Adding to the reduction of unaccounted for non-revenue water through the proper application of technology.
Abstract
With changes in metering technology the focus in the water industry has been on monitoring and management systems. It seems the heart of the management systems is being overlooked and a revisit to the heart is necessary to help reduce NRW – simple change can bring about significant reduction.
Background
Many articles are written concerning the logging and monitoring of water, leakage reduction and the billing of water. Strategic Asset Management being an important aspect of these systems with concepts like ‘Web-centric’, ‘Smart Grid’ and ‘In the Cloud’ often being referred to in the articles. Spending on software is a large cost to the user or provider of services and much focus on the reports that the system can generate is a key part of the decision about the structure of the system to be implemented. However, not enough thought is put into the source of the input data or how it is interpreted. It is important to understand that the source of this data is always a sensor or transducer. (It must be noted that no matter how smart or good the logging or monitoring systems or software used to measure NRW are, the sensory side must be included in a combined approach if maximum effect is desired.)
The sensor or transducer is the heart of any measuring system and so system performance is dependent on sensor or transducer performance. AMR systems are generally employed as the name designates ‘Automated Meter Reading’, aimed specifically at metering such as domestic meters and in the size range of up to 50 mm. The trend for utility companies towards automated systems eliminates the cost to company of the personnel needed to take the meter readings, their vehicles and other ancillary costs. However, it is only when this solution is supplemented with an automated auxiliary bulk monitoring system that maximum cost saving is achieved through the optimisation of non-revenue water. This article focuses on the bulk measurement and not the AMR/AMI systems.
Bulk monitoring systems are designed to log and record water use in DMAs (zonal metering) to reduce losses from leakage and to control pressure for night flow measurement etc. The flow meters are usually larger than 100 mm, with bulk meters being used for transfer of the custody of water from one provider to another. This is an area that is problematic and can be improved with new technology meters.
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