Impacts: Covid-19 & Water Utilities

The COVID-19 pandemic’s lasting impact continues to strain utilities across the globe, but the Water and Sanitation Sector has had to face unique challenges. Frequent and proper handwashing is the most basic frontline defense against the spread of COVID-19, yet a quarter of the world’s population lacks access to reliable water supplies.

According to the United Nations, nearly one-third of people globally lack access to safely managed drinking water services, over half lack access to safely managed sanitation facilities and in the least-developed countries, approximately 22% of healthcare facilities lack access to improved water and sanitation services. This is the result of a combination of challenges the water sector faces, however utilizing digital technologies are at the forefront to tackling these challenges. Digital Technologies, especially artificial intelligence solutions like Maestro, will be critical in accelerating the path towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goal 6– ‘Ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030’.

Revenue losses, as a result of COVID-19, have significantly slowed water utilities’ ability to make critical capital investments. Large industrial and commercial users of water slowed their usage as a result of the lockdowns. A survey by Global Water Leaders Group estimates that industrial water demand will fall by an average of 27% due to COVID-19. Crisis emergency measures, including partial suspension of bills for lower-income users and moratoriums on water cut-offs, have also led to a meaningful revenue loss for global water utilities.

While the decrease in industrial use of water may have had a positive impact on our global net zero goals, revenue losses have caused even further delay to the water sector’s infrastructure and digital upgrading. In some cases, to counteract the revenue losses, certain plants have had to delay critical infrastructure and maintenance upgrades. For example, in early May 2021, a former phosphate processing plant, Piney Point, in Palmetto, FL, was facing the potential of a catastrophic failure as a result of a leak. Piney Point has been a risk to the local environment of the Tampa Bay for at least 10 years, due to inadequate overflow procedures but in this case the leak that was identified could have lead to a catastrophic flood.

Source: USA Today

The leak was identified by personnel at least a few days after it had begun. This delay in leak identification, aided by reduced head count and maintenance expenditures as a result of COVID-19, could have been prevented with the use of Artificial Intelligence technology, such as Maestro. With the help of advanced metering, Maestro is able to detect leaks in real time and even predict potential weak spots all with the ability to automate a directive to solve the challenge, in an instant.

The intense labor requirements of the water industry made operational continuity difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many employees were deemed essential workers, social distancing protocols meant only critical staff could be on site, causing major supply chain and logistic disruptions. This makes the water industry a prime candidate for increased automation and artificial intelligence. We have seen that the plants with existing enhanced metering and controls systems prior to the COVID-19 pandemic performed much better during the crisis. Artificial Intelligence’s ability to predict and automate response to occurrences such as leaks and pipe bursts make water utility providers more agile and efficient while decreasing physical interaction amongst staff.

The water sector, which is used to a consistent demand, especially for chemicals and other consumables, has experienced one of the most serious interruptions in the overall utilities sector. With the help of digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence, the water sector can work towards addressing gaps in water supply, build a more resilient long-term CAPEX structure, increase continuity and respond better in the event of future crises. Additionally, the use of digital and artificial intelligence will allow the water sector to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal-6 by the target date of 2030, possibly even in advance of it.

Elutions has extensive experience deploying Maestro technology in the water sector, in clean capture, waste water and even desalination. Acciona Qatar is just one instance of a water utility harnessing the power of Maestro to optimize operations and achieve energy savings, thusly lowering their carbon footprint. Acciona cites Maestro as a platform that is, “scalable, which will allow ACCIONA to extend the benefits of AI to all its clients in the global water industry as part of its commitment to continuous innovation and service excellence.”

To learn more about what Maestro AI and Elutions can do for your corporation, contact us.

Texas Interconnection, Renewable Energy Sources & Artificial Intelligence

The highly publicized and politicized Texas Winter Storm power outages sparked outrage across the United States and abroad. Many people from the public and private sector were quick to point fingers at utility providers while focusing a lions’ share of the blame on wind power. However, the blame placed on wind power was misinformed and there is a much larger and more complicated story here. A story of media-initiated hysteria, a scapegoat and, more importantly, human errors that could have been prevented through the use of Artificial Intelligence.

