łukasz Buczek (Technical Department Manager) and Grzegorz Stawarz (Key Account Manager) were waiting at our stand to tell more about the Proficy CSense solution and present its operation live.

These two days were a great opportunity to get in touch with many new companies in the water and wastewater industry, learn about their problems and point of view. We also learned a lot ourselves, e.g. about the challenge of treating wastewater from the huge amount of drugs and diet supplement that are taken in our country.

We would like to thank PWiK Tarnowskie Góry, which is our long-time customer and where a system based on Proficy solutions (SCADA iFIX, Webspace, Historian) is responsible for the supervision and management of the technological process in all four wastewater treatment plants, for inviting us to this event.