Winning the water war

Man has battled over oil – a vital component of a nation’s economy – for decades. Now, we must step up and focus our battle to shore up and protect another vital resource — water.

“Harnessing smarter technology in metering and consumption intel collection is key to ensuring tactical water conservation, and judicious resource management and preservation for current and future generations”

Global green initiatives and increased awareness are driving consumer focus on preservation. We all must do our part - yet utilities may be finding themselves bearing the brunt of financial burden while being forced to operate with wholesale water costs rising and the challenge of consumer consumption. These same utilities are already under attack from aging infrastructure fraught with leaks, operational inefficiencies, and systemic decay. In many cases our most precious resource, water, may be found literally slipping through the cracks.

How do we win this war?

Utilities are fighting back - with a tactical approach aimed at tightening their grip on water supply, increasing operational efficiencies and prioritizing their capital infrastructure upgrades with smart intel providing new data analysis.

Technology is leading the offensive.

The technology migration path for most utilities begins with an upgrade in meter technology. Smart meters are making the job easier and new forms of data collection are improving operations efficiencies. ROI is a key driver that meter technology partners can help utilities project and prove through efficiency gains and reduced operational costs. Proven ROI is paving the way for more widespread adaptation and setting the table for better run, smart utilities of the future.

Still, the cost of upgrade remains real and current. To ease the burden, companies like Master Meter provide hybrid technologies that allow utilities to slowly grow into a new metering solution. Their universal AMR register, the Interpreter, can retrofit almost any existing water meter in operation, in minutes - making it capable of reporting data to either a 3G Mobile Read system or Fixed Network data collection grid. This allows utilities to get more life out of existing meters and save man-hours on meter change out, while immediately gaining the benefits of new read technology.

Building a Smart Grid for Water

The move in read technology is toward fixed network water meter systems and establishing a 'smart grid' for water. A fixed network system shortens the time gap between utility management and actionable intel from the field. With fixed networks, managers no longer have to wait for monthly collected reads to be armed with data. Real-time data drives better informed decision making, faster response to alerts of loss, and overall greater control of water. More detailed reporting from every meter means more accountability, the power to make informed decisions on leak management, revenue protection, and implement new demand-side management billing programs.

Protecting Customers and the Utility

Preservation responsibility falls on both sides of the meter - both for customers and the utility. Smart metering solutions can give customers better insight into their consumption so that they can make smarter decisions on their own use. Master Meter's residential meters capture rich data capable of delivering a usage profile in 15-minute detail. Should customers be alarmed with use or have a billing dispute these profiles can be used to help pinpoint the exact time and date of consumption. Whether it was legitimate use or leak related, both the utility and customer are better informed to manage their response and prevent the problem in the future. To further protect utilities these meters also alert for theft and tamper attempts before they rob precious revenue and thwart an otherwise effective conservation campaign.

Smart metering programs allow for demand-side management and various rate structures to encourage shifting water usage to off peak times, reducing the burden of peak usage periods on existing piping infrastructure, while staving off the capital costs of construction for new treatment plants and storage facilities.

Preventing Large Losses

In the past, as a resource, water may have come cheap. Some degree of waste may have been considered acceptable - especially when the cost of curbing the loss was greater than that savings. Times are changing. As water costs rise utilities are finding the cheapest source of new water is the water they already hold. Stopping loss, especially infrastructure leaks and non-revenue water, is now critically important.

District Metered Areas (DMA) bring greater governance in proactively managing system wide leaks, and can help preempt disruptive and costly water main breaks. With a DMA water is measured at every point of consumption within a zone and compared against total volume of water delivered into that zone. Any discrepancy in total measured use versus delivery will indicate infrastructure or delivery system loss - which could be a sizable loss for the utility previously undetected. Zone by zone, a city's water distribution system is given granular accountability over water flow and consumption through these DMA schemes. When a specific zone shows abnormal variance in measured flows within the zone, precise acoustic leak equipment can be brought to find, isolate and repair leaks.

Stave Off Capital Infrastructure Expenditures

Precision accurate water metering with integral smart intelligence built in at each point of consumption is the key to extending the life of existing water infrastructure. This is why metering can no longer be about basic consumption data alone. We must layer greater value into the information so that consumption data becomes actionable through highlights to usage trends and water loss patterns within defined specific time frames. With this data utilities can better plan for and address the real problems in their infrastructure that may require significant capital outlay.

Taking the Battle Into the Future

The future of water management continues to evolve. Aerial drone technology is now giving utilities a way to collect data available through smarter 3G water meters without additional infrastructure, such as repeaters and network towers. Master Meter's cross-applied, battle-proven military technology collects reads via a GPS self-guided drone. The 3G drone AirLinx™ collects not just raw consumption data, but alerts and alarms that represent attacks against an accurately measured water resource such as leaks, tamper and theft. The unmanned drone can be launched daily to provide management with robust field intel and help portray an accurate picture of what's going on without placing more boots on the ground.

Winning the War

In the end, winning the war for water preservation comes down to informed decision making. Smart data informing utilities, improving efficiencies and allowing utilities to better inform customers so they can make better decisions about their own use. Technology will provide the key information for success; our decisions will win the war.