Texas is the only state in the United States to operate its own power grid, the Texas Interconnection, maintained by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and kept separate from other US-based sources of power for political reasons, to not be subject to federal law. ERCOT manages the supply of power to more than 26 million customers in Texas, roughly 90% of the State’s entire electric load. As an independent systems operator, ERCOT is responsible for maintaining reliable power and setting expectations and forecasts for the summer and winter capacity loads.

The Texas Tribune reported that “about 80% of [the grid’s winter capacity], or 67 gigawatts, could be generated by natural gas, coal and some nuclear power,” while just a small percentage, “Only 7% of ERCOT’s forecasted winter capacity, or 6 gigawatts, was expected to come from various wind power sources across the state.”

With such a small percentage expected and forecasted to come from wind power, how could the narrative get shifted so far?

And, ultimately, the two questions we should ask ourselves are “why did the wind turbines shut down in the first place?” and “how could it have been prevented?”

Texas does not usually experience extreme winter weather, but there is always a possibility, as was shown this past February. Due to the moderately temperate climate, most Texas-based corporations responsible for generating energy in all of its forms chose to opt out of various maintenance solutions for insulation from the cold, as a cost saving measure, even though it was recommended they do so by regulatory bodies. The lack of insulation across providers, but mostly in Natural Gas, caused the disruption in power throughout Texas during the cold spell. Natural Gas producers were still able to produce natural gas however the hiccup occurred when the poorly insulated pipelines were freezing and that natural gas could not be accessed. Similarly to Natural Gas pipelines, wind turbines can be winterized however these investments were not made and lead to the disruptions.

Natural Gas suppliers, one of the largest sources of power to Texas’ grid, and state lawmakers dropped the ball for the people of Texas.


In Texas, the utility industry holds a lot of power due to their financial position, and this power often gets them what they want. In 2011, the last time legislators were meeting to discuss utility solutions, rather than require, “the electric utilities and the companies that supply them with fuel to protect that infrastructure against cold weather that can knock plants offline, they just recommended it.”  In an effort to appease the utility industry, the legislators let down their constituents, the residents of Texas, 111 of whom died as a result of the power outages.

Much of Texan policy revolves around what to do when outages occur and how to respond once something has already occurred but as a result of this most recent tragedy, they are finally looking towards preventative measures. This is where artificial intelligence can play a very large role in the Texas Interconnection, across each and every one of its suppliers from natural gas and nuclear right up to wind power. Artificial Intelligence, Maestro specifically, can predict and optimize the performance of assets within the utilities space fully utilizing outside sources such as weather to increase performance and prevent downtime.

The agencies, regulatory bodies and legislators all fell short but it is not too late for them to make significant changes. Maestro Artificial Intelligence is a cost effective solution for all utility providers, not just those in Texas, to increase capacity and prevent failure. Legislators can look to Artificial Intelligence to help provide better, more accurate reporting across the agencies in addition to disaster prevention and better warning systems. ERCOT could utilize Artificial Intelligence in their forecasting and planning for future power needs given that Maestro takes into account historical and real-time data for its predictions.

While political opportunists have taken this catastrophic event and used it as an opportunity to mislead consumers against renewable energy, it is our intention to reach those utilities providers and offer an opportunity to review their internal process and apply end-end artificial intelligence in order to prevent any further disruptions and catastrophes.

Subscribe to follow along this month for the Latest Series: Artificial Intelligence & The Future of Energy and Utilities to learn more about AI’s application in this space and our take on some of the hottest topics in 2021.

To learn more about what Maestro AI and Elutions can do for your corporation, contact us.

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Crystal Ball 2021: AI Combatting Disruption due to COVID-19

Today’s world is increasingly surrounded by fear. Not just fear of COVID-19, but also of the unknown fears: loss of market share to a competitor, the creeping suspicion that businesses may be outperforming yours, everywhere, all the time. Business leaders need to grasp the understanding that the cost of doing nothing now, significantly outweighs the cost of taking action later.

It can be said with confidence that 2020 has been defined by COVID-19 and its impact to families, consumers and especially businesses in all industries around the globe.

