The water sector's biggest problem may not be underground

For decades, the performance of water and wastewater has been defined by physical infrastructure: pipes, pumps, and treatment assets engineered to last generations.

Today, utilities are being asked to do more with systems built for a different era. Climate variability, energy volatility, regulatory change, and skills shortages are all increasing operational pressure and accelerating the need for more connected Energy Technology across the water and environment sector.

Most utilities have evolved their systems incrementally over time. PLCs, SCADA platforms and telemetry layers were introduced to solve specific operational problems as they emerged. But few were designed as part of a unified, connected operating model.

Energy, process and data often operate in silos, limiting visibility and the ability to respond and adapt. Despite the volume of data generated across these environments, only 20–30% is actively used in decision-making, highlighting a gap in usability — not availability.

The consequence is clear: utilities operating legacy systems cannot adapt at the pace modern operations demand.

The hidden bottleneck: engineering effort

When utilities need to expand capacity, improve efficiency or meet compliance requirements, the adaptation process is still heavily manual. Changes are often engineered against specific hardware, integrations are slow, commissioning can take weeks or months, and risk increases with every modification.

This challenge is compounded by capability constraints, with 29% of Australian organisations reporting they lack the skills required to meet evolving compliance and operational demands.

As a result, even routine operational improvements can quickly become resource-intensive projects.

The constraint has shifted from the infrastructure itself to the effort required to change how it operates.

This creates a growing tension across the sector: utilities are expected to be more agile, efficient, and responsive, yet the systems they rely on are inherently difficult to evolve.

A shift from assets to systems

Critical infrastructure is shifting from asset-centric operations towards system-centric, software-defined models. This is not digitisation as another layer added on top of existing systems. It is a fundamental shift in how those systems are structured.

The direction is clear:

• Hardware-bound software → open, software-defined automation
• Site-specific engineering → modular, reusable design
• Fragmented systems → architectures that evolve over time
• Separate energy and process optimisation → integrated operating models
   

Open, software-defined automation enables control applications to operate independently from proprietary hardware, creating more flexible, interoperable, and scalable industrial automation environments across water and wastewater operations.

This is what digital infrastructure really means. Not dashboards, isolated “smart” assets, or another layer of disconnected technology, but the underlying architecture that allows systems to scale, adapt, and continuously improve without being redesigned from the ground up.

Why it matters now

Australia’s water sector operates in one of the world’s most complex environments.

Assets are spread across vast regions. Climate extremes, from drought to flooding, are testing supply and infrastructure resilience. Energy is no longer predictable, and the workforce needed to manage increasingly complex systems is under strain.

These pressures reflect broader challenges across the Australian economy. Schneider Electric’s Energy Tech Pulse survey of more than 500 Australian business leaders found skilled labour shortages and energy costs are the two biggest external challenges, cited by 41% and 37% respectively. More than 60% are also concerned that ageing infrastructure is slowing progress on electrification, efficiency and automation.

Australian utilities are facing growing renewal pressure as assets approach end of life while demand continues to increase. Incremental optimisation is no longer sufficient.

Meeting the challenge requires a different approach to system design and operation, alongside investment in physical infrastructure.

The role of an integrated operating model

At Schneider Electric, we see this challenge emerging as utilities work to better connect energy, process, and digital operations. Digital twins and unified operations centres can bring information from across these environments into a single view, improving operational visibility and supporting more integrated, adaptable operating models.

• Energy: increasingly complex, cost-sensitive, and decarbonising
• Process: critical operations where reliability is non-negotiable
• Digital and software: the layer that enables visibility, optimisation, and control
   

Water utilities aren’t constrained by a lack of infrastructure, but by how difficult it still is to implement change.

When energy can represent up to 40% of operating costs, and operational environments continue to grow more complex, the opportunity isn’t just optimisation, it’s redesigning systems so they can evolve over time.

Open, software-defined automation is a key part of that shift, enabling utilities to reduce engineering effort, simplify integration, and adapt operations faster without constantly rebuilding systems.

The proposition is clear: Bringing energy, process and software into a single operating model designed to evolve creates more connected, adaptable and resilient water operations. This is Energy Technology in practice.

It enables utilities to reduce the effort required to implement change, respond faster to new conditions, and operate with greater resilience over time.

The emerging performance gap

The next performance gap in the water sector will be defined by how quickly operating systems can adapt. Utilities with flexible architectures will be better positioned to respond as conditions, requirements and technologies change. Utilities that move early will be more efficient, responsive, resilient, and better positioned to manage the uncertainty ahead.

Image credit: iStock.com/Alena Butusava