Water Utilities Become Smarter In Tackling Scarcity
By Andrew Burrows, Chief Technology Officer, i2O Water
Utilities around the world face ever-increasing demand for water as a result of population growth, ongoing urbanization, and rapidly growing economic activity in areas where water supply is already limited.
While localized water shortages are nothing new, water scarcity is becoming a global issue. The World Economic Forum ranks security of supply as the number one global risk faced by humanity today. McKinsey & Company calculated that global demand for water will reach 6,900 billion m3 by 2030, a full 40 percent above the levels that can currently be accessed reliably.
Alongside efforts to improve access to clean water amongst the 750 million world citizens currently without, significant work needs to be done to ensure the world has adequate water stocks in the years to come.
With normal rates of supply expansion and efficiency improvements closing only a fraction of the predicted gap between supply and demand, it is clear that reducing leakage rates — which are in excess of 40 percent in a third of all countries — will be crucial for helping to address this future challenge.
Demand for water changes dramatically over a day. The high pressures required to satisfy customers during peak periods of peak demand place excess stress on the pipework at other times and massively increases the rate of leakage and burst frequency.
Traditional approaches to managing water networks meant pressures had to be maintained at a high level at all times. Pressures were set based on a combination of customer complaints and conservative guesswork. Changing the settings required expensive site visits, road closures, and customer disruption.
To help address the growing water scarcity threat and to ensure security of supply in the event of drought conditions, water utilities are turning to new smart technologies from companies like i2O Water to obtain greater insight into and control over water in their distribution networks.
In Malaysia, for instance, the water utility Syabas is using i2O’s technologies to secure its supply. So far it has reduced water leakage by 90 million liters per day and halved its burst frequency.
In the UK, South East Water has reduced water loss by 4.9 million liters per day since installing i2O technology in 148 district metered areas. Where i2O is installed at another UK utility, Anglian Water, losses from burst pipes and leaks have been reduced by 56 percent and 40 percent, respectively.
The success of these schemes begins with understanding precisely what is happening in the network. Loggers capture data on water flow and pressures information and deliver it to i2O via the mobile phone network.
Tightly integrated with remote control capabilities and the ability to automate the pressure optimization process, this data provides water utilities with the insight and agility to implement precisely the right level of pressure control for each area of the network at any given point in time. This reduces the excess pressures that damage the network and accelerates leakage, and provides the ability to deliver a consistently good level of service.
Significant energy savings are achievable when this technology is used in pump-fed distribution networks due to the combination of pumping at lower pressures and reducing pumped volume into leakage. Water companies have — on average — achieved a 30 percent reduction in the energy consumed pumping water into the network.
With greater visibility and the ability to remotely implement pressure strategies, many water utilities have further reduced their environmental impact and saved more money by undertaking fewer scheduled site visits. Water companies have been able to cut the amount of time spent on the road to undertake system maintenance tasks by up to 75 percent. Operational costs have been reduced by 40 percent in some instances.