• The joint venture formed by Aquatec, Proyectos para el Sector del Agua, S.A.U. and the Fundación Instituto Tecnolóxico de Galicia was awarded the service for an amount of 1,563,005.92 euros and an execution period of 15 months.
• The aim is to develop an integral system that allows the automatic and continuous measurement of energy consumption and treated water quality parameters in small and medium-sized WWTPs, with the aim of formulating recommendations for improvement through advanced simulations in a controlled environment.
• This service is part of the Circular Economy Challenge in the integral water cycle of the Innovaugas 4.0 project, Advanced management of Galician water resources.

The Xunta de Galicia, through the public entity Augas de Galicia, dependent on the Regional Ministry of Infrastructures and Mobility, announced the award of a system for advanced real-time data processing and analysis to facilitate decision-making in small and medium-sized wastewater treatment plants, to the joint venture formed by Aquatec and the Galician Technological Institute Foundation, for an amount of 1,563,005.92 euros and a completion period of 15 months.

This service is part of Challenge 3 circular economy in the integral water cycle of the Innovaugas 4.0 project, Advanced management of Galician water resources, and aims to advance in the circular economy model in urban wastewater treatment plants for the optimisation of energy consumption and water quality.

The service will ensure compliance with quality parameters with respect to the water discharged into the receiving environment, the optimisation of energy consumption at each WWTP, as well as the operational reliability of the wastewater treatment plants so that they operate within the target range of quality and efficiency.

By means of an advanced simulation system in a controlled environment, the system will be able to give real-time recommendations to Augas de Galicia to facilitate decision-making on the different processes of each WWTP and to implement the principles of the circular economy model in the integral water cycle. To this end, the solution created will be tested in the WWTPs of Baiona, Nigrán and Gondomar, in order to cover the widest range of common processes of small and medium-sized wastewater treatment plants in Galicia. In this way, it will give rise to three different real operating environments in which to validate the solution provided.

Given the interest aroused by the Innovaugas 4.0 project, which gathered 162 proposals from Spanish and international companies, technology centres and universities in the Preliminary Market Consultation process last year, Augas de Galicia expects to receive original, reliable, robust and environmentally friendly proposals for this tender.

INNOVAUGAS

It should be remembered that Innovaugas 4.0 is an initiative promoted by Augas de Galicia to seek innovative solutions in advanced integrated water management, optimize water resources and respond to the demands of different uses, taking into account the context of climate change.

Last year, Innovaugas 4.0 received 162 proposals from Spanish and international companies, technology centers and universities.

This innovative project has a budget of 7 million euros and is 80% co-financed by the European ERDF funds.

In addition, Innovaugas 4.0 was selected by the Ministry of Science and Innovation in the Line of Promotion of Innovation from the Demand and Innovative Public Procurement, with a grant of 4.2 million euros from European funds and also the co-financing of the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN), with 700,000 euros, and Augas de Galicia, which will contribute 2.1 million euros.