Remote Meter Reading
Reading large control and section meters manually is a thing of the past. Intervalls of 2 to 4 weeks between site visits are simply too long for efficient pipeline management. And they are also to expensive, not only because of the site visits, but also because of time and manpower needed to enter manual readings into the computer system. AMR is the way to go.
Rapid Leak Detection
Pressure Monitoring
Quality Monitoring
Efficient Water Management
Large meters are placed in distribution pipelines at short intervals to monitor each section of pipeline separately, manage the network and detect problems quickly, in particular leaks. Traditionally these meters are installed in sub-surface meter manholes. Due to the risk of climbing down into these manholes, not only in winter time, labour laws require two people to be present at site visits, which makes this procedure extra costly. Talking of winter times: should the manhole be covered by a meter of snow and ice, reading the meter becomes impossible whatsoever.
Most of these meter sites are neither cabled nor do they have power supply, and frequently, in particular in urban areas, they are not even within coverage of mobile networks. Therefore devices installed in such locations should be extremely small to be tucked away into the manhole. They must also meet at least IP67 ratings, since manholes frequently get flooded and are always quite moist. They should consume little power to allow either battery operation, or use of an extremely small solar panel only. Data transmission should be possible by more than just GPRS, in order to also get access to “blind spots”.
Most meters installed have a single pulse outputs, large meters even have two. Latest generations of mag flow meters feature Modbus outputs. Ideally meter readings are made in very short intervals, as this will allow much better management of the drinking water plant, but will also lead to much quicker detection of leaks.
ADCON has many years of experience and thousands of installations – and a perfect solution!
All ADCON RTUs of the A75x series feature at least 2 pulse inputs, A753 also offers a Modbus option. Simply connect the reed switch(es) of the meter’s pulse output(s) or the Modbus cable to an ADCON RTU, and the pulses or signals collected will arrive on your desk in 15 minute increments (or even more frequently, if needed) - fully automatically, 24/7, even in the worst weather imaginable.
Operating in 15-minute time slots provides 96 values per day, which enable you to create very accurate consumption profiles. With this information reservoir and pumping station management gets a lot easier, and deviations of night time lows let you detect potential leakages literally over night. Setting thresholds in the addVANTAGE Pro extensions let you even receive automated alarms by email or voice call, should unusually high consumption be detected.
Data transmission is done either by UHF radio (10 and 500mW) or by GSM / GPRS / UMTS. Since our RTUs are extremely power efficient they will operate all year round with a little solar panel or an optional Lithium battery. Integrated relay functionality lets you build huge networks, covering thousands of square miles, where one A850 Telemetry Gateway is capable of handling more than five hundred RTUs, be they short range or long range radio stations or GSM / GPRS / UMTS units.
Automatic Meter Reading provides a number of advantages as compared to manual readings:
- Get flow data almost in real time, every 15 minutes or even quicker
- Create accurate consumption profiles
- Get meter readings every day, in any weather, from even the remotest location
- Act before disaster strikes!
- Detect Water Theft
- Save lots of manpower: no travel, no reading, no copying data into a data base!
Watersensors
Technical specifications of various sensors for water management.
WLVNB - a success story
Eastern Austrias largest water supplier operates 250 long range ADCON RTUs for leak detection.