Thus, our fourth and final prediction for Artificial Intelligence in 2021:

AI Combatting COVID-19 Disruption.

Crystal Ball Predictions 2021: This article emphasizes AI Combatting COVID-19 Disruptions

COVID-19’s disruption significantly impacted numerous industries, not the least of which include Chemical Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Higher Education and more. Elutions continues to address COVID-19 related business challenges and more through Maestro’s AI capabilities. There is more pressure than ever on these corporations to make 2021 a year to rebound from demand, workforce reduction, production, shipping and more. The use of holistic end-to-end Artificial Intelligence, namely Maestro AI, provides a bright and ready solution for unmatched speed to value. 

There has never been a time in modern history like 2020 where the increasingly urgent necessity for immediate solutions to business quandaries has been met with an equally robust solution as Artificial Intelligence. In the consumer space, we see this with AI enabled chatbots as a solution to the increasing customer service demands of consumers who are now spending more time than ever online shopping.

But what about a solution to address the onslaught of shipping as a result of shifted consumer purchasing habits due to COVID-19? Maestro is leading the way, helping shipping companies optimize their process from the warehouse down to the delivery route.

Source: Gartner

For further proof that the market, as a result of COVID-19, is responding to AI in leaps and bounds, the above information from a Gartner study of IOT implementation stated that 47% of respondents will be increasing their plans to implement to reduce costs.

In the commercial space, the use of AI in the pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry is top of mind, especially with the fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccines. An already overwhelmingly positive impact of AI, due to COVID-19, is the ability to develop vaccines and medications with greater speed than ever before, leading to change in the entire process of how we develop and test new medications for the future.

But could AI be the “vaccine” all industries need to improve future demand forecasting, prevent future disruption and stabilize now?

The answer is a resounding “yes”.


The increased demand for Artificial Intelligence has already been observed in 2020 and the adoption of AI will be widely implemented in 2021. Let 2021 be a year of digital transformation with Elutions as your partner. To learn more about specific case studies of Maestro Artificial Intelligence applied, please contact us.

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Crystal Ball 2021: AI to Solve the Unsolvable

We have never been closer to the precipice of a digital future than we are right now – this future is defined by those who make the commitment to move to a digitized environment and where those who do not inevitably fall behind. The trend towards Artificial Intelligence’s commercial use and application has been on the rise for several years, making businesses that were quick to adopt its power more productive and more efficient as a result. Business leaders must take action and make the choice in order to preserve the future of their business.

As we look toward an uncertain future, our third prediction for Artificial Intelligence in 2021 is revealed:

Applying AI to solve what were previously considered to be unsolvable business challenges as well as new business challenges from the evolving world we live in.

Crystal Ball Predictions 2021: This article emphasizes Solving Unsolvable Business Challenges

Artificial Intelligence is becoming more ingrained in our society on a daily basis and, as illustrated in the graphic below, the benefits are substantial. With a predicted spend of nearly $60 Billion in 2021 on cognitive and AI systems, it is important for business leaders to consider all challenges as opportunities in order to optimize the value-chain’s performance and profitability through Artificial Intelligence.

Statistics for 2021

61% of business executives currently implementing an innovation strategy say that AI helps them identify otherwise missed opportunity in data.

AI is helping businesses solve challenges they may not have known even existed, especially with holistic solutions such as Maestro AI, able to not only determine but take action on root cause variables. Today there is increased pressure on leaders to continuously improve performance with less resources, thus creating the perfect opportunity for digital transformation.

At Elutions, AI is the missing link in addressing a business challenge that is so great that even the most proficient teams of data scientists are unable to solve it. After all, the objective of AI, and is the case with Maestro’s AI, is to continuously ensure optimized outcomes with certainty, when so many dynamic variables impact operations that point-in-time analysis is irrelevant and the required speed, scale and depth of analysis is beyond human and standard algorithmic capabilities.

The upcoming new year, 2021, will kick off a massive wave for years to come towards implementing AI in all facets of business, particularly process heavy industries. Business leaders are prepared to capitalize on the benefits of AI and improve their productivity as well as decision-making capabilities.

