Water management 4.0

In January 2025, a broad flood made its way along the B27 in Heilbronn, replacing the usual stream of cars with a raging torrent of water. The cause was a six-meter-long crack in a dilapidated water pipe from the 1980s, located directly under the roadway. “Most leaks in the pipe system are silent,” says Frank Schupp, managing director of Heilbronner Versorgungs GmbH (HNVG). “This means that they initially don’t cause any visible damage, and the water simply seeps into the ground. In many cases, they are only noticed when a wall in a house becomes damp, or a whole street is suddenly under water,” he explains. By then it is often too late for targeted maintenance. The damage is simply too great.

On this small scale, the technology is already working to great effect. “In our pilot plant, leaks and anomalies in the network can be detected much faster and more accurately than with previous methods,” says Heiner Lasi, academic director at the FSTI. This applies especially to those silent leaks that previously remained unnoticed or were only discovered by chance, explains the professor of industrial intelligence. Based on the real-time data, the digital twin can even identify holes just a few millimeters in size. As a result, the experts in Heilbronn are now thinking big: “We will be implementing the digital water meters throughout Heilbronn within the next six years. At the same time, we are developing the digital twin and the associated services,” says Lasi, adding: “In Heilbronn, about eight percent of the supplied drinking water is currently lost due to leaks. We expect that our technology will initially be able to reduce these losses to around six percent.”

According to Lasi, the continuous, detailed picture of water flow throughout the entire network also offers new options for planning, prevention and sustainable network management. It is not just the water suppliers who stand to benefit from the collected data, which could allow them to devise realistic investment plans, while new business models are also possible.

Sensor manufacturers could use this data to develop algorithms for the early detection of material fatigue, and insurance companies could offer their customers new, preventive and thus also more affordable policy models. Moreover, construction companies working for cities and municipalities would be able to plan renovation work more effectively thanks to an early warning system, thereby preventing incidents such as the flooding of the B27.

In times when the pressure to cut costs is increasing across the board, the digital twin can become a trump card for municipal utilities. “In the face of limited budgets, it is important to plan investments in water, heat and electricity networks strategically and with a long-term perspective,” explains FSTI project coordinator Karoline Frank. “The digital twin can help us to use existing resources more efficiently and to greater effect in the long term.” Heilbronn represents an important first step. In the long term, say the representatives from the FSTI, a Germany-wide and international expansion of their version of the digital twin is also conceivable.