WEX NEWS: Pernille Ingildsen is looking for smart, organic solutions in a volatile world – learn more at WEX Global 2020 in Valencia next week
Pernille Ingildsen is Senior Chief of Projects at Denmark’s Kalundborg Forsyning A/S and is on the panel for discussing ‘Optimising Asset Management through Smart Operation and Maintenance’. She is currently involved in developing an innovative new water treatment works drawing on groundwater.
Why do you come to WEX?
‘Currently, we are particularly interested in nature-based systems – more organic solutions, and will be looking out for these at WEX. The traditional industrial mindset is very rigid. There is a complexity to our task which is difficult to analyse, so we need to be inspired by nature, using the concept of ‘Factory as Forest’, biomimicry. The big question I want to ask and present on is ‘How do you build flexibility into a static system?’
Tell us about your new water treatment works
In the past, stable, old world, you just built a new waterworks by making one slightly bigger than the one that went before it – but things have changed. In today’s VUCA world – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous – you have to look at a lot of different scenarios and variables. In our first advisory board meeting recently, six focus groups of different interested parties, including young people, customers and utilities, met to discuss the many different ways that a new system could be organised. Unexpectedly the main outcome from all of these groups was that the system had to be flexible.
What about the circular economy?
We would like to have a circular economy closed loop system for the water. This is not possible in Denmark right now at the moment – industrial customers don’t yet have confidence in it – but in SIngapore and Namibia it happens, and within 5–10 years, Denmark’s agenda will have changed. So we need a system which can take changing visions on board; yet drinking water treatment plants are very custom-made and not easy to change in terms of configuration. Almost as soon as it is ready it will need to be changed – which is huge in terms of planning. We need to model different solutions and see what could work.
What’s next?
Competition is the old story; collaboration is the new story. Denmark is collaborative and has some amazing examples such as the Kalundborg Symbiosis on our doorstep, but it is still too low level. We need to be imaginative, logical and transparent – and we need to look on the macro scale. In the future, in order to have the flexibility needed to deal with change, the city should be soft – not steel and concrete.
WEX NEWS: Lila Thompson reveals British Water’s plans to collaborate, coordinate and co-create – more at WEX Global 2020 in Valencia next week
Lila Thompson is Chief Executive of British Water. At WEX Global in Valencia, she will be co-chairing a session on Day 2 of the conference called: ‘Water Reuse from a Circular Economy Perspective and Potential Risks from an Unregulated Approach’. We caught up with her in advance to see what British Water is up to…
Why do you come to WEX?
WEX is a great place to meet representatives from water companies, leading contractors and consultants who might want to partner with UK companies. I also want to witness and understand real life case studies from other countries and utilities, which are well represented and accessible at WEX.
What’s happening at British Water?
I took over the role of Chief Executive on 3 December 2018, which is a completely different role from my previous one of International Director. I have spent my first year getting to know our members, finding out what their concerns are and how I can best support their businesses. British Water rebranded in November 2018, with a new logo which you will have seen. The ‘Women in Water’ series of events has recently been set up to encourage and support the recruitment and retention of women in the sector. Alongside this, we have pledged that 30% of British Water’s Board will be female by 2025, and that every panel must contain at least one female participant. We also held two conferences on ‘collaboration’ were held in April 2019, one in partnership with the Water Research Centre (WRc) and one with Xylem with the support of Ofwat.
What else is new?
We are keen to continue to assist Ofwat with their new strategy and innovation fund, making sure that supplier concerns are heard and that blockers to innovation are removed. The recently launched £200m ‘innovation fund’ should encourage the supply community to work together to stimulate innovation in the sector. Ofwat is also encouraging a ‘Centre of Excellence’– possibly a collection of virtual and physical zones – so that instead of water companies independently running trials for innovative systems individually, they can work together and share results. British Water has a pivotal role to play in this in terms of bringing people together to share best practice, goals, and to encourage data sharing.
What about the Circular Economy
Lots of British Water member companies are in this space. Recently the UK water sector has committed to go Net Zero Carbon by 2030, and it’s the first sector to do this! How we get there is obviously a big issue now – we are running an event in June, focusing on sustainability for the environment and the effects of climate change.
Exciting – so what’s next?
We are also focused on international innovation and have an advisor for Brexit who is closely monitoring the situation to see what the impact will be on the supply chain. Lots of utilities have already made plans, but we are interested to see how the trade negotiations will develop. We have trade missions to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Vietnam coming up, to cite a few. At Davos recently, water was high on the agenda. Will the water sector be able to rise to the challenges? I think so, absolutely, but the era of rivalry is over. Now it’s all about the three Cs of Collaboration, Coordination and Co-creation – and that’s what we have to focus on to rise to the Challenge!
Good news on the Awards – still time, we’ve just extended the deadline to 14th Feb!
Your absolute final date for entry in this year’s WEX Global Awards is this Friday, 14 February 2020, and all final submissions must be received no later than Saturday 15 February.
The even better news is that it’s extremely straightforward, and you can enter directly here.
This year’s lucky winners will be announced and trophies presented at a special Gala Dinner & Awards Ceremony on Tuesday 3 March at WEX Global 2020, which is to be held at the state-of-the-art Oceanogràfic in Valencia, Spain.
Any questions, simply contact Alison Ireland by phone on +44 (0)7973 404560 or email at alison@wex-global.uk