Pipe Network Monitoring: A partnership for smart leak detection in water networks

Water distribution systems in Europe lose around 50 litres of water per capita every single day. This water has a name – non-revenue water (NRW). It is water that is produced and pumped into the networks, but is then lost, usually due to leaks. This is where ZENNER and FAST GmbH come in.

Leaks in distribution networks often go undetected for long periods of time. Manual meter reading cycles or reactive maintenance processes make early detection more difficult. This results in high levels of physical water loss and burgeoning operating and energy costs from treating and pumping water that is ultimately wasted.

At the same time, there is a growing risk of consequential damage to the infrastructure. What’s more, water utility companies are coming under increasing regulatory pressure to document and actively reduce losses from their networks.

Smart water meters ensure transparency. They not only provide precise flow and consumption profiles, but also reveal anomalies at an early stage. Modular LoRaWAN® sensor technology supplements the data by using acoustic analysis processes to pinpoint the location of characteristic noises made by leaks in the pipe network. All the data is collated in a central IoT platform, such as B.One element iot from ZENNER, where it is correlated, analysed and prioritised so that critical incidents can be detected soon after they occur. The data is transmitted via LoRaWAN®, thus ensuring energy-efficient and scalable connectivity of the distributed measurement and detection points.

“As experts with 40 years of experience in acoustic leak detection, we offer precise and reliable leak monitoring in water networks with our BIDI LoRa loggers. Thanks to the efficient transmission of data to a central platform, we are establishing the basis for forward-looking network monitoring,” explains Edmund Riehle, Sales Manager at FAST.

René Claussen, Head of Business Unit Measurement Systems, IoT and Digital Solutions at ZENNER, adds: “By combining the BIDI loggers from FAST with our B.One element suite platform, we are providing our customers with genuine added value for their water infrastructure and giving them an even clearer understanding of their water loss situation.”

The system helps water and public utility companies reduce their water losses, optimise their maintenance processes and boost their network transparency. This means these companies have a dependable decision-making tool for ongoing operations at their disposal and also ensures supply reliability. Moreover, it creates a further use case that makes even better use of the digital infrastructure.

“FAST GmbH and ZENNER are a strong team in the LoRaWAN® environment because our skills and expertise complement each other perfectly. Together, we enable water utility companies to detect water losses at an early stage, monitor their networks efficiently and conserve resources. To put it in a nutshell, precise sensor technology from FAST plus reliable networking from ZENNER equals genuine added value for the digital water industry,” adds Marco Leichnitz, Head of Sales at FAST.

As already demonstrated by successful pilot projects with municipalities in Germany and Luxembourg, the solution works well in practice. There are plans for further market expansion, which will take place in stages.