ACCIONA will be tasked to manage 85% of the island’s wastewater treatment facilities, serving 2.4 million people
ACCIONA, a global group that develops and manages sustainable infrastructure solutions, has been awarded three contracts for the operation and maintenance over the next five years of 300 wastewater treatment plants and 600 pumping stations in Sardinia, Italy.
These facilities, located in the provinces of Cagliari, Iglesias, Nuoro, Olbia, Oristano and Sassari, account for 85% of the island’s total wastewater treatment capacity; and can process 120.45hm3/year, serving an equivalent population of 2.4 million.
Abbanoa, the government-owned enterprise that has been managing the end-to-end water cycle on the island of Sardinia since 2005, awarded the three contracts, with a combined total value of €210 million (US$256.8 million).
ACCIONIA will be responsible of operating the wastewater treatment plants and pumping stations, as well as waste collection and maintenance. To this end, it will deploy innovations to enhance energy efficiency and foster the circular economy and the processes’ sustainability.
As part of ACCIONA’s focus on the circular economy, the sludge produced during the water treatment process will be used in agriculture.
The company will use electricity vehicles to deliver the contracts, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and they will be recharged using photovoltaic canopies. The vehicles will be made available to the service staff under a novel carsharing approach.
The Geocall system will be deployed, which uses QR codes to optimise tasks such as generating and completing work orders, tracking inventories, logging flow rates and handling breakdown reports. Access to the facilities and route planning will be performed with geolocation (GIS).
Service staff will be supported by a Remote Expert Assistance service using smart glasses, which will optimise maintenance of the facilities and provide faster and more fluid communication.
A robot designed specifically for cleaning sediment in hard-to-access areas underwater environments will be used to keep the bottom of the treatment tanks clean. This will minimise risk in operations with impacting water treatment quality since the staff will operate the robot from a distance.
