Water Services National Training Group

12th Annual Conference

11th September, 2008

Water Services National Training Group

Training & Development

Water Conservation/Leakage Reduction

Lar Spain

Senior Engineer

Fingal County Council

Leakage Control - Context

Financial – Treatment, Pumping, etc.Leakage Control pays for itself.Service to customer improves.Ecological – Waste of resources,

Sustainability.Public Health – WTP’s overstretched

What is Leakage Control/Reduction?

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What is Leakage Control?

Is it this….

What is Leakage Control?

Or This….

What is Leakage Control?

Or is it this…

What is Leakage Control?

Active Leakage Control Leak finds you – Easy. You find leak – Hard.

70% to 80% of Active Leakage Control is spent gathering and refining data.

DATA IS THE KEY!

Spot the Difference…..Both are Leaks.LHS Service Leak – RHS a 150 mm Burst.LHS “Reported” – RHS “Unreported”.

Active Leakage Control - DMA’s Looking for unreported bursts/leaks in a county is like

looking for needles in a field of haystacks. DMA’s - tell you which haystacks (DMA’s) have

needles and which don’t. Allows you to target your resources.

Subdivide county into District Metered Areas (DMAs) and measure flow into each DMA.

Try to have no more than 1,000 properties in each DMA (Urban Areas – Rural dictated by geography).

Benefits of DMA’s

Identify unreported bursts and leaks.Reduce leakage runtime.Prioritisation of target areas for leakage

inspectors.Can tell you number of Service Leaks

and/or Mains Bursts that you have to find.Network performance can be monitored.Data available for design, planning and

forecasting.

District Meter AreasDistrict Meter Areas are:

• Metered Areas feed by a single supply (not always).

• Designed to accommodate a

maximum of 1,000 properties

(Domestic and Non Domestic –

Urban/Rural differences).

• Connected to the regional

Telemetry Network or logged to

enable remote monitoring.

Fingal has:

• 111 DMA’s County wide

• 3 New DMA’s will be created every year for the next 5 years

Typical DMA Meter

Water Audits

DMA Inflow - Domestic Demand - Non-Domestic Demand - Customer Losses - Operational Usage

Net Distribution Losses (UFW)

Leakage is part (most) of UFW

Domestic Demand

Has to be estimated – we use 148 l/person/day.

The Per Capita Consumption (PCC) Figure can be exceeded (>148 l/person/day) – makes UFW increase (in hot weather for example).

Accurate Population Figure also needed.

Non-Domestic Demand

Meter error.Meters being bypassed.Unmetered Non-domestics (should be gone). Illegal tappings off mains.Mobile Vehicles eg. Road

sweepers/commercial tankers filling from hydrants.

Fire Flows.

Losses and Usage

Customer Losses - 64.36 l/prop/day (average)

Operational Usage – 1.2 l/person/day (fire hydrants, flushing mains, road sweepers etc. by the Local Authority)

Leakage Team - Tasks

Tracking house counts/population.Better estimates for PCC.Gathering Meter Readings – question.Metering missed Non-Domestics.Chasing new Non-Domestics.Chasing as-built drawings.Confirming/correcting record drawings.

Leakage Team - Tasks

Drop-Testing DMA’s – to check for integrity and/or breaches.

Checking Boundary Valves.Drop-Testing Reservoirs. Installation/Retrieval of Loggers.Step Testing.Sounding.Correlating.

Leakage Team - Training

Large commitment to Training required.Can take some time to “get up to speed”. Issue when staff changes – particularly

Engineer.WSNTG – existing training courses – being

updated – ready Spring 2009.

Network Management & UFW•Network Management - understanding Network - where water is being used.

•Identifying Unaccounted-for Water (UFW) - big challenge.

Achieved by undertaking a series of analytical steps:

• Water Audits (Trunk and Distribution Mains).• Water Supply Area (WSA) and District Meter Area (DMA) Audits.• Commercial Audits.• Domestic Usage Audits (Per Capita Consumption).

Locating Leaks

•Audits confirm a leak as the reason for the UFW.•Locate the Leak(s)• Step Testing - Breaking a DMA into sections to narrow down where the leak may be.• Leak Location – Aural Sounding using listening sticks (Traditional Method) or using electronic acoustic equipment to identify the leak

Mains Burst

The most important activity in this process is to EXPEDITE the leak repair.

Mains Burst when identified should be repaired within 24 hours.

Operational BarriersOperational Barriers (UFW Show Stoppers)

• Lack of clear as-laid information on new infrastructure constructed by

others

• Quality of Workmanship

• Standard of Materials used

• Boundary Breaches – operational changes.

• Getting repairs done quickly.

Recent Example of Qualtiy of Workmanship:

•In 5 NEW Estates in Balbriggan [2,000 Houses] – 111 Leaks were located.

•All of these were down to the Quality of Workmanship

Pressure ManagementPressure Management:

• Is a proactive method of protecting vulnerable infrastructure.

• Extends the asset life of the pipe network.

• Reduces burst frequency.

• Also Reduces amount of Leakage.

Fingal has:

• 29 PRV’s County wide

• 10 Further Locations

under consideration

Typical Cast Iron Pipe Sample

Pressure Management

Glen Ellen, Swords Before :

•Flow - 43.5m3/hr•Pressure - 52m

After :

•Flow – 25.8m3/hr•Pressure - 35m

Reduction

•Flow – 41%•Pressure – 46%

Pressure Management

Day/Night ControllersDay/Night Controller on trial in Donabate

DMA.Night-time pressures (0:00 to 06:00) reduced

from 28m to 20m.Reduced flows by 10m3/hr for this period.Total saving over 6 hrs =60m3 =approx. daily

water supply for 130 houses.

Fingal DMA’s

Typical DMA

Fingal’s Leakage Team

1 Leakage Engineer (Exec).1 Leakage Supervisory Inspector.4 Leakage Inspectors.1 General Operative.All DMA meters connected to Regional

Telemetry System.

Repairs by Maintenance Crews.

Example - SavingsExample: River Valley DMA

16 No. Leaks Detected between 19th Sept. – 3rd Oct 2006

16 No. Leaks repaired between 22nd Sept. – 17th Oct 2006

Compare flows into DMA before leaks detected (5th – 8th Sept.)

v’s after leaks repaired (12th – 15th Dec.)

Saving of approx. 25 m3/hr at 4am = 500 m3/day= daily usage for 1,100 houses.

Leaks Found Aug 07 – Jul 08Aug 07 26

Sept 07 13

Oct 07 23

Nov 07 17

Dec 07 12

Jan 08 32

Feb 08 108

Mar 08 40

Apr 08 57

May 08 36

Jun 08 27

Jul 08 12

Total = 403

Leaks Found by TypeLeak on Main 12 (3.0%)

Leak on Fitting (hydrant, stopcock,valve, etc.)

145 (36.0%)

Leak on Meter Box 23 (5.7%)

Leak on Communication Pipe

158 (39.2%)

Private side leaks 65 (16.1%)

Fingal UFW 2008

18%

20%

22%

24%

26%

28%

30%

32%

34%

36%

38%

Jan

Feb Mar Apr

May Ju

n Jly AugSep

tOct

NovDec

Month

Pe

rce

nta

ge

2008

2007

2006

Summary

Active Leakage Control – the only way.Accurate data is the key – continue to refine.Leakage Teams need long-term support.Water Conservation is not a “Project” – it’s never ending.Resources need to be committed for the long term.

Water Services National Training Group

12th Annual Conference

11th September, 2008