“To sum up, I decided to ‘go all the way’ and replace all water meters with smart meters that had acoustic leak detection while simultaneously introducing a remote reading system designed for network leakage analysis,” states Jerzy Delewicz.
It turned out to be a good decision to replace all meters and introduce a new targeted leak detection program to the entire district. It has ensured that any potential leaks in the district are detected faster and therefore also dealt with faster. In the long run, this will save the utility and the citizens in their district water, energy, and money.
Instant success with new leak detection solution
The solution consists of 4,405 Kamstrup flowIQ® 2200 smart water meters with acoustic leak detection where all faulty meters were replaced. In addition to the meters, six concentrators for remote data collection were installed while other meters are read by a drive-by solution. The utility also chose to implement the Kamstrup meter reading solution READy to access consumption data and then use Leak Detector to analyse it.
It has already proved its usefulness and why it is a good investment. In one of the district’s zones, the utility had long suspected a leakage. However, for four months the workers had not been able to locate it.
The search involved 3-person teams, working nights. An estimated 40 man-hours were spent searching, and after adding the kilometres travelled by two cars and the price for renting noise loggers, the cost of the unsuccessful search for just this one leakage is estimated to be approx. EUR 1,282.
Hoping for practical ways to save money, the utility began replacing water meters in the zone where they suspected the leak – the Otmęt area. As Jerzy Delewicz reports:
“After the installation of about 600 meters out of 4,405 in total, we immediately got about a dozen notifications after the first reading of elevated noise levels. We used those that occurred close to each other to select a section of about 100 meters to be tested with a correlator."
The team confirmed multiple leakages when they performed the correlator test. One of them was in the PVC pipe that connects the water supply to a multi-family building in a housing estate. The leak was discovered just behind the gate valve, right at the connection to the distribution network, which was why it had been difficult to locate without acoustic leak detection. The leak was fixed the next day.
The smart metering solution with acoustic leak detection enables the utility to target their detection efforts to specific locations, which ensures efficient use of resources. Effective leak detection also speeds up Krapkowice Water Utility’s process of identifying pipe sections that need to be replaced, optimises the maintenance process, and reduces manual search hours.
Going from months to three days to reduce water loss
Time plays a very important role when dealing with leaks. The faster a leak is located, the quicker measures can be taken to prevent the loss of water and other challenges. Therefore, one of the main advantages of the new solution is its ability to indicate the initial location of a leak the day after its occurrence. It is possible because the solution remotely reads most of the water meters daily, providing the utility with new data every day and making monitoring easy, automatic, and less time-consuming.
For this reason, the utility also has a new goal for their efficient water system regarding how long it should take to locate and repair a leak:
“We no longer take more than three days to locate leaks. Having reduced the leak detection time from several months, and in extreme cases, years, to just three days is a great result for us. And because of this, we have and will continue to experience huge savings in respect of money and water,” explains Jerzy Delewicz.
To further emphasise how time is of the essence when managing water losses, with the before-mentioned leak, a minimum of 19.8-21.6 m3/h water was pumped each night until the utility located it four months after initially suspecting it. In the days following the repair, the minimum night flow dropped to 10.8-12.6 m3/h, reducing the night flow by 9 m3/h. This combined with the additional benefit they experienced from being able to turn off the submersible pumps for three to four hours at night, while the previous downtime did not exceed 1.5 hours, have amounted to annual savings of about EUR 13,455.
The genius in simplicity
Kamstrup water meters consist of an ultrasonic measuring device with remote reading capabilities, a battery lifespan of 15 years, and an acoustic module that enables leakage detection in the vicinity of the device. All in all, a very convenient and effective solution to manage water and reduce water loss. And with the current results experienced, Krapkowice Water Utility already benefits from investing in new smart water meters.
In the near future, Jerzy Delewicz explains the utility’s plan to eliminate more of the detected leakages:
“We have a total of 29 water meters with noise levels above 40 units. We have one more leakage confirmed, which we intend to remove shortly.”
Despite the initial scepticism, Jerzy Delewicz is positively surprised by the results and describes the solution as “a combination of a water meter with an equivalent of a noise logger, brilliant in its simplicity.”
Jerzy Delewicz hopes other utilities in Poland will be inspired by Krapkowice Water Utility and introduce innovative, smart solutions into their networks. He believes it will contribute to improving the water supply network on a large scale and be a step in the right direction of solving some of Poland’s water challenges.
