Contributed by MIM Member, Dr. Diana Jayasauri A/P Davei Raja Ratnam, Assistant Vice President I, Director/Head of Operation’s Office, Air Selangor.
Creating joy in every drop of water for 8.4 million consumers across Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
To offer the best customer experience, water utilities oversee continuous water supply, best water quality, timely accurate billing, and fast response to complaints. In today’s Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0, VUCA world landscape and the COVID-19 pandemic, business agility and disruptive transformation connect the dots in building digitally driven businesses. This has led Air Selangor’s digital drive to focus on building a consumer savvy digital utility for the future through real-time monitoring, prediction of operations, a digital working culture and empowering consumers.
Air Selangor Application
The application was rolled out in 2018 to digitalise the customer experience offering real-time updates on water disruption and was further evolved to feature e-Bil registration, billing, payment information, complaints and enquiries. To foster consumer empowerment, the following future initiatives are in the pipeline:
- Reporting real-time images of pipe leaks and bursts based on geocodes
- Reporting of illegal tapping
- New account application and termination
- Changing of ownership
- Water conservation tips
- Smart metering
- Consumer self-read meter
Intelligent Command Centre (ICC)
The ICC commenced its operations in 2019 integrating key strategic asset parameters such as water flow and pressure, reservoir level, pump status and Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) capabilities. It is integrated with Online Hydraulic Model for monitoring, analysing and modeling distribution systems, which lead to Digital Twin for virtual physical assets representation. With a magnitude of total pipeline beyond 29,000 kilometers and 2,000 reservoirs and pump houses, ICC’s digital intervention is required to cater IR 4.0.
i-Emergency Response Plan (i-ERP)
i-ERP is a pioneer in Malaysian water industry to update consumers on affected areas and water supply services availability through Pusat Khidmat Setempat (PKS), Public Water Tap and Commercial Water Filling Stations based on geocodes during ERP activation. It was launched in 2021 and is accessible via website https://hentitugas.airselangor.com and the Air Selangor Application.
Operations Mobile Application (OMA)
To consolidate and streamline operational processes, OMA was implemented in 2020. OMA enables early detection and real-time recording of pipe leakages, provides work updates on site operations, facilitates preventive maintenance work, monitors land usage activities along the rivers for pollution investigation, coordinates the deployment of sensors for efficient leak detection, and manages water quality data.
In 2020, Air Selangor’s achievement of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) target of 28.6 percent which exceeded the target rate of 29.2 percent set by Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN) was contributed by AIS Leak feature in OMA. Moving forward, OMA will be integrated with systems like i-ERP and ICC as a Super Application offering robust operations management.
Data Analytics Centre
Air Selangor is embracing big data analytics as the new game changer to steer Air Selangor Strategic Plans and Initiatives Realisation (ASPIRE) and Operations Business Intelligence (OBI). The Data Analytics Centre was established full-fledge in 2020 to build enterprise-wide capabilities of Big Data Analytics. This includes artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digitalisation of intelligence to derive strategic insights by leveraging on data-backed decisions for optimum business operations governance.
Joy In Every Drop
Challenges are prevalent in the digital revolution and for Air Selangor, success is all about bringing joy in every drop of water to our consumers. That is our brand promise. Consumers are at the heart of everything that Air Selangor does. The digital initiatives are the drivers of sustainable safe, clean and high-quality water supply for our consumers.
