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In 2018, ACCIONA became the first company to be certified by Siemens as an EPC partner for the water industry.
SIEMENS and ACCIONA have renewed the agreement whereby both companies became partners for the water industry.
This contract renews a certificate that shows that ACCIONA is fully committed to the most advanced engineering tools and technologies, giving it a key and prominent role in the deployment and the implementation of integrated automation systems to provide comprehensive know-how in process programming techniques.
Over the last 10 years the processes in water desalination have improved strongly, being ACCIONA the global leader for energy efficiency in water treatment processes. This technological advantage has brought a big advantage regarding sustainability. Today the main trend that can still improve notably the CO2 footprint and sustainability expectations is the direct use of renewable energy in the water plants.
This underlines the recent project both companies work together: the wastewater treatment plants Madinah-3, Buraydah-2 and Tabuk-2 with a total capacity of 440,000 m3/day, designed to serve a total population of 2.1 million inhabitants.
ACCIONA has been awarded the financing, construction and 25-year operation of the complete treatment plants, whereas Siemens provides their highly reliable process automation system PCS7, integrated control of a solar energy grid of a PV field and the sensors in the field.
Within this framework of technological partnership, international projects have been developed, such as the control systems with SIMATIC PCS 7 of the Al Khobar I desalination plant (Saudi Arabia), where the advantages of the Digital Twin were used to carry out a virtual start-up and an operator training system (OTS), or, more recently, the Laguna Lake DWTP project (Philippines).
As well as these milestones, we would also highlight the implementation of Sinema Remote Connect cybersecurity connectivity systems for the remote connectivity of plants with the ACCIONA Water Control Centre, based on a SCALANCE firewall where artificial intelligence techniques are being implemented.
Another challenge taken on by the two companies has been the development a powerful new 4.0 concept for Waste Water Treatment Plants, first developed in the Arroyo Culebro Cuenca Baja WWTP, as part of the operating contract that ACCIONA has with Canal de Isabel II in Spain.
In the near future, this agreement will help in the evaluation of options for digitalization and the exploration of the client portfolio of ACCIONA, favoring the development of solutions and increasing the activity of both partners
"Thanks to the joint work we have done in recent years, we have not only been able to renew this alliance, but we have strengthened it to face the upcoming challenges together with technological developments for the digitization of our water infrastructures, transforming them into efficient and sustainable industries”, says Paula Pérez, Digital transformation Manager in ACCIONA. "For SIEMENS it is essential to explore the path towards automation and digital transformation of the future”, explains David Pozo, PA Director of SIEMENS.
ACCIONA strengthens its commitment to technological development, focused on the creation of value and the search for efficient and competitive solutions based on innovation in the end-to-end water cycle, from the design of plants and projects to their long-term operation in all areas: production, control, reports, processes and security.