District Metered Area: Reliable data on flow and pressure
Smartrek is proud to have helped a large municipality of over 200,000 residents by delivering accurate and reliable data on flow and pressure at the inlet and outlet points of the district-metered area in the aqueducts. This information allows the municipality to quickly detect sudden aqueduct breaks and water leaks. This also increases their efficiency by sending leak detection teams to the fields where they are most likely to be found.
Installation environment
The city had to cope with the dismantling of its 3G cellular communication system, due to its obsolescence.
Furthermore, this system only allowed data collection once a day, limiting its responsiveness to the various malfunctions that could occur.
A connected solution
Smartrek makes it possible to take real-time flow and pressure measurements at the district-metered areas. Readings are taken at regular intervals, ranging from 1 to 5 minutes. Moreover, this data is compared to water consumption data obtained from an AMI system as well as to water flows from the meters of drinking water treatment plants. Therefore, if a plant detects a high-flow momentary, it is possible to determine the sector where this flow is headed and send a team to inspect if there is a water main break. Similarly, by comparing this data to the consumption data, it is possible to know the total water losses of the municipality.
This information allows to focus the search on the sectors to be monitored. The data is also exported to an Artificial Intelligence system which performs an analysis to optimize these searches.
What are the associated costs with the process before using our Smartrek products?
Smartrek has significantly reduced costs by easily integrating into the city’s SCADA system. With its innovative SpiderMesh, the very first Cooperative Mesh Radio protocol, Smartrek provides a no-additional-cost private network. Furthermore, devices can operate with solar panels or D-cell batteries worth $5, needing replacement only every 2 to 7 years.
A true innovation in the sector!
Let’s better understand the project with an explanatory map:
The project involved the deployment of several types of sensors:
More than 300 repeaters were installed to make to make this project possible.
Bidirectional flow devices equipped with 0-300 psi pressure sensors on 90 inputs/outputs from the district metered area.
- Smart Gateway
- Repeaters
- Solar repeaters
- Dual flowmeter
Smartrek is all about connectivity
Thanks to Smartrek, the city has achieved considerable savings, as our solution costs around 50% less than the existing system. Furthermore, the acquired data is of remarkable quality, allowing them to be more responsive and to reduce reaction time from 24 hours to less than one hour when a sudden break appears in the water network.
Contact us and take advantage of the incredible capabilities of our Smartrek products for your city or any other project related to you !