Intelligent water distribution systems
OSE
Context
IoT is changing the paradigm of how to manage the hydraulic systems that sustain urban water services. Monitoring systems allow in-depth knowledge of the operation and routines of the systems that make up the water services infrastructures. This knowledge is used to increasingly adjust their sizing and, of course, their daily performance to meet the needs of consumers.
The processing of the information collected in the different points of the network allows detecting deviations in the operation of the network in advance, which represents a substantial improvement in business processes, both from the point of view of its optimization and from the vision of service.
An important element of applying monitoring to the network is obtaining historical data on the operation of the connected systems. Data is continuously acquired in real time and stored in databases. This allows to analyze historical and trends that not only helps to optimize the daily distribution, but also to act on the planning and improve it significantly.
Solution
We supplied more than 300 RTU-X to OSE, the largest water purification company in Uruguay. These equipments are installed at different points of the water distribution network, in order to monitor flow rates, pressures, and valve status, as well as in some cases act on the latter.
The equipment takes data from the aforementioned parameters and then transmits them through the 3G network to OSE’s SCADA. In many cases, they are located in underground chambers, some that can be flooded, so they do not have electricity and 3G coverage is very limited. Our equipment was designed to work in these extreme conditions with a battery or solar panel and also has a high gain antenna that allows data transmission despite the limitations of the environment.
Main advantages of the solution:
• Provide more information for the early detection of breakdowns.
• Allow the operator to parameterize the pumping operation to his liking.
• Implementation of operation alarms based on system parameterization instructions.
• Equipment and process sizing can be done with a better understanding of real needs.
