The VOD-KA exhibition, organised by the SOVAK ČR interest association, took place last week at the exhibition centre in Prague’s Letňany. The exhibition was extremely popular, attracting over 4,000 visitors during its first day. More than 300 exhibitors from seven countries presented themselves, and of these exhibitors, 37 were first-time participants, indicating growing interest in the event and the industry as a whole. Six universities and one higher vocational school were also in attendance, presenting their areas of study and the results of their research work. This year, exhibition areas outside the halls occupied twice the area of the last edition of the event.
The last exhibition was held four years ago due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted the usual two-year gap between editions. The long period of waiting also contributed to unprecedented interest in this year’s event.
As a partner of Siemens, VDT Technology presented a comprehensive portfolio of solutions for the water industry in a joint exhibition. At the Siemens stand, we presented examples of solutions for the water industry integrating process instrumentation, industrial communication, automation, digitalization and process control.
These included applications for WIM monitoring and predictive maintenance, WST wastewater treatment plant optimization, a comprehensive Digital Twin tool including Simatic Energy Manager, an interface for data sharing with the IoT environment Cosmosintegration and more. These solutions, which operate on the Siemens MindSphere platform InsightsHub, are designed to minimize energy consumption and water loss while reducing overall life cycle costs. One of the main topics addressed at the show – a topic that affects all participants – was water leakage. Water loss always occurs during the journey from the water source through the treatment plant to the consumer, and on average, drinking water losses in Czech water infrastructure are reported to run at around 15 per cent. At the VOD-KA exhibition, VDT Technology presented our service for locating water leaks in distribution networks using satellite tracking. Another important topic at VOD-KA was digitalisation in the water sector. VDT presented systems that ensure consistent data management throughout the entire lifecycle using the COMOS interface. Design, implementation and optimization of information and operational technologies can be carried out using the MindSphere platform InsightsHub. The large amount of data collected in the water sector can be kept in cloud storage and processed using applications developed specifically for the requirements of the sector. Meanwhile, simulation and virtual operation platforms help ensure efficient and rapid deployment of new equipment. The exhibition provided a fantastic opportunity to meet fellow experts from various segments of the water industry and discuss the latest trends and challenges in the field. At VDT Technology, we want to share the benefits of our experience and know-how, providing solutions to current water challenges that contribute to the sustainable development of the domestic water industry.