Ask a water plant superintendent what they want from a valve actuator, and the answer is usually short: open when I say open, close when I say close, and don't wake me up at 2 a.m. That hasn't changed. What has changed is how much information an actuator can give you while it does that job, and how much of the guesswork it can take off your maintenance crew.
Lines like Bettis electric actuators, which carry forward the engineering heritage of the old EIM brand, show where the industry has been going for the last two decades. Here is where it is likely headed next.
How We Got Here
Early municipal electric actuators were rugged, simple machines: a motor, a gear train, limit switches, torque switches, and a handwheel for when the power went out. They were reliable, but mostly silent. You knew a valve was open or closed because a lamp told you so.
The EIM-style designs that later became part of the Bettis family pushed this forward with non-intrusive setup, better position and torque sensing, and digital communication options. Instead of pulling covers and adjusting cams, technicians could configure an actuator from the outside. That shift toward setup without opening the housing is a big deal in wet wells, vaults, and filter galleries, where every opened cover increases moisture risk.
Communications: Ethernet Takes Over
Most water utilities have spent years wiring actuators with 4-20 mA signals and discrete contacts. Those still work, and they will stick around. But the direction is clear: more actuators will speak industrial Ethernet protocols such as Modbus TCP, EtherNet/IP, and PROFINET, alongside the serial and fieldbus options many plants already use.
Why does that matter? A single network cable can carry position, torque, motor temperature, alarms, and diagnostics all at once. It also reduces the terminations and conduit runs that make retrofits so expensive. Expect more redundant network options, such as ring topologies, so one broken cable doesn't take out a whole filter bank.
Wireless will play a supporting role. Bluetooth or similar short-range links let a technician commission an actuator from a phone or tablet while standing safely outside a confined space. Running a critical control loop over wireless is a different story, and most utilities will stay cautious there for good reason.
Cybersecurity Moves From Afterthought to Feature
Once actuators sit on the network, they become part of the utility's attack surface. Since America's Water Infrastructure Act pushed utilities to assess risk and resilience, cybersecurity questions now show up in actuator specifications. Look for role-based access, disabled unused ports, signed firmware updates, and designs that follow recognized industrial security practices such as the IEC 62443 series. In a few years, a secure actuator won't be a premium option. It will be the baseline.
Where Artificial Intelligence Actually Fits
There's a lot of hype around AI, so let's be practical. An actuator won't decide on its own when to open a raw water intake. Process control stays with the SCADA system and the operators who answer for it.
The real opportunity is condition monitoring. Every stroke of a valve produces a torque signature. When the packing gets tight, a stem starts to bind, a seat gets debris on it, or a gearbox begins to wear, that signature changes slightly, long before anything fails. Software trained on thousands of strokes can spot those shifts and flag them. That's the idea behind predictive maintenance: replace the calendar-based inspection with a warning that says this valve is starting to behave differently.
Likely developments include:
- Automatic baselining of each valve's torque profile at commissioning, then trend comparison over time.
- Health scores and plain-language alerts inside the SCADA or asset management screen, not just raw data.
- Analytics that run partly in the actuator or a nearby gateway, so useful alarms still work if the cloud connection drops.
- Fleet-level comparisons that show which of 300 valves deserve attention first.
The value here depends on good data. A properly sized actuator with accurate torque sensing produces useful signatures. A poorly sized one produces noise. AI doesn't fix bad application engineering, which is one reason experienced application support still matters.
Other Advances Worth Watching
Absolute encoders and better sensing. Position feedback that survives a power loss without batteries means fewer surprises after an outage.
Energy-conscious fail-safe options. Utilities that need a valve to move to a safe position on power loss are looking at capacitor-based and other stored-energy designs as alternatives to spring return mechanisms in some applications.
Smarter closing control. Water hammer is a constant worry in long pipelines. Actuators with finely adjustable speed control, and eventually adaptive closing profiles, help operators manage surge without hand-tuning every valve.
Power monitoring. Phase loss, low voltage, and motor-heating data will increasingly be reported automatically, helping catch electrical problems at remote sites.
Ruggedness stays non-negotiable. Submersible enclosures, corrosion-resistant coatings for hydrogen sulfide environments, hazardous-area ratings for headworks, and conformance with AWWA C540 for power-actuating devices will remain core requirements no matter how smart the electronics get.
What Utilities Should Do Now
- Specify communications that match your SCADA roadmap, not just what you have today.
- Ask for diagnostic data from day one, even if you don't use it yet.
- Include cybersecurity requirements in the bid documents.
- Size actuators carefully with realistic torque margins and duty cycles.
- Plan for training. The best diagnostics are useless if no one looks at them.
Common Questions
Will AI replace operators or valve technicians?
No. It will help them decide where to look first. Judgment and hands-on skill still matter.
Do I need to replace my existing actuators to get these features?
Not always. You can add some newer communication and diagnostic options to compatible existing units, and mixed fleets are normal. Your supplier can tell you what upgrade paths exist.
Is electric always better than pneumatic or hydraulic?
Not always, but for most municipal water and wastewater applications, electric actuators are the practical choice, since plants already have power and no compressed air or hydraulic systems to maintain.
About Automatic Controls of Virginia
Automatic Controls of Virginia is a leader in electric actuator applications and fabrication of automated valves for the municipal water and wastewater industry. Their team works with engineers and utilities to match the right actuator, valve, controls, and communications to the job, then builds and tests complete automated valve assemblies before they ship. If you're planning a new plant, a rehab project, or a SCADA upgrade, they're a good group to have in the conversation early.
