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SWCC Dispatch Center: Transforming Water Management in KSA
The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) Water Dispatch Center is a strategic and groundbreaking project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With K&A as the lead design and supervision consultant, the project brought about a complete digital transformation of the water management business.
SWCC aims to position itself as a global leader in seawater desalination and power generation, providing high-quality, affordable services that deliver economic returns to its customers. As the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, it accounts for 22% of global production.
Smart Digital Infrastructure for SWCC Operations
K&A surpassed numerous challenges in building the system’s architecture, such as installing and integrating the sites’ infrastructure, mapping tag data from multiple plants, and designing and confirming more than 400 PI vision business screens from scratch for plants and transmission.
To overcome this, our team developed an integrated Water Management System (WMS) built on OSIsoft PI as the central platform, supported by the Esri GIS system and a suite of IT/OT applications.
Role of Digital Technologies at SWCC Dispatch Center
- These technologies provide a unified, real-time operational view that enables SWCC to monitor operations in real time, plan and issue production and transmission schedules, and analyse historical performance.
- Automated controls further enhance efficiency by aligning hourly production with fuel prices and, in the future, by supporting the sale of water and electricity.
- Adopting new technologies elevated SWCC’s workforce capability, ensuring teams operate in line with international best practices and are equipped to leverage the full potential of this digital ecosystem.
SWCC Dispatch Center Boosts Efficiency and Water Security
This groundbreaking project marks a significant milestone for the Kingdom’s water sector. Since its establishment, the Water Dispatch Center has enabled SWCC to tackle two of Saudi Arabia’s most critical challenges—water scarcity and high consumption—through a more efficient, data-driven, and technologically advanced operating model. At the heart of the system is a robust PI-based infrastructure seamlessly integrated with the latest GIS, ERP, and SCADA/DCS platforms, along with advanced enterprise applications, including production scheduling and dispatch.
A 15-meter-wide main screen and two 4-meter side screens, equipped with the latest laser technology, were installed for optimized real-time visualization. Six operators from SWCC will control the screens, managing live displays of over 400 GIS and PI Vision graphics and diagrams. Displays are designed hierarchically: one overview for each plant/pipeline, rolling down to view water production/transmission efficiency, storage level, water quality, cost, and other key monitoring parameters.
Results
The SWCC Dispatch Center marks a first-of-its-kind achievement for Saudi Arabia’s water desalination sector, delivering an unprecedented level of integration between AEC disciplines and IT/OT systems to create a fully unified Water Management System (WMS) for SWCC. The resulting digital ecosystem optimizes water production costs and significantly enhances operational performance across the national network.
The center now delivers cost-effective potable water and electricity to millions of people, significantly enhancing the Kingdom’s resilience and long-term water security. The project’s excellence has been recognized with multiple accolades, including the MEED Projects Awards 2020: Digital Infrastructure Project of the Year (National Winner) and the prestigious Overall Best Project Award.
