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United Water Solves Big Data Problem with Siemens Magnetic Flow Meter Technology

19 June 2017

Siemens SITRANS FM Mag 8000 provides accurate water balance data for water utility in New York, pinpointing line breaks and saving water

United Water, a division of the global conglomerate Suez Environnement, operates regulated water systems in eight states, and provides contract services to over five million people. United Water operates several water systems in the suburbs of New York City including United Water New Rochelle and United Water Westchester in Westchester County, New York.

Like many of the nation’s older communities, their infrastructure is aging and in need of repair. Infrastructure improvement is a critical part of United Water’s strategic objectives for these water systems and the company is committed to making proactive capital investments.

Challenge: To pinpoint and stem water loss quickly and easily – even in no-power situations – in order to save water, energy, and reduce their bottom line.

United Water needed greater visibility into their water usage and flow so that they could minimize water losses. The critical problems United Water wanted to solve their water leaks caused by line breaks in the water mains, and water theft by contractors and other persons. A big main break can waste millions of gallons of water, since the time it takes for the leak to surface could be weeks or even months, according to Nick Curcio, manager of non-revenue water for United Water. In addition, contractors often, and illegally, open hydrants to fill their water tank trucks. Since United Water buys water wholesale, water loss from line breaks and theft goes straight to the bottom line, driving up costs for customers and creating potential safety issues.

Solution: An accurate water measurement tool, featuring Siemens Flow Technology, as the primary input to United Water’s water balance model.

United Water began by closing inter-ties between systems, and routing water to locations where it could be measured more easily. “We broke the systems down into smaller zones,” says Nick Curcio. “We wanted to minimize closed valves, and made sure that no unmetered water crosses the boundaries between systems.” They called these zones DMAs or District Metered Areas. Water flow into and out of the DMAs is to be measured and uploaded to the system operating model.

They created a Big Data-driven proprietary model of their water systems using historical data to determine baseline water usage in each main, in each zone, in each system. They used as-built data to build a hydraulic model of the system, and analyzed the historical data for usage against the hydraulic model. In order to compare real-time water usage to the baseline water usage they developed from history, United Water needed a way to economically measure water flow and pressure at the boundaries of each zone in the systems. “These water flow meters and pressure transmitters needed to be rugged, durable, and able to operate in no-power situations during storms and power outages, to continue delivering data to the model,” says Keith Kolkebeck, director of technology solutions for United Water. “We knew we needed a battery operated solution.”

Kolkebeck and the United Water staff searched for devices that could meet those criteria, and determined that the Siemens SITRANS FM Mag 8000 would work as the heart of the system. The FM Mag 8000 is designed for very low power applications like distribution systems and agricultural irrigation systems. It is designed to have excellent performance at very low flows, and high accuracy at the upper end of the flow range.

The transmitter can be remotely mounted, as seen in Figure 2. This, according to Kolkebeck, was an important feature, because of the difficulty of entering a manhole located in the street. The meter body can be mounted in the main running under the street, as in Figure 3, but it isn’t usually necessary to enter the manhole. In some cases, Kolkebeck says, the meter body was direct buried, with no manhole. Stopping traffic and working in the middle of the street is dangerous, and field personnel appreciate not having to do it.

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