Passkeys are a new form of passwordless authentication that have gained widespread support across browsers and operating systems and Specific Energy is all in on passkeys! For too long the security community has burdened users and web application developers alike with the hurdles of trying to properly secure a fundamentally flawed authentication mechanism…passwords. Passkeys are more secure and easier to use than password-based authentication. You can access them using things like your phone’s screen lock, Face ID, touch ID, Windows Hello, your password manager, or hardware keys (like a YubiKey).

Almost every water and wastewater pumping system in the world today has some level of instrumentation that generates data. Unfortunately, most of these data are not being properly analyzed to give the operators, managers, and engineers who work with them the actionable insights they need to translate data into optimal system operation.

Specific Energy’s Dynamic Pump Optimizer reduced energy consumption at Aqua’s S8 well by 28%. By actively tracking the Pump Health Index for pumps across its system, Aqua now has the information needed to accurately schedule pump maintenance, preventing pump failure, and increasing their system efficiency.

An application’s approach to password security is a foundational piece of building a strong authentication scheme. As part of Specific Energy’s efforts to maintain a strong security posture, the application has controls in place that go beyond those found in most authentication schemes. Common attacks the application is designed to mitigate include phishing, attacks that leverage data breaches to take advantage of password re-use across applications, and brute-force.

The irony is not lost on me. As I sit here in my home office I’m reviewing a draft of an upcoming white paper we are contributing towards, focussed on how our digital twin platform supported water utilities in Texas to maintain supply and operations during the ‘big freeze’ winter storm of February 2021. On this particular day however, I’m in the UK and it’s currently 40.2°C (~104.4°F) – the highest temperatures we have seen here since records began! Ice storms in Texas. Melting infrastructure in the U.K. Go figure?

“Well, there’s certainly a lot going on” was a comment I heard between a couple of delegates as we walked towards the coffee station during the morning break at one of the conferences I attended in the early part of this year. It was a simple comment made in passing, but it really struck a chord with me on multiple levels. Firstly, at a more socio-economic level, we are in the midst of troubling and unpredictable times; as we carefully tread forwards to navigate our way out of the pandemic and into the ‘new normal’ we all wondered about.

Mustang Special Utilities District (TX) saved $1MM in capital expenditure by deploying digital twin technology and automation. Hot Texas summers and long water residence times create the perfect environment for nitrification. Rather than investing in a costly re-chloramination infrastructure, Mustang used digital technology to prevent nitrification from occurring using only existing infrastructure and digital technology. This eliminated any need for additional instrumentation, chemicals and equipment which are both costly to construct and maintain.

The complex technology, systems, applications, processes, and staffing that go into ensuring the public has a steady and safe supply of drinking water is not only threatened, but under attack. The vast number of cybersecurity threats to water utilities have been known, but more recently attacks exposed these cyber vulnerabilities to the public. On February 5, 2021 an unknown person gained unauthorized remote access to a water treatment plant in Oldsmar, Florida and increased the setpoint of sodium hydroxide fed into the drinking water system to a dangerous level.

Texas is no stranger to natural disasters. However, this recent winter storm was a perfect confluence of events which brought Texas’ critical infrastructure to its knees. Peak energy demand outstripped supply as power generation was crippled by record low temperatures, resulting in state-wide rolling blackouts for days. Water utilities went to war with mother nature to keep pumps running through blackouts to maintain water to customers. Water lines froze and burst. Equipment failed due to prolonged low temperatures. Millions across the state were left shivering in the dark with little to no water. This was a humanitarian crisis.

If you looked down at your dashboard and saw this, what would you do? For those of us that remember how to drive a stick, hopefully the answer that popped into your head was “Shift” or maybe “Let off the gas”. Redlining a car isn’t good for it, right? Would you even consider buying a new car that didn’t have a dashboard? How could you properly operate it if you had no idea how fast the engine was turning, how fast the vehicle was going, no idea what gear you were in, and no idea whether there was any gas in the tank? We wouldn’t dream of buying, much less operating a vehicle like that. So why do we do it with our pumps every day?

Proper pump operation can drastically increase the life span of pumps. This course will teach the basics of both system curves and pumping curves both in constant speed and variable frequency conditions. Then, we will present the concepts behind Specific Energy’s pump station optimization technology including pump health assessment and asset management, energy efficiency, and transient management.

Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) can modernize a pump station and allow operators to fine-tune their control scheme. Many utilities that take advantage of VFDs insist on having them while some utilities remain skeptical and subscribe to the mantra “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” For some pump stations, that’s the right attitude. However, even if you aren't using VFDs, you should be aware of their capabilities. In this post we'll explore some of the advantages and disadvantages of VFDs.

To understand how to reduce energy costs, we need to understand where the energy used by a pump station goes. Part of the energy is used to do useful work, typically by raising water from a ground storage tank to an elevated tank. The rest is lost to inefficiencies in the switchgear, motor, pump, friction losses in the pipeline, valves, and other restrictions.

Most pump maintenance at water and wastewater utilities is not planned. A commissioned, operating pump is largely left alone as long as it keeps working. Even if a pump is operated perfectly, it will eventually wear out and gradually become less efficient. Chances are it will stay in service well after its useful life has ended.

Intelligent pump station control is a tricky proposition. Engineers design a pump station and (at least tacitly) outline a control narrative for a site. A contractor builds the station as close as possible to the specification then a system integrator weaves in a control loop on top. Finally, months or years after the design, the keys to the finished station are given to the operators.

Pumps are expensive tools and keeping them running is one of the biggest operational expenditures for many utilities. Despite this, the only one who usually sees a given pump’s performance curves and knows how it is supposed to operate is the design engineer who selected it. System integrators and operators are left out of the loop and treat pumps as interchangeable black boxes: you put in power and you get out water.

The idea of knowing the flowrates at a lift station makes engineers and utility managers giddy with excitement. The insight that it can offer into how the station is operating and how the system is changing is invaluable. However, from a capital and maintenance perspective, flowmeters at lift stations are a nightmare. They are expensive, difficult to maintain, and can easily clog leading to erroneous readings.

Without a basic understanding of cyber adversaries and their mechanics, utility networks run the risk of aimlessly applying security measures rather than effectively addressing the most vulnerable areas of their networks. An attacker’s process of compromising a system involves information gathering, exploitation, privilege escalation, and post-exploitation activities.

One of the most enigmatic parts of pump operation is how performance changes when pumps are driven by Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs). Unfortunately, many people who operate them (and quite a few who select them) don’t have a good understanding of how they work as system conditions and demands fluctuate. The affinity laws govern how pumps react to these changing conditions.