How Sarpsborg Municipality discovers more leaks using data
“The collaboration with Kamstrup has been impeccable. Based on Kamstrup’s recommendation, we believe we have the opportunity to discover almost 4 times as many leaks per year.” – Ronny Urholmen, Project Manager in Sarpsborg Municipality
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The challenge: Sarpsborg Municipality lacked an overview and was manually identifying leaks
In Norway, 70% of municipalities don’t measure their water consumption. Historically Norway has never lacked water, and therefore measuring the water consumption and keeping an eye on the water loss has not always been a priority.
In fact, 33% of all water in Norway is lost due to leaks. But times are changing, and the green transition is on the agenda, so there is now a new focus on taking responsibility and reducing water waste through sustainable solutions.
Sarpsborg Municipality decided that all residents in the municipality should have water meters installed by 2022 to reduce water usage and get a fairer payment based on consumption.
Previously their leak detection consisted of a two-person team doing manual searches using audio loggers – a very time-consuming solution. At first, they had good results reducing the water loss from an estimated 50% to 28% over 8 years.
Even though they had good results, they found it difficult to get an accurate overview of the actual water loss, and it became increasingly more inefficient to find leaks manually.
The solution: Leak Detector creates a better overview using data
When deciding on a meter supplier, Sarpsborg Municipality chose Kamstrup’s intelligent water meters because of their measuring accuracy and ability to locate possible leaks through acoustic leak detection.
Using the smart water meters along with the associated software, Leak Detector has helped Sarpsborg Municipality accurately find more leaks, even on plastic pipes (PEL), where leaks make very little sound and are therefore hard to detect.
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“Kamstrup’s meters are more accurate than other manufacturers we have experience with. There is very little error in these meters compared to those we had before”, says Ronny Urholmen, Project Manager in Sarpsborg Municipality.
Better overview = Easier and more efficient work
With Leak Detector and Kamstrup’s smart water meters, Sarpsborg Municipality has gained a much better overview of their network due to added data and wireless communication that allows remote reading of the water meters.
In fact, Sarpsborg Municipality has used Leak Detector to find 40% of the total 55 leaks found since utilising Kamstrup’s smart metering and software. 2 of these leaks were on municipal pipes.
Nowadays, Sarpsborg Municipality uses Leak Detector every day to detect leaks using the filtering options in the software to get an easy overview. Leak Detector work particularly well on private service connections.
“We just move the filter and use the red symbols as leak points. Leak Detector gives us an indication of where there may be a leak. Then we drive out to the address and listen. This has become a more efficient way to find leaks”, Ronny Urholmen explains and adds:
“By entering in details on leaks and other events in Leak Detector, we have a historical overview and do not have to go out to the same addresses several times if the meter registers a noise source that turns out not to be a leak. This gives us a much better overview of our network without much hassle.”
Fair payment and easy phone calls
Sarpsborg Municipality decided all inhabitants in the municipality should have intelligent water meters installed to help reduce water consumption and get a fairer payment based on consumption.
Now, with help from Kamstrup, inhabitants get a much better overview of their own consumption where they only pay for what they use. This is an excellent opportunity for households to save money through smarter consumption.
“We have gotten a good overview of inhabitants’ water consumption. When inhabitants complain about high water consumption, we can look at the overview in the system and possibly give a good answer there and then”, Ronny Urholmen explains.
“Previously, we had to go out for an inspection, test whether the mechanical water meter measured correctly and drain 100 litres of water to check if the consumption was correctly read on the water meter. This took a long time. Now we can, in many cases, help the customer over the phone.”
Discover 4 times as many leaks per year
Ronny Urholmen believes that Sarpsborg Municipality will use more of the opportunities that smart water meters from Kamstrup can offer in the future. They are looking at infrastructure for data collection across the municipality and hope to gain more from their partnership with Kamstrup.
“The collaboration with Kamstrup has been impeccable, and they have always been available for questions and help when we need it. Based on Kamstrup’s recommendation, we believe we have the opportunity to discover almost 4 times as many leaks per year with Kamstrup`s solution, according to Kamstrup, says Ronny Urholmen
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