Finalist

Aiming to improve water supply to 1.4 million families in Medellín’s metropolitan area, public services company EPM was tasked with modeling the city’s primary aqueduct network to digitally evaluate the system and view potential solutions for guaranteeing water access for the next 30 years. Faced with developing a model comprised of five water treatment plants located in mountainous terrain, EPM’s initial fragmented approach lacked integrated simulation and scenario assessment features, limiting predictive capabilities and cost analysis. To address these issues, EPM needed comprehensive hydraulic modeling and simulation technology.

Leveraging OpenFlows to model the network, EPM performed predictive analysis, calculated pumping costs, and simulated hierarchal scenarios. Compared to one month of previous manual analysis work, the integrated hydraulic model facilitated a detailed network evaluation in just a few hours. The digital twin enables EPM to identify smart solutions that optimize network operations. Working in Bentley’s digitally simulated environment has already saved 117 tons of annual carbon emissions and nearly USD 18.6 million in total costs.