Water Safety Plan and Water Leakage Management: which systems to be compliant

There are two issues that are currently on the table of aqueduct managers, not only in Italy and Europe, but also on a global level: Water Safety Plan e Water Leakage Management.

Both concern compliance with regulations that aim to improve the "product/service" they offer and have direct impacts on three aspects that are vital for anyone running an aqueduct:

  • water quality,
  • the efficiency of the systems to ensure continuity of service 
  • the reduction of delivery costs.

On the one hand, the World Health Organization introduced the Water Safety Plans model over a decade ago as the most effective means of systematically guaranteeing the safety of a drinking water system, the quality of provided and the protection of the health of consumers/users/citizens.

On the other hand, the Environment Directorate of the European Commission published the document in 2015 “Good practices for managing water losses”: an up-to-date technical and regulatory reference for loss management for all European managers and regulators.
So here is a brief excursus of how technology with sensors, control systems, remote control, energy management and maintenance information systems can represent a valid complement to meet the compliance requirements of these regulations.

Network pressure monitoring.

One of the key points in the The model to be adopted to guarantee homogeneity both in the quality and in the continuity of service delivery lies in the correct monitoring of the pressure points in the distribution network of the aqueduct through a series of sensors connected to the remote control able to bring together the information on the pressures detected in the various points of the network during the provision of the service on an ongoing basis, so as to be able to build the operating model in the different time slots of the day and in the different seasons of the year, also in consideration of any variations in the population, in the climatic data and in the trend of atmospheric precipitations.

MT 651/652: cathodic protection – Correlation between water losses and galvanic corrosion: how to avoid them?

The ground and water (both fresh and salty) are electrolytic environments, for this reason metal objects in contact with these surfaces can be subjected to electrolytic reactions which will aggressively damage the metal itself.

InVentia has developed and introduced, in close collaboration with SPECKOR Maciej Malicki, two new telemetry modules, the MT-652 and the MT-651, designed to monitor parameters and control cathodic protection installations of underground or water immersed pipes, tanks and other metal structures

Telecontrol and SCADA – The solution proposed by ServiTecno is based on leading products GE iFix, GE Historian e GE Historian Analysis, Besides Dream Report, Win911, IdusIS e MePISEnergy
GE iFix is ​​probably the HMI/SCADA product most used in remote control applications of aqueducts at an international level: it boasts thousands of installations in applications from a few tens of points monitored locally up to applications with tens/hundreds of thousands of data collected in vast geographical areas. Developed by GE Digital, it is distributed and supported in Italy by ServiTecno (www.servitecno.it/settore/utility/ )

GE Historian is the powerful data Historian that collects, archives and distributes high volumes of data, with excellent performance: it contextualizes the raw data collected and aggregates them into islands of information, allowing analysis, punctual reports and water balances.

GE Historian Analysis is the GE Historian Add-On that provides web technology clients, allowing analysis of Big Data, extraction of current and historical data for reports and continuous improvement of processes. (www.servitecno.it/prodotti/ge-digital-historian-analysisys-analitycs-secondo-ge/ )

Dream Report for Water Balance – Dream Report® is the first easy-to-use, programming-free industrial reporting and analysis software specifically designed for control and telecontrol systems. It fits perfectly to create punctual reports both for processes and for Water Balances.

Win911 Alarm Notification
WIN-911® is a real-time event and alarm notification package (also on smartphones) that works with the existing remote control system, and/or with SCADA systems (such as GE iFix), with the aim of alerting the personnel in case of abnormal conditions. With WIN-911, operators can concentrate on their tasks while the computer does the monitoring. (www.servitecno.it/prodotti/win-911-alarm-notification-software/ )

Maintenance Information System –The management of Assets, interventions on the network and plants, maintenance technicians and intervention teams are aspects which, if managed in a prudent and organized way, allow substantial recoveries in efficiency and savings in operating costs. A maintenance and Asset Management information system such as IdusIS can be installed and put into operation in a short time and has demonstrated returns on investment in the order of a few months in many aqueducts. (http://www.servitecno.it/prodotti/idus-is-enterprise-asset-management/ )

Ref. Biblio/WEB
– Istisan Report – Istituto Superiore Sanità – Guidelines for risk assessment and management in the supply chain of water intended for human consumption according to the Water Safety Plans model http://www.iss.it/publ/?lang=1&id=2844&tipo =5
– The EU Reference document “Good Practices on Leakage Management WFD CIS WG PoM” http://www.iwawaterwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Blog/The+EU+Reference+Documents+on+Good+Practices+on+ Leakage+Management
– ServiTecno solutions: http://www.servitecno.it/settore/utility/