Smart hydrant technology significantly reduces NRW losses

Overview

Non-revenue water (NRW) loss in the city of Hartford, Connecticut, is being significantly reduced through a successful collaboration between The Metropolitan District (MDC) and California-based technology company Orbis. The partnership began in October 2023, with the installation of 250 Orbis SmartCap telemetry leak detection devices on fire hydrants.

These advanced sensors have already identified eight undetected leaks, none of which showed any visible signs on the surface. Without early intervention, these hidden leaks could have persisted indefinitely or escalated into major catastrophic pipeline failures.

Challenge

The MDC water network comprises of 1,500 miles of water pipes and distributes up to 50 million gallons of water a day on average, serving 102,000 houses and businesses over eight, member district towns and four partially served non-member district towns. As one of the longest inhabited areas of the US, two-thirds of the distribution system is historic infrastructure over 50 years old, installed within busy commercial and residential areas.

An upward trend in repairs over the years, along with the aging infrastructure, has contributed to non-revenue water loss in MDC of around 20% and ranges from small leaks in the service lines taking water to properties, to large breaks on the distribution mains traversing the city, where water can become visible as it breaks through roads and sidewalks, causing major disruption in busy areas.

MDC is proactively seeking to reduce water loss in the distribution system, not only from visible leaks, but by incorporating early detection of leaks hidden deep underground. The goal is to preempt larger leaks to reduce customer disruption and prevent emergency remediation work overtime.

The data received from the SmartCaps will also help MDC with asset management investment plans and budgetary capital expenditure, and strategically coordinating across The District member towns. This in turn will ensure time is used more efficiently by maintenance crews in the future.

Engineers and technicians at The District are installing the SmartCaps for a more effective leak detection system that is robust, adaptable, and takes advantage of existing urban infrastructure to build resilience. They also want to make a shift from reactive decision-making to data-led proactive operations by integrating smart water technologies into drinking water infrastructure systems.

Successful collaboration speeds-up detection of underground leaks

Having demonstrated the Orbis SmartCaps’ capability, a second order of 250 was installed in January 2024. Another 500 will follow later in 2024 and a further 500 in 2025. The installation of the SmartCaps will focus on areas where there is already a history of leaks and breaks, aging infrastructure, areas of heavy road use, or sites with precarious soil conditions.

Alongside the installed SmartCaps, around 20 District technicians have been trained on the Orbis cloud-based Streamline portal, where they can regularly check and identify warnings for potential leaks coming from the installed devices.

Auto-generated real-time reporting that drives smarter decisions

The Orbis SmartCap is an intelligent fire hydrant and pipe monitoring device that enables remote leak detection by providing intelligent network data from a multi-sensor. Packaged into a fire hydrant, the device can convert any fire hydrant, be that wet or dry barrel hydrants or legacy hydrants, into a smart-enabled asset simply by replacing the pumper nozzle cap.

Once installed, the SmartCap emits a secure wireless signal to the cloud with algorithms enabling the SmartCap sensors to interact and connect with each other. SmartCaps use GPS to show accurate leak locations with timestamps capturing acoustic data.

Data uploads from the connected SmartCaps allow analysis of sounds for accurate pinpointing of leaks. The Streamline portal and dashboard provides actionable alert notifications and identifies locations for corrective action to enable near real-time, auto-generated, reporting for network efficiency.

Alert notifications on parameters including leakage, tamper, flow and pipe condition can be viewed on the portal, online or through an application programming interface (API) on a utility’s in-house database. The portal gives a distance, in feet, from the hydrant, making pinpointing exact locations easier.

This actionable intelligence enables utilities and municipalities to manage water network operations efficiently and effectively. As such, since the initial trial of the SmartCaps, MDC has already located eight leaks, three service line leaks and five main line leaks.

Significant cost-savings from reducing NRW losses

Drinking water systems in the US currently lose at least six billion gallons of water every day and a water main break occurs every two minutes, according to figures from the American Society of Civil Engineering – which says the country lost an estimated US$7.6 billion of treated water in 2021 due to leaks.

Additionally for The Metropolitan District, some of the potable water leaking from water mains makes its way into the sewer system by infiltration. This adds to the volume being treated at the wastewater treatment plant, increasing costs and strain on the plant.

Implementing Orbis SmartCaps is predicted to achieve significant water and cost-savings by alerting The District to leaks which would otherwise have continued for weeks, even months.

The SmartCap’s remote monitoring capability means no labor resource is required onsite to detect the leaks. However, the biggest savings come from the prevention of future water losses and by lowering the risk of major infrastructure damage and the costly legal claims that can result from a water main break.

Orbis supports MDC with technical support where queries arise, with follow-up meetings and on-hand emergency contacts made readily available. Training on the The Streamline portal is also available, to ensure the software’s use is maximized and expanded as software developments are made.

MDC expects to expand the use of SmartCaps once the results from the initial installations become evident, and returns are realized over the coming two to three years.