Water and wastewater

    Commissioning software for water and wastewater assets that have to be proven wet before a single litre reaches a customer.

    Clean water, dirty water, desalination and every pumped or piped asset between them go through the same shape of journey: dry commissioning, wet commissioning and a process proving stage that a regulator, a lab or an operations team will hold the project to. Deskely holds every clarifier, filter cell, membrane rack, wet well, digester and SCADA loop in one tag register, with the wet-test and sign-off gates built in rather than reconstructed at handover.

    The problem

    A treatment train is a dozen live processes, not one project.

    Water and wastewater schemes are built by civil, mechanical, MEICA and process subcontractors on their own schedules, each producing dry commissioning sheets, wet-test records and vendor punch in a different format. When wholesome water, consent acceptance or unattended operation is due, nobody can show which stage is actually proven and which is still running on manual bypass.

    RECORDS BY PARTYTreatment trainCivil contractorTank and structure records1,900recordsMechanical contractorPump and valve test sheets1,240recordsMEICA contractorLoop check spreadsheet960recordsWater quality labSampling results, separate portalrecordsRECONCILED BY HAND BEFORE HANDOVER6,000+records across civil, mechanical, MEICA and sampling packagesStatus disputedDeskely: one asset register, every party writing into the same tag.

    Wet-test evidence is scattered across contractors

    Filter media certificates, blower commissioning reports and membrane integrity results arrive as PDFs from a dozen vendors, disconnected from the tag they belong to.

    Dry and wet commissioning get blurred together

    Motor rotation and valve stroking checks completed before water is introduced are often confused with flow, dosing and biological proving completed once a stage is wet.

    Regulatory sampling sits in a separate system

    Bacteriological samples, discharge consent results and gas safety verification live in a lab portal or a safety file, not beside the commissioning record a reviewer actually needs.

    Vendor punch outlives the vendor

    Commissioning engineers demobilise while their punch items are still open, and the water company inherits an unfinished list with no owner.

    How it runs

    From dry commissioning to a signed process proving record.

    1. 01

      Register and parse

      P&IDs, process flow diagrams and equipment lists become a reviewed tag register, structured by process stage.

    2. 02

      Dry commissioning

      Motor rotation, valve stroking and instrument loop checks signed against every asset before water is introduced.

    3. 03

      Wet commissioning and process proving

      Flow, dosing, biological and membrane performance proven per stage, with vendor punch tracked to closure.

    4. 04

      Sign off and hand over

      Wholesome water, consent acceptance or unattended operation declared from signed evidence, exported as a structured dossier.

    PROCESS STAGE READINESSLive from signed records — nothing typed twiceSUBSYSTEMDRY COMMISSIONINGWET COMMISSIONINGPROCESS PROVINGPUNCHWTP-01Intake screensProcessCertificate issuedCertificate issuedCertificate issued0 openWTP-02Clarifier 1ProcessCertificate issued74% signedNot started2 Cat BWTP-03Filter bank 2Process88% signed30% signedNot started1 Cat AWTP-04Chlorine contact tankDisinfection46% signedNot startedNot started6 Cat ACertificates issue only when every record beneath the subsystem is signed and Category A punch is cleared.

    Side by side

    Contractor folders versus a single wet-test record.

    At sign-off the question is always the same: which stage is actually proven wet, and can you show the evidence for it right now?

    Contractor folders versus a single wet-test record.
    AspectContractor folders and spreadsheetsDeskely
    Dry vs wet commissioningBlurred together in a single completion letter.Held as distinct record types against the same tag.
    Regulatory samplingTracked in a separate lab portal.Held in the same register as the commissioning evidence.
    Process provingReconstructed from vendor reports before sign-off.Captured live against the exact cell, lane or rack.
    SCADA loop checksA spreadsheet per outstation, reconciled by hand.Tracked per loop, rolled up to outstation acceptance.
    Vendor punchLost once the contractor demobilises.Owned, dated and tracked to closure at the tag.
    Handover dossierAssembled from scratch before go-live.Exported as a structured package on demand.

    What changes

    Per stage

    wet-test and process proving readiness

    One register

    for dry commissioning, wet-test and sampling

    Gated

    sign-off on signed regulatory evidence

    Day one

    handover dossier for the operations team

    Before you shortlist

    Estimate what your current process costs

    Enter your tag count and record handling time to see the admin hours and cost in play — then book a demo against your own numbers.

    Open the ROI calculator

    FAQ

    Questions about water and wastewater.