To learn more about solving your unsolvable business challenges and Maestro Artificial Intelligence applied, please contact us.

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Crystal Ball 2021: The Digital Leapfrog

The term “leapfrog” may evoke childhood memories of playing on the playground where the idea of leaping over your friends like a frog leaping towards its destination made more sense than conventionally walking there. But in the context of technological advancement, you may be asking yourself, “what does leapfrogging actually have to do with digital transformation or Artificial Intelligence?”

Enter our second AI prediction for 2021:

Comprehensive Artificial Intelligence platforms, such as Elutions‘ Maestro, will act as a digital leapfrog to bypass outdated systems, investments in new infrastructure and out-navigating your competitors.

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Crystal Ball Predictions 2021: This Article Emphasizes The Digital Leapfrog

The concept of leapfrogging is not new, in fact it has been used in industrial organization and economic growth for many years. However, the concept of using new technologies, such as AI, to leapfrog various stages of technical infrastructure or development is quite revolutionary. The digital leapfrog makes the notion of gradual upgrades/ development obsolete and introduces the ability to disrupt the developmental stages with one huge leap past steps that may have otherwise taken years and significant financial investment to implement. The idea that growth must follow a linear pattern can be tossed aside with just one leap, if only a corporation is ready to make the jump.

Digital Leapfrogging has not been widely reported upon, written about or discussed by the consultancies and large tech companies of the world, for strategic reasons on their part. A simple google search will not produce much on the topic, but why?

The leading corporations of the world have made a fortune off of convincing businesses to follow the antiquated path of upgrading their “technological stack” or selling them on the notion that they need to purchase/ implement additional technology, such as data lakes, prior to adopting Artificial Intelligence. This approach has been utilized for many years as a tactic to get as much business from a single client as possible. This sales model has had a widespread impact on industrial purchasing and is ingrained in such a way that the digital leapfrog might seem impossible as it disrupts this entire process. Rest assured, the digital leapfrog is not only possible, taking the leap vastly increases a business’ speed to value.

The digital leapfrog presents the opportunity to use existing systems to “leap” past the competition, without additional cost, and into the future with Maestro Artificial Intelligence.

Our prediction is that, due to the uncertain times we are living in and the need not only for stability but also for exponential growth, the time of linear progression & upgrading the technological stack is long gone. Not only is it extremely costly to continuously invest in a tech stack, in most cases it is entirely unnecessary or made redundant when the end goal is an Artificial Intelligence implementation. In this day and age, many businesses are in desperate need of speed to value, something that only a digital leapfrog can provide.

Many industries are poised to benefit from Artificial Intelligence as a leapfrog, including Healthcare, Education, Telecom and Banking but those with the opportunity to use AI as a transformational leapfrog are Industrial & Chemical Manufacturing, Utilities and Oil & Gas corporations. Many manufacturers, utilities and O&G corporations run large, and sometimes international estates, with a multitude of plants or sites that may all have disparate systems, or existing infrastructure/ assets that varies in age, lifecycle and capability, the perfect environment for Maestro AI as a leapfrog.

It may all seem too good to be true, this is revolutionary and can be difficult to accept due to established procurement and purchasing habits that have been plaguing businesses for years, but it is possible with the right partner. Most leaders and organizations want breakthroughs but many of the large tech corporations are not willing to provide true innovation. The team at Elutions specializes in breakthroughs, using Maestro AI not only to leapfrog internal technological development with its ability to connect previously disparate assets, infrastructure and systems, but also to leapfrog past the competition with unrivaled speed to value.

In 2021 we will see a rapid increase of AI adoption as a digital leapfrog. Let 2021 be a year of digital transformation with Elutions as your partner. To learn more about specific case studies of Maestro Artificial Intelligence applied, please contact us.

Click subscribe below to be kept up to date and notified of our upcoming articles, including the next piece in the December Series- A Look Into the Crystal Ball: AI in 2021.


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Crystal Ball 2021: A Push Towards Holistic Artificial Intelligence

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), a premier global market research company, “Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are top of mind for most organizations today, and IDC expects that AI will be the disrupting influence changing entire industries over the next decade.” Given the important role that Artificial Intelligence will play in digital disruption in the coming decade, it’s important to define what AI really is.

