Industry News

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SJW crew replacing pipe

SJW’s AI-Driven Approach to Pipeline Replacement

Did you know that artificial intelligence helps San Jose Water deliver water to our customers?

SJW’s approach to pipeline replacement is driven by a commitment to ensuring the highest standards of water service reliability and safety for our community. Led by the Asset Management team, SJW leverages a cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) model to enhance our decision-making process—ranking each pipe segment in our system for replacement based on its unique probability of failure (PoF).

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Ethan Smith presenting at ASCE conference

ASCE Inspire 2023 Conference: SJW’s Ethan Smith presents “Pump Optimization: An Application of the AVEVA PI System”

This past month, SJW’s Assistant Engineer, Ethan Smith, had the opportunity to present at the ASCE Inspire 2023 Conference on pump optimization being implemented at SJW with the AVEVA PI System. Over the last two years, SJW has built out an effective solution to reduce energy costs, increase efficiency, and provide operators with real-time pump and motor performance monitoring.

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Tank construction

SJW Construction Stoppage

In order to follow the state and county shelter-in-place order, as well as to protect the health of our employees per CDC public health guidelines, we are suspending all non-emergency construction activity requiring field support by our engineering and construction teams until further notice. This includes water main replacement projects and nearly all other planned capital improvements. Projects currently underway are being brought to a safe and secure stopping point.

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Group of SJW staff at volunteer event

SJW Community Programs 2020

Community involvement is a key part of our commitment to the places where we live, work and serve.  Contributions include both monetary donations as well as volunteer time and talent. While COVID-19 may have cut short our in-person community outreach efforts in 2020, a new series of virtual partnerships emerged.  

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Touré Carter in front of one of his company trucks

Supplier Diversity Spotlight: Touré Carter

When SJW’s Tim McLaughlin met now-TM Carter Co. CEO Touré Carter at the Silicon Valley Black Chamber of Commerce conference last year, it was the perfect example of “right place, right time.” As SJW’s Director of Supplier Diversity, Tim regularly speaks at events like these to educate local minority-owned business owners on processes for getting certified and winning contracts with large companies like SJW. They are also great networking opportunities, as Touré discovered during a break between sessions.

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Photo of Belgatos tanks

2020 Infrastructure Update

As we approach the end of the year, we offer a snapshot of the critical infrastructure improvements we've achieved in 2020, strengthening our system resiliency and benefiting hundreds of thousands of SJW customers.

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Illustration of the Water Cycle

Climate Change's Impact on Water

Climate change isn’t exactly a new subject, but there’s a lot that we’re still learning about it, such as how it works, what its effects will be, and when we’ll see those changes take place. In the water utility industry, climate change is changing our assumptions about the availability and quality of our water supply and how to manage this precious resource.