Site Visit – Canal Isabel II

The treatment plant of the Lower Culebro River Basin in the Community of Madrid will be one of the first in Spain to incorporate 4.0 industry in all its processes. It is one of the three largest water treatment plants in Canal de Isabel II, and it handles the pollution generated by more than 1,300,000 inhabitants. Its potential is enormous, but so are its challenges. Managing an installation with more than 1,000 electromechanical equipment in an efficient and sustainable manner requires robust, flexible and reliable tools. The hardware and software currently available on the market and the degree of technological maturity achieved allows a commitment to the total digitization of all processes and equipment culminating in industry 4.0.

From the end of 2017, Canal de Isabel II is undertaking a project to convert this facility into the first 100% digitalised treatment plant in the country: the 4.0 treatment plant. To this end, the company is undertaking a comprehensive renovation of all the automation and communications for each of the wastewater treatment processes. This will allow the entire installation to be sensorized, motorize hitherto manual drives, implement cyber-security and backup management measures, optimize energy consumption, store data in the cloud and create digital twins to simulate the plant’s response to the implementation of new operational measures.

The final objective is to turn this treatment plant into a reference, at least nationally, for treatment plant 4.0: a model in automation, control, connectivity, customized maintenance and energy efficiency.