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Integrating acoustic detection into networks, it makes it possible to identify leakage points in the general supply network.
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It has invested €200,000 to endow its remote reading system with innovative water-saving tools.
The company Arson Metering has developed a remote meter reading technology featuring advanced water saving tools. The firm has invested more than €200,000 and a year and a half of work in the integration of acoustic leak detection and pressure management systems that will make it possible to take better advantage of water and facilitate more efficient control of the supply network.
These developments respond to the urgent need to streamline the use of available water in municipalities in the current context of scarcity. In addition, a social function focused on the safety of elderly people living alone has been incorporated. “The chief aim of this technology is to make more and better use of water through digital management, detecting leaks, breakdowns and other anomalies, but also providing citizens with other value-added services,” explained Arson Metering manager Amador Martínez.
The main breakthrough that the Arson Metering team has achieved is having integrated current acoustic detection systems, already in place, with the hourly consumption data of water meters, correlating the data effectively and easily. This system uses sensors that can detect leaks in the general network in order to address the problem of Unregistered Water. This category includes all the water that is consumed, but it is neither tracked nor billed, either because it escapes in leaks, or due to breakdowns or fraud. “The hydraulic network in Spain is very old, so it is essential to make an extra effort to detect all possible leaks and breakdowns,” Martínez added. According to the firm’s calculations, in extreme cases the volume of unrecorded water can reach up to 40% of the total, in many cases due to losses.
Detects leaks in water networks
The system that Arson Metering has incorporated is based on acoustic sensors placed at strategic points in the pipelines and integrated into the remote reading network. These sensors transmit surrounding sounds using LoRaWAN technology, which are then filtered to eliminate noise and detect the sound frequency of leaks. When such a frequency is detected, depending on how the signal arrives, and the noise level, amplitude, etc. an action area marked by multiple factors, such as the material of the pipes, is displayed at that point. Depending on the areas displayed in the supply network’s Geographic Information System (GIS), it can be possible to predict the locations of pipe cracks.
The great technological advantage is being able to compare and contrast the sensor data with the real-time consumption data of the installation via one click, making it possible to distinguish measured consumption from unrecorded leaks.
Arson Metering has cooperated with sensor and meter manufacturers, who have already successfully integrated this LoRaWAN acoustic detection and communications function in such a way that if at least one of these meters or sensors is installed in a building, it can also be used for detection inside the private system.
“It’s a very innovative development, which, until now, had not been incorporated into a remote meter reading system, and it provides a good solution to a problem that all municipalities have, which is to avert water losses.”
The function is already incorporated into its AquaCity remote reading system, and it will be launched soon in the first installations.
Fire hydrant pressure
Arson Metering has also developed a system that displays and manages the pressures of fire hydrants through the installation of pressure detectors. This provides information on the water pressure at these critical points at all times, the benefits of this being two-fold. First, it makes this data available to fire stations so that they can check availability when they receive an alert. Second, it serves to adjust water pressure levels at night, when there is lower consumption, and the pressure that the supply network’s pipes withstand increases, with the consequent increase in the risk of leaks. This can prevent major water losses.
Lack-of-consumption alerts
The third function developed by Arson Metering has a more social focus and is aimed at protecting elderly people living alone, as a value-added service to citizens. Based on the information that municipalities have, specific groups of meters are created by setting up different security alarms making possible more precise monitoring of excess consumption, or a lack of it. For example, if it is detected that there has been no water consumption in 48 hours in any of the meters of these groups, local social services can notify the relatives of the subscriber and take the corresponding measures.
These new developments provide a greater level of water supply control, in addition to facilitating data analysis – water balances, comparisons, etc.- which are carried out at the Arson Metering Data Control Center to ensure the proper functioning of the installations being managed. The firm manages the water supply networks of more than 200 municipalities in Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Latin America, mainly, and more than 400,000 water meters, its remote reading system being one of the most reliable, providing 100% of the data from each city’s meters.