Water is at the heart of sustainable development and the need to protect and manage precious water resources has become increasingly critical. Water Loss Management is the implementation of strategies, technologies and solutions to assist water utilities to reduce non-revenue water loss. It includes structured and systematic processes which involve the identification, collection and analysis of relevant data to recognise real or apparent water losses. This allows for very real benefits from increased productivity to improved asset quality and environmental performance.
Leak Detection and NRW
Pipeline leaks have serious consequences including damage to the environment, property, reputation and can contribute to a large percentage of non-revenue water (NRW) loss.
Minimum Night Flow Monitoring
Increased water losses are due to a variety of challenges such as infrastructure deterioration, meter under-reading/failure, environment, non-authorized consumption and many more.
Permanent Leak Monitoring
Protecting the pipeline is integral to ensuring quality water and a continual supply. Permanent leak monitoring plays an important role in maintaining uninterrupted water supply.
Protecting the pipeline is integral to ensuring a high quality water supply. Pipeline leaks can have serious consequences including damage to the environment, property, reputation and safety. Leakage can contribute to a large percentage of non-revenue water (NRW) loss and this has a direct cost to the operation of the system including water quality rating and pipeline deterioration.
Advances in water loss management solutions, including digital leak detection technology, network monitoring and water auditing offer innovative opportunities for tackling leak detection.
The most cost effective and efficient method of managing your reticulation leakage is a staged approach. Firstly, our experienced leakage technicians acoustically test all your reticulation assets, including meters, stop taps, hydrants, valves, air valves etc for evidence of the leakage. Secondly, digital correlation logging (DCL), noise correlation and noise logging are used to localise the leak, which is then confirmed by ground acoustics. This approach maximises results and accuracy with pinpoint leakage reporting.
Detection Services continues to undertake the largest volume of leak detection surveys in Australasia annually and are engaged in multiple long-term leakage management programs, providing specialist leak detection services to more than 140 water authorities across Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific. To date Detection Services has completed over 270,000 kms of Acoustic Leak Detection (AGS) surveys and delivered over 800 successful leakage programs.
Our specialist leak detection solutions allow for a wide range of environments, customer locations and include:
- Acoustic leak detection
- Correlation and analysis
- Ground survey techniques
- Water audits and balance studies
- Trunk main leak detection and analysis
- NRW water investigations and strategies
- Permanent and temporary acoustic logging
- Minimum night flow monitoring (MNF) and baselining
Water losses on any given supply system increase over time due to a variety of challenges such as infrastructure deterioration, meter under-reading/failure, non-authorized consumption and more.
To quantify and understand the level of water loss occurring on a supply network it is necessary to undertake a water balance or minimum night flow (MNF) test. Monitoring of night flows into water supply zones or district metered areas (DMA) is an important operational tool for identifying water loss within a network. Daily demand levels on a network increase and decrease depending on the time of day but, broadly speaking, levels of demand between the hours of 00:00 & 05:00 are at a minimum. It is therefore necessary to monitor and record flows during these hours to get a true representation of a network’s level of water loss and determine the potentially recoverable excess.
Our in-depth experience in all areas of MNF testing and solutions include:
- Step testing
- Zone validation
- Fire flow testing
- MNF data analysis
- High consumer monitoring
- Non-permanent MNF monitoring
- DMA metering and data transmission
- Permanent DMA design and implementation
Leak detection at an early stage and permanent leak monitoring plays an important role in maintaining an uninterrupted supply of drinking water. A well planned and managed monitoring solution can provide early intervention or when new and emerging leaks occur. ‘Leak before burst’ has become a well accepted phenomena where with a large percentage of bursts, a leak was present prior to the burst or failure. Capturing these leaks before they become a burst is todays focus of acoustic leakage monitoring.
There are many claims about noise logger capabilities, unfortunately they can be misleading. Understanding how they really work, how they work in different situations, on different pipe materials and different pressures are all critical to designing an effective and reliable solution. Detection Services offers an acoustic leak noise logging and monitoring service using various high tech and proven solutions. We own and operate hundreds of noise loggers, of different models, brands and communication methods as no one logger fits all applications. We have extensive, real in-field experience having delivered over 40,000 deployments in both permanent, semi-permanent and ‘lift and shift’ methods across multiple utilities as well as proven solutions and monitoring services internationally.
With the release of new GSM and NBloT communication loggers and remote correlation capabilities these solutions are becoming more reliable and delivering more information in a timely manner. This ensures early intervention is achieved reducing your NRW more efficiently with fast response and to targeted areas.
- Target areas quickly and efficiently
- Reduces non-revenue water (NRW) loss
- Identify and locate pipeline leaks and size
- Detailed diagnostic data and reporting
- Permanent or semi-permanent applications
- Avoid unnecessary repairs and service disruptions
