4 European utilities tackling water loss through advanced technologies
As more utilities set ambitious 2050 net zero goals, the European water sector is taking bolder steps to cut water and energy waste and reduce GHG emissions.
In Europe, 25% of distributed water is lost or not billed, due to pipe leaks and bursts, poor pressure management, unauthorized connections and other factors. Lost water, or non-revenue water (NRW), represents a waste of resources meant for communities and businesses at a time when water challenges like drought are intensifying. Non-revenue water also hurts utility bottom-lines and contributes to climate change.
Tackling non-revenue water to lower GHG emissions
Europe’s water sector is responsible for 8% of the European Union’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Every step of the clean water cycle requires energy and produces GHG emissions. When water is wasted as NRW, emissions are released in vain.
To visualize the impact of NRW, Xylem has created the Water Loss Calculator to help European water operators identify inefficiencies and implement targeted solutions to reduce water loss and its associated emissions.
Harnessing technology to meet net zero goals
With the 2050 net zero goal fast approaching, European utilities face mounting pressure from regulators and the public to lower their carbon footprint.
Initiatives such as the EU Green deal require utilities to monitor and reduce water losses while cutting energy consumption by 1.9% annually.
By partnering with Xylem, utilities are deploying advanced technologies that enhance water and energy efficiency, reduce GHG emissions and combat water loss at all levels of their network, driving progress toward net zero goals.
1. Assets
Smart water meters are helping water utilities significantly reduce apparent water losses – water that is consumed, but not accurately measured or billed. Installing these meters at all water usage points improves data collection and enables real-time monitoring of water usage rates. This enhanced insight empowers water suppliers to identify abnormal consumption, detect downstream water losses, and encourage consumers to reduce water usage.
Customer spotlight: AMI helps municipality of Vrilissia reduce water loss by 80,000 m3/year
Vrilissia is a municipality of Athens located northeast of the Greek capital, with a water supply network that spans 85 km and over 16,000 customer connections. The town was facing significant water losses due to outdated infrastructure and degraded mechanical meters. These required manual readings which could lead to errors and incorrect billing.
To address these issues, Vrilissia replaced half of the existing mechanical water meters with Xylem’s Sensus iPERL Smart Static Water Meters, establishing an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network to enable near real-time meter readings and alarm collection.
By embracing practical digital innovation, the municipality reduced non-revenue water by 15% between 2020 and 2022, allowing them to generate revenue on an additional 80,000 m3 of water.
In addition, the time required to collect water readings was reduced from 20 days to just one day, improving efficiency and customer service. Read more.
2. Sub-network
District metered areas (DMAs) help utilities pinpoint where water losses are occurring across commercial and residential distribution networks. The complexity and urban location of sub-networks make it important to effectively locate water losses to optimize infrastructure management, minimize disruption to the public, and avoid unnecessary and costly repairs.
Customer spotlight: DMA project enables Portuguese utility EPAL to cut real water losses from 23% to 8%
EPAL is the oldest and largest bulk water company in Portugal. Over the past two decades, the utility has successfully deployed a network monitoring project to reduce the city of Lisbon’s water losses. The mainstay has been the implementation of more than 160 district metered areas (DMAs).
The DMA project has been a major success. Between 2005 and 2014, EPAL reduced its real water losses (physical leaks in pipes, tanks and fixtures) from nearly 27 million m3/year to just over 8 million m3/year.
In 2016, EPAL identified a deviation in its non-revenue water trends. To pinpoint the source of the leaks, the utility leveraged Sahara and SmartBall, high-precision pipeline inspection solutions from Xylem. These advanced technologies, combined with insights from an earlier study conducted by EPAL, helped the utility identify 37 leaks. As a result, EPAL slashed water losses by 17% and 36% in two key supply zones or approximately 1.7 million m3 annually. Read more.
3. Network
Condition assessment on transmission main and distribution networks gathers critical information on structural weaknesses and leakages in aging infrastructure. Armed with this data-fueled intelligence, utilities can prioritize annual pipe replacement work in sections where it’s most needed. This helps avoid unnecessary civil work, reduces instances of burst pipes, and positively impacts GHG emissions.
Customer spotlight: Eau de Paris inspects a critical drinking water pipeline without interrupting service
Eau de Paris, the public water utility in Paris, France, needed to inspect the Voulzie pipeline, an aging critical cast iron drinking water pipeline built in 1924, without disrupting service.
Using Xylem’s SmartBall platform, the pressurized pipeline was inspected in three stages and the data collected was compiled into a report identifying and qualifying the nature of each leak, with results presented in a GIS format.
Based on the report, Eau de Paris was able to prioritize pipeline repairs and quickly begin fixing the leaks, addressing 12 of them within 24 hours of the inspection.
“This experiment was a success,” says Sebastien Popot, Head of the Diagnostics Project Unit, Eau de Paris. “Digital innovations like the SmartBall platform are valuable allies in optimizing our network asset management and improving our water management. This benefits our users and the environment.” Read more.
Tackling NRW requires a holistic approach, moving beyond fixing leaks to optimizing network efficiency and investment. However, utilities face a data deluge, where much of the collected data from sensors is raw and unconnected.
By using analytics tools operators can process large amounts of data from different systems, validate their data and shift from reacting to problems to proactively solving them. These solutions enable comprehensive management of the distribution network, empowering water operators to forecast water and energy use and predict pipeline leaks and flaws.
Customer spotlight: Integrated software and analytics platform helps Yorkshire Water reduce leaks by 57%
In 2019, the UK’s Water Services Regulation Authority challenged utilities to find innovative ways to serve customers more efficiently and sustainably. Yorkshire Water, a leading UK utility, embraced the challenge and selected Sheffield as a trial city for the biggest smart water pilot program in the UK.
The utility collaborated with 15 companies in the digital water space, including Xylem and Xylem’s partner Idrica, to transform Sheffield into the UK’s first smart water city. 6,000 smart meters and flow sensors were installed. In addition, Yorkshire Water implemented Xylem Vue, a single, integrated and vendor-agnostic software and analytics platform, to securely integrate and standardize the incoming data.
“The platform enables us to bring all of our data together to monitor and manage priority issues across our system in real time. This has helped us achieve significant results in reducing leaks, costs and environmental impact,” said Marc Turner, Business Change Manager: Smart Data and Analytics, Yorkshire Water Services.
As a result of the transformation program, Yorkshire Water has reduced visible leaks by 57% and distribution main repairs by 30% on an annual basis. Read more.
Download Xylem’s new guide on water loss
To learn more about European utilities fighting non-revenue water loss, download Xylem’s new guide: "Fighting Water Loss: Best Practices in Action."