There are many buzzwords in the AI space leading to confusion in the marketplace and a deep misunderstanding of what AI is and what it is capable of achieving. AI is not one thing, it’s a generalized term for software or a platform that can imitate human intelligence and can be applied in a virtually limitless number of ways. Buzzwords like, neural networks, deep learning, natural language processing and machine learning can all roll up into the tight little bow of Artificial Intelligence and they are the building blocks which an AI platform uses to “learn” for itself.

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AI can be applied in many different ways. We see AI being applied in our everyday lives if we have a smartphone that uses facial recognition to unlock, an Amazon Alexa to tell us the news and through social media, take TikTok’s notoriously smart algorithms that make the platform so addictive. AI is all around us, even commercially, though the commercial space has been slower to adopt AI technologies.

The commercial space has predominantly taken a more ‘piecemeal’ approach to adopting digital technologies, yet to fully capture the benefits of true artificial intelligence due to the use of discreet solutions, like advanced analytics or automation only to target a piece of their full process. There are many use cases of automation on manufacturing lines or chatbots in the customer services department but what about a holistic end-end approach?

Enter the first AI prediction for 2021

Holistic, end-end Artificial Intelligence, like Elutions’ Maestro, will replace the currently isolated approach to adoption of discreet digital technologies.

Crystal Ball Predictions 2021: This Article Emphasizes Holistic AI

Leaving behind solutions, touted as AI, that only addresses one piece of the process, like predictive maintenance, and adopting true AI that is self-learning, self-adapting and applied in an end-end approach to drive and even automate actionable intelligence across the entire value chain is the way of the future. The piecemeal approach may have worked in the past but with the new normal we are living in businesses need to begin thinking about their processes as if they were living, breathing beings.

Let’s think about it this way, if an overweight patient goes to the doctor and they are experiencing knee pain, a pain killer or a cortisol shot might address the pain right away and in the short term, but what about addressing the root cause? The doctor can see the full picture and knows that for sustained change, the patient will have to lose weight to rid themselves of their knee pain.

Now, let’s apply this analogy to a manufacturing plant, the plant is the patient and Holistic Artificial Intelligence is the doctor. A discreet solution, one that perhaps only addresses maintenance, is only able to impact one specific point in the manufacturing process, this solution can only prescribe a painkiller. However, an end-end solution is capable not only of detecting the root cause of a maintenance issue, but also addressing the pain point, it’s chain effect on the process, prescribing and in the case of Maestro, automatically implementing a holistic solution.

A great approach for businesses to best take advantage of AI, whether they are a University, Manufacturer or an Oil and Gas corporation is to focus on outcomes and addressing pain points. Businesses must focus deeply on their individual challenges and use Artificial Intelligence to address them as a whole. For example, many manufacturers experience asset downtime and plant failure as a major site challenge, a challenge that can be addressed and significantly reduced, if not eliminated entirely, with a holistic end-end AI approach.

In 2021 we will see a rapid increase of AI adoption to address a host of challenges across the entire value chain. Let 2021 be a year of digital transformation with Elutions as your partner. To learn more about specific case studies of Maestro Artificial Intelligence applied, please contact us.

Click subscribe below to be kept up to date and notified of our upcoming articles, including the next piece in the December Series- A Look Into the Crystal Ball: AI in 2021.


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December Series- A Look into the Crystal Ball: Artificial Intelligence in 2021

It’s hard to believe that another year has come and gone, given how strange 2020 has been, but here we are in December looking back on a trying year for many and looking forward to 2021. The team at Elutions, and Solve the Unsolvable, are looking into our Crystal Ball to make our predictions for Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Landscape in 2021. Get excited, because AI is trending up again in 2021.

Some of the large trends we see for 2021 include, a move away from discreet solutions to a holistic end-end approach, using AI as a digital leapfrog to reduce spending, using AI to address previously unsolvable problems, new use cases and finally AI as a way to continue to combat disruption from COVID-19.

A Look into the Crystal Ball: AI in 2021

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