    Project types

    The same completions ladder, from a clarifier tank to a SCADA outstation.

    What changes between water and wastewater scopes is the equipment breakdown, which regulator or lab has to sign off the sample, and what gate sits before wholesome water, consent acceptance or unattended operation. The record types, the gates and the audit trail behind them do not.

    01

    Water treatment plant commissioning

    A water treatment plant turns raw water into wholesome supply through a chain of process stages — intake screening, coagulation and flocculation, clarification, rapid gravity or membrane filtration, and chlorination or UV disinfection — each with its own dry commissioning, wet commissioning and process proving sequence. Deskely holds every tank, filter cell, doser and analyser in one register with the wet-test, regulatory sampling and wholesome-water gates built in.

    See this scope in detail
    02

    Wastewater treatment plant commissioning

    A wastewater treatment works takes crude sewage through inlet screening, primary settlement, biological treatment — activated sludge, SAF or trickling filter — secondary settlement and often tertiary polishing before discharge, with every stage commissioned against a P&ID and a discharge consent the regulator will hold the operator to. Deskely holds every tank, blower, diffuser and analyser in one register with the wet-test and consent-compliance gates built in.

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    03

    Desalination plant commissioning

    A reverse osmosis desalination plant is a chain of high-consequence stages — seawater or brackish intake, pretreatment filtration, high-pressure feed pumps, membrane trains with energy recovery devices, and post-treatment remineralisation — where a single misaligned pressure vessel or uncommissioned dosing skid can compromise permeate quality across the whole train. Deskely holds every pump, vessel, membrane skid and analyser in one register with the wet-test and permeate-quality gates built in.

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    04

    Water and wastewater pump station commissioning

    A water or wastewater pump station lives or dies on its wet test: duty and standby pumps switching correctly on level, VSDs holding pressure or flow set points, telemetry reporting status back to the control room, and standby generation picking up seamlessly on mains failure. Deskely holds every pump, valve, level sensor and generator in one register with the wet-commissioning and unattended-operation gates built in.

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    05

    Service reservoir and distribution network commissioning

    New trunk mains, distribution mains and service reservoirs cannot simply be connected to a live network — each section is swabbed, pressure tested, chlorinated, flushed and bacteriologically sampled before it is declared fit for supply, and a service reservoir is structurally inspected, cleaned and disinfected before it holds wholesome water. Deskely holds every main section, valve, reservoir cell and sample point in one register with the disinfection and fit-for-supply gates built in.

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    06

    Sludge and biosolids treatment commissioning

    A sludge treatment centre thickens, digests, dewaters and often burns the biogas from imported sludge, with anaerobic digestion in particular carrying gas-safety commissioning on top of the usual mechanical and process proving. Deskely holds every digester, centrifuge, gas holder and CHP unit in one register with the gas-safety and biosolids-quality gates built in.

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    07

    Industrial water reuse and reclamation commissioning

    An industrial water reuse scheme reclaims effluent or process wastewater to a fit-for-purpose standard for cooling, process make-up or irrigation, adding tertiary filtration, membrane bioreactors or advanced oxidation on top of conventional treatment, with strict cross-connection control between potable and reclaimed systems. Deskely holds every membrane train, dosing skid and cross-connection point in one register with the water-quality-validation and cross-connection-control gates built in.

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    08

    Stormwater and flood defence commissioning

    Stormwater and flood management schemes combine attenuation tanks, sustainable drainage (SuDS) features, penstocks and flap valves, and often a pumping station, all designed around a specific storm return period and needing to be proven mechanically sound and hydraulically effective before the scheme is adopted. Deskely holds every tank, penstock, valve and pump in one register with the wet-test and adoption gates built in.

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    09

    Water and wastewater SCADA and telemetry commissioning

    A water or wastewater control system is only as good as its weakest instrument loop: every sensor, actuator and alarm has to be loop-checked from field device through the PLC or RTU to the SCADA HMI before an operator can trust what the screen is showing. Deskely holds every I/O point, loop and alarm in one register with the loop-check and control-system-acceptance gates built in.

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    10

    Package plant and brownfield upgrade commissioning

    Package treatment plants and brownfield upgrades share the same constraint: the work has to be commissioned alongside, or cut into, a live water or wastewater process that cannot be taken fully offline, with tie-ins, temporary bypasses and phased cutover sequences adding a layer of risk that a greenfield build does not carry. Deskely holds every skid, tie-in point and cutover step in one register with the phased-commissioning and cutover gates built in.

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