High accuracy water leakage and apparent loss detection

Project Information

AccuWater

Grant agreement ID: 806502

DOI

10.3030/806502

Project closed

EC signature date 31 January 2018

Start date 1 February 2018

End date 31 July 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 2 313 646,84

EU contribution

€ 1 505 270,38

Coordinated by

BUNT PLANET SL
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AccuWater (High accuracy water leakage and apparent loss detection)

Reporting period: 2019-02-01 to 2020-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Bunt Planet is pioneering the development of Big Data and AI solutions to reduce Water Losses, or NonRevenue Water (NRW) around the world. Comprising two modules, BuntPlanets’ BuntBrain technology uniquely addresses both types of NRW, Physical Losses (Leakage) and Apparent Losses (water consumed but not properly measuered). The global water supply, treatment and distribution sector is a critical enabler of our society: it guarantees our food, sanitation, health and well-being. As Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of United nations says, “Growing demands, coupled with poor management, have increased water stress in many parts of the world. Climate change is adding dramatically to the pressure. By 2030, an estimated 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity”. One important means of tackling the impact of constraints on water resources includes measures to reduce the levels of Water Losses, which costs 14 billion $/year to utilities around the world, 8 billon $ due to leakages and 6 billion $ due to Apparent Losses. BuntBrain modules, in beta version have been tested in two water utilities (Bilbao-Spain and Fellbach-Germany), confirming the potential of the solution, but its smart algorithms need further development to deal with a host of variables, including the size of the system, the availability of readily treatable water, the age of the pipe system, the degree of digitalization and type and make of water meters installed, the history of measures undertaken to prevent water losses and the economic and regulatory priorities of the respective water utility company. Thus, ACCUWATER overall objectives are to create reference utility cases and to assess and develop the functionality of the BuntBrain tools in a range of Water Loss scenarios representing of the broad target markets the company aims to address in the future.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work performed has been:

- Demonstrator Contract signature in all demonstrators
- Local Partner Contract signature in Elapas and ESPH (not necessary in Düsseldorf and Txingudi)
- Kick off meeting
- Hydraulic model evaluation and calibration. DMAs selected: Poconas (Elapas), San Isidro (ESPH), Linksrheinisch (Düsseldorf), Errandonea (Txingudi)
- Sensitivity Analysis: 5 locations were defined in each demonstrator.
- Flow Meters Installation in Düsseldorf. Due to different type of problems flow meters had not been installed as at 31 January in the other 3 utilities.
- WaterMeters data integration (LeakFinder data integration will be made after flow meters installation in Elapas, ESPH and Txingudi. In Düsseldorf is being done now due to IT department reluctancy to provide us with data because of data security reasons)
- First implementation of WaterMeters Algorithms (LeakFinder implementation will be made once finished data integration in Düsseldorf, and after flow meters installation in the other 3)
- WaterMeters tailoring. (LeakFinder tailoring to be made in the 2nd period)
- Preliminary cost savings and conclusions for WaterMeters:
- Estimated current average global measurement error: 10,3% in Elapas, 7,7% in ESPH. Objective: 7,5% en Elapas, 6,2% in ESPH
- Current estimated meters age: 9 years+9 months in Elapas, 4 years+11 months in ESPH. Objective to obtain the highest possible yield: 4 years+4 months in Elapas, 2 years+5months in ESPH
- Potential commercial losses reduction: 4,06€/meter/year, equivalent to 224.400€/year in Elapas, 4,86€/meter/year, equivalent to 347.451€/year in ESPH
- Webinar to train ELAPAS and ESPH using WaterMeters
- Support for WaterMeters is being given
- Water Meters performance tracking has already started

- Communication actions: see images attached
- Events attended: World Water Tech (London, UK), Leakage Summit (London, UK), SES Water (London, UK), SME Welcome Day (Brussels, Belgium), Water Loss (Cape Town, SouthAfrica), IFAT 2018 (Munich, Germany), ACODAL (Cartagena de Indias, Colombia), ACE (Las Vegas, USA), EIC SUMMIT (Berlin, Germany), AQUANOMICS Event (London, UK)
- Lead Customer Account Development:
- 100 demos to water utilities from 15 countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Brasil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Singapore, SoutAfrica, Australia). Most of them have been webinars.
- 40 proposals have been made in 10 countries (Spain, Germany, Croatia, Greece, Colombia, Brasil, Chile, Ecuador, USA, Canada)
- We have started new projects in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Colombia, Chile and Canada.
- We have started discussions with a multilateral Bank in order to plan next phase (pilot extension) to the whole network of Elapas.
- We have started a hiring process for a Sales Engineer speaking Arab and French. This person has joint our team the 11/02/2019.
- We have been working on a distributorship agreement with an European Multinational company.
- We have organized the event hold past 13/03/2019: potential customers have visited Txingudi to learn about the ACCUWATER project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We have started to work on “Product upgrade”, even though it was planned to be started in February 2019:
- We are checking if leaks can be pre-located using pressure sensors instead of flow meters, which are less expensive and don´t require civil works to be installed.
- We have started defining a new module for sanitation that some of our potential customers have asked for (we call it “BuntBrain WasteWater”

The main opportunities arising from ACCUWATER project are:
- Number of projects in Germany have increased in 2018 from 4 to 10 (including Düsseldorf demonstrator).
- One of the new German projects has acted as reference for 2 new demonstrators in Montreal (Canada) and UK.
- ESPH has been a good reference for Chile (we have started a demonstrator in Esval).
- ELAPAS has been a good reference for Colombia (demonstrator started in Tenjo.)
- Txingudi will be a good reference for Spanish water utilities.
- We can expand our offer with engineering services required before software implementation (hydraulic model calibration, technical assistance…)
- We are starting to define new customer needs (BuntBrain WasteWater)

We have obtained so far some preliminary results, so it is early to quantify the socio-economic impact of the project. Nevertheless, the impact for BuntPlanet in terms of lessons learnt is high:
- The problem in Düsseldorf has made us realise that Security Issues are key:
- we are adapting our security policies and practices in order to fulfil the most exigent customers´ requirements.
- Cybersecurity Manager must be involved from the beginning of the project in large cities.
- Flow meters delivery time is very long (2-4 months): that is why we have started to analyse if pressure sensors (cheaper and with no civil works required to be installed) can be used instead of flow meters.
- For tax reasons, flow meters local distributor is recommended in each project.
- It is also very important having direct contact with flow meters manufacturer.
- Hydraulic model calibration requires creativity in some markets.
- Large utilities have very long and complicated administrative procedures. Highest level commitment is required.

Post about Water Loss (Cape Town, SouthAfrica) in our blog

Post about Acodal in our blog

Post about ACE in our blog

post about Elapas in our blog

ESPH demonstrator: Repretel

Post about IFAT in our blog

ESPH demonstrator: LaRepublica.net

post about ESPH in our blog

Event attenden in London

Elapas demonstrator: Correo del Sur

Buntplanet, beneficiary of SME Instrument