How digital meters save Vacarisses water, money, and time
The results:
- 2,900 digital flowIQ® 2200 water meters
- Meter reading time reduced from 21 days to less than 5 hours
- 15% of total water consumption is lost in leakage
- Savings of more than €70,000 per year
The challenge:
A drought, old and inaccurate meters and network leakages
In the mountainous Vacarisses municipality near Barcelona, Spain, the local water utility was challenged with a combination of old technology, drought problems, and leakages coming from unknown parts of the pipe network. As a result, leaks in the pipe network were equivalent to 40% of the total consumption , according to Josep Maria Ortiz Prat, Municipal Energy Manager.
The municipality’s water consumption was monitored via more than 2,900 mechanical meters – most of them 20-30 years old, and in some cases 40. The meters were estimated to have lost between 20% and 100% of their accuracy, according to Josep Maria Ortiz Prat.
The pipe network covers 17 towns along more than 100 km (60 miles) of roads. It took the municipality 21 days to read the meters manually.
Local rivers used to replenish the area’s underground aquifers with drinking water, but previous decades had brought drought – and it was getting worse. In 2022, Vacarisses was mandated by Spanish authorities to initiate supply cuts. This brought a new focus on Vacarisses’s technical challenges, says Pere Casas, 3rd Lieutenant Mayor and a councillor in water management.
The solution:
Smart water meters and Acoustic Leak Detection
Two things happened that encouraged action, says Josep Maria Ortiz Prat. First, Spain implemented a ministerial order to upgrade water meters. Second, Catalonia set aside funds to subsidize projects that help to mitigate the drought. “Vacarisses started to work with this and looked for the best way forward. After a market study, we found the flowIQ® smart water meter from Kamstrup.”
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Kamstrup’s local distributor, Domini Ambietal, carried out the replacement of the 2,900 old mechanical meters with Kamstrup flowIQ® 2200 smart water meters. Local partner Elèctrica Pintó provided expertise in the retrofit – which Aleix Pintó Planas, CEO of mother company Grup Aquacenter, says was done in record time.
“Kamstrup's READy Mobile Reading app provides a very simple way to track the location of the old meters, along with a photograph and their current reading, which is then transferred to the new meters,” he says.
In addition, these residential meters are manufactured in reinforced composite with 40 percent fibreglass, making them more robust and facilitating their installation, says Aleix Pintó Planas.
After only three months, Vacarisses could measure the advantages of the Kamstrup smart technology.
“Before, four men could spend three weeks to read all mechanical water meters. Today, we can do it all in under five hours,” says Josep Maria Ortiz Prat. The workers use the READy Mobile Reading app as they simply drive by the meter locations – without getting out of the vehicle. “There is a lot to save in terms of time and money.” In fact, Vacarisses saves €18,400 a year through drive-by meter reading.
Reducing non-revenue water
Reducing water losses in Vacarisses came hand in hand with the Kamstrup flowIQ® 2200 meter exchanges. Through Acoustic Leakage Detection (ALD), the Kamstrup meters detect the noise created from leaks in pipes. The Kamstrup Leak Detector system allows users to manage and interpret the leak noise data, pinpointing leaks in the pipe network.
The Kamstrup system located one major leak immediately that, when fixed, saved the municipality €5,600 per year. After just a few months, otherwise hidden leaks were found and repaired in the distribution network equivalent to 8 m3 of non-revenue water per hour. This was 10% savings overall, equal to nearly €70,000 per year, says Josep Maria Ortiz Prat.
Another 150 minor leaks were detected by the smart meters inside the residences, saving another 4 m3 per hour equivalent to about 6% of annual consumption.
Moving towards digitalisation
Vacarisses now plans to implement a fixed reading network, meaning that fixed data collection units will be installed to allow fully automatic meter readings. In this way, they can make the most of the meters’ benefits, such as making it possible for end users to monitor their consumption and receive direct warnings of possible leaks or other incidents in their installations through an app, says Josep Maria Ortiz Prat.
“With this action, we are moving the municipality towards digitalisation.”
Dig into the details of Leak Detector
Locate leaks in service connections and distribution mains based on acoustic noise data.
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