With this ultra modern piloting center, Toulouse aims to improve the quality of tap water
Through Margaux Thokagevistk
Published on
In July 2018, nearly 300 housing units located in the Empalot district, in Toulouse (Haute Garonne), had been deprived of drinking water for more than 24 hours because of a water leak due to a defective part, at the level of the water meter.
If this type of incident is relatively rare on the territory, each time it occurs, it causes many inconveniences for the affected inhabitants, especially if it lasts several days. But this may be ancient history.
Operational 24/7
Indeed, Wednesday, October 13, 2021, a new, ultra-modern drinking water service management center has been inaugurated. Baptized Comet, this 3.0 center is located in the premises of the main drinking water production plant in the southern metropolitan area, located on the heights of Pech-David. It should allow teams to monitor, manage and optimize 7 days a week and 24 hours a day the operation of the three production plants (Clairfont and Marquisat) but not only.
This intelligent piloting center has been operational since this summer. It is there to manage the water service, provide faster responses to consumers, preserve water resources by limiting leaks as much as possible and also ensure quality water distribution to users. Toulouse already has one of the best yields in France with, at Metropolitan level, only 13% loss. In other words, 87% of the water taken from the resource reaches the consumer’s tap. Our goal is to climb two, three points in the next six years to reach a level of excellence. To do this, it relies in particular on the 5,000 sensors that detect leaks. ”
50,000 data stored in real time
By way of comparison, this rate of return turns on average in Occitania around 78%. It can even go down to 50% for the less efficient systems. This means that in some areas, only half of the water withdrawn reaches the users.
“What contributes to the preservation of resources is also the work of renewing the heritage of the networks. Toulouse Métropole is also going to launch a major investment program to transform part of the pipelines ”, announces the Managing Director of Setom, a subsidiary of Véolia in charge of the delegation of public drinking water service for the metropolis since 1uh January 2020.
Thought even in its futuristic design as a real control tower, Comet is able to collect in real time 50,000 data pour a 360 ° vision service activities.
The digital center brings together four areas: a safety area with all the monitoring equipment, a factory area to control the three drinking water production sites, a scheduling and planning area that enables operators to be mobilized on the site. field and finally, the hypervision part which aims to monitor the entire pipeline network. ”
Optimized response times
In IT, hypervision is the centralization of infrastructure monitoring tools, applications and repositories. “Concretely, hypervision is the repatriation of all the data from the connected sensors present on the 3,300 km of pipelines. We also report all the interventions of our operators in the field and external data such as weather or traffic that can help us in the execution of the service ”, details Laure Belmudes, director of Setom’s applied intelligence unit.
If this new equipment allows faster support in the event of an incident and secures access to drinking water for all the inhabitants of Toulouse Métropole, is its quality improved? Here again, it is the analysis of the sensors and probes, installed all along the route, which will make it possible to guarantee the quality of the drinking water. Will it taste better afterwards? That is another question …
A “good” water is determined according to very regulated criteria of drinkability, dictated by the ARS. These evolve over time, which is why we will soon be initiating a program to improve treatment channels in order to anticipate new European directives which will tighten up health standards. In particular on elements such as endocrine disruptors, chemical molecules… To respond to this challenge, Toulouse Métropole will invest 40 million euros in factories with new complementary treatments: activated carbon, ultraviolet… ”
The president of Toulouse Métropole tackles the opposition
Present this Wednesday, October 13 at Pech-David, the president of Toulouse Métropole, Jean-Luc Moudenc, did not hide its pride in inaugurating Comet, “the most modern piloting center in France”.
Through this center, Toulouse is at the rendezvous of what characterizes it, that is to say its capacity to innovate. Comet is a formidable tool for concrete ecology which makes it possible to ensure in an objective, scientific and above all transparent manner that these water quality and performance objectives are achieved. ”
During his speech, the mayor of Toulouse did not fail to slip a small tackle for the opposition:
Three years ago we were discussing how to manage this drinking water service. Should he choose a public service delegation or a public body? We held a debate on this question and the deliberative assembly made the choice in December 2018 to entrust this delegation to Véolia. This will not have escaped anyone’s notice that no one has found fault with this decision since. And this is normal, because when we are on purely political or principled postures it does not last long and in the end it is reality that wins. And the reality is that the public service delegation is going well. There are no more dissonant voices because there is simply no matter to debate. ”
It should be noted that the deployment of this piloting center for the drinking water service is accompanied by “a network instrumentation program” with the installation of 2,500 new sensors always with the same objective of improving their performance and “guaranteeing the irreproachable quality of the water distributed” to consumers.
Has this article been useful to you? Note that you can follow Actu Toulouse in the Mon Actu space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.