Installing ultrasonic meters to improve network efficiency
In the French part of the Eastern Pyrenees, a persistent drought has made a heavy impact on the region’s water resources. To secure a stable water supply, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée., a Veolia-owned company responsible for local water management, replaces mechanical water meters with ultrasonic Kamstrup meters.
A new reality calls for improved network efficiency
Since 2021, the Perpignan region has faced an unprecedented drought causing various issues across society. At the local water management company, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée, part of the Veolia Group, the lack of rainwater has posed a serious challenge for the region’s water supply.
“In the Pyrénées-Orientales, there is a challenge: the lack of water, which has resulted in a rarefaction of resources and therefore significant issues in water supply,” states Eric de Saint-Martin, CEO, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée.
In the search for a solution that could secure a stable water supply and relieve end-users of their concerns, the water management company encountered a fundamental issue.
“To act, we needed to address the root of the problem. What is the root? Leaky connections, conditions causing water loss that are not visible,” explains Soizic Chocquart, Team Leader – Leak Detection of Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée.
To establish a stable and reliable water supply, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée found that reassessing the current metering situation was a prerequisite for securing a higher network efficiency rate.
“At every level, we aimed at identifying the most innovative and relevant approaches. One key point was metering. When calculating network efficiency, it is crucial to control what goes into distribution, and what comes out to achieve optimal efficiency,” Eric de Saint-Martin points out.
"We faced a challenge with mechanical meters that lose accuracy and quality over time. Another critical point is the ability to better detect leaks before the meter. These two elements naturally led us to meters developed by Kamstrup."
- Eric de Saint-Martin, CEO, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée
Tested and proven to meet high expectations
To realize their ambitions, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée. found that replacing their mechanical water meters with modern ultrasonic meters was imperative. As explained by Philippe Crolais, Key Account Manager, Kamstrup, “compared to the mechanical meters traditionally used by large utilities, switching to ultrasonic meters makes it possible to ensure reliable measurement, adopt a technology where communication is fully integrated into the meter, and ensure its reliability over time.”
In their search for the optimal metering solution, Kamstrup’s flowIQ® 2200 smart water meter offered everything they were looking for. But with comprehensive plans of investing in more than 100,000 new meters, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée. needed to prove that the Kamstrup meters lived up to their proclaimed quality. After conducting several tests in both Toulouse and Toulon, the stringent water management company could happily confirm that the flowIQ® 2200 delivered on all its promises.
“We tested these composite meters, and they proved to be of very high quality. The remote reading feature ensures meter reliability for remote data collection. There are also digital dials that allow for clear reading and provide instantaneous flow information,” says Christophe Sanchez, Team Leader – Field Consumers, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée.
Setting a new national benchmark for digital water meters
By 2026, all households in the Perpignan area, a total of 126,000, will have their mechanical water meters replaced by digital ultrasonic meters – a national first at this scale. This will quickly propel Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée into the digital age of water metering, utilizing the benefits from innovative water management technology.
Via a fixed network solution, all digital meters transmit data from the households to the utility and provide full transparency of what is happening in the water distribution. This has a number of benefits, such as providing frequent and correct data to ensure accurate billing of water consumption per household and providing insights to enable instant action in case that anything out of the ordinary happens – both in households and in the network.
"Kamstrup has provided us with a technological edge we have never had before, becoming a key partner for leak detection, measurement, and having a tool directly integrated into the network to detect leaks as quickly as possible."
- Soizic Chocquart, Team Leader - Leak Detection, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée
Advanced leak detection and reliable data transmission
One of the standout features of the Kamstrup smart meters is its integrated acoustic leak detection. This is an advanced technology that uses ultrasound to detect noise patterns in the water networks, thereby revealing potential leaks and their locations.
All meters are connected to a software solution, which then uses the meter data to provide detailed insights into the distribution network. By leveraging the integrated acoustic leak detection feature, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée can now prioritize areas where the data shows high leakage risks rather than spending precious time searching for leaks manually.
To ensure safe and stable data transmission, the Kamstrup meters deployed in Perpignan communicate via LoRaWAN®, a low-power, long-range communication technology that also offers high security and extensive scalability options.
“Kamstrup's flowIQ® 2200 meters offer unparalleled accuracy”
- Press Release from Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée
Quick results spark early excitement
In 2024, 40,000 households have been equipped with Kamstrup flowIQ® 2200 meters. While the total 126,000 won’t be realized before 2026, Eau Agglo Perpignan Méditerranée has already made a significant leap forward in improving the network efficiency.
“The first benefit we have achieved is identifying 120 leaks in recent months, some of which were previously undetectable even to the naked eye, making this a real advantage,” Eric de Saint-Martin reveals. “We have already improved our leak detection success rate from 60% to over 75% in just a few months. We hope to quickly reach and surpass 80%.”
By pushing the leak detection success rate beyond 80%, this will support the overarching objective of the project: realizing the bold ambition of achieving a network efficiency rate above 89%
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