Water & Wastewater Asia September/October 2022

FOCUS
There are huge gains to be made
by embracing joint-working. In
leakage, the vast local network
knowledge embedded within
utilities and municipalities,
combined with the research and
development capabilities of the
supply chain, can lead to significant
technological advancements.
Historically, leak detection efforts
would focus on a specific area.
The common approach would be
to let leakage creep up over time in
that area and then send teams to
reduce the overall leakage.
Now, the Internet of Things (IoT)
is reshaping network monitoring
allowing utilities to move to fixed
water networks of permanent
monitoring devices and loggers,
capturing data which is fed
back to a central system via
communications technology.
This is increasing real-time and
predictive capabilities — leak
detection systems can be set up to
permanently monitor the network in
real-time. What we effectively have
is a permanent network alarming
device, capable of detecting leaks
early.
DATA LOGGERS ARE
THE FIRST STEP IN LEAK
DETECTION
Having data loggers on the
network provides a top-level
overview; it allows companies
to accurately and reliably record
parameters for pressure, flow and
level across the water network.
Establishing a baseline helps to
plan an effective leak detection
campaign.
The data can provide insight
into areas that you might want
to focus more on and highlights
trends occurring on your network,
that you may not have known were
happening. This extra set of eyes
allows you to be more targeted in
your strategies.
If a standard leak detection
system making one recording per
night flagged up a new location
of continuous sound, a network
manager would have to know that
the noise was not just activity from
a consumer. Thus, if someone were
to draw from the network for their
heating system or their washing
machine, a leak detection system
would say there is noise at this
position.
The water utility may then wait, then
listen again for the next few nights to
verify the position of the sound. The
chances of that being consumption
in the same location is minimal. It is
now worth sending out a team, but
that leak has been running for three
days before someone has gone to
investigate.
By tying the data logger and the
leak detection equipment together,
we can then run a much smarter
system. The logger looks at what
known as the nightline — the
minimum night flow.
If that increases and is consistent,
it is very likely to be a leak. When
that happens, that logger can send a
message to cloud network software,
which will then verify that there is
certainly flow increase in the area.
Therefore, rather than the leak
detection equipment waking up
once at maybe 2am and making a
10-second recording, we can tell
it there is something to find. The
equipment then knows to record
three times, say at 2am, 3am and
4am. By the time someone from
the utility arrives at their office,
switches on their computer and
sees the data, the system has
automatically reduced those three
days of monitoring down to the
next morning.
From detection to location,
connecting data loggers to your
leak detection system can selfdiagnose
problems on the network
for you, making it a truly smart
network.
REDUCING LEAKS CUTS
CARBON EMISSIONS
Water and wastewater operations
typically contribute 30-40% to
a municipality’s total energy use
and the global sector is currently
estimated to contribute up to 5%
of greenhouse gas emissions. The
link between leakage and carbon
should not be underestimated.
The more water we save through
leakage reduction, the more
energy we stop wasting, through
the pumping of treated water that
ends up being lost through leaky
pipes. If a utility can reduce the
amount of water being treated
and put into supply, it will reduce
the amount of energy being
consumed, leading to a drop in
operational carbon emissions — a
win-win situation.
Preventing leaks is a
big step forward for
energy conservation
WATER & WASTEWATER ASIA | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 45