华盛顿州Walla Walla扩大了与Xylem的失水控制工作

SENSUS SMART UTILITY NETWORK SETS THE FOUNDATION FOR LASTING IMPROVEMENT CHALLENGE Walla Walla, Washington, named by Native Americans in thenearby Columbia River region for its “many waters,” providesfertile ground for agricultural development. Gain visibility into aging infrastructureto reduce non-revenue water “Agriculture has always been a major contributor to oureconomy, culminating more recently with the growth of theWashington State wine industry,” said City of Walla WallaWater Distribution Supervisor Adrian Sutor. SOLUTION Smart network with advanced leakdetection and pressure monitoringcapabilities So they built a game plan with innovative technology toaddress aging infrastructure and non-revenue water (NRW). REACH FARTHER Expand system with creek-levelmonitoring to enhance emergencymanagement “The system has helped us quickly detect everything from large water mainbreaks right down to running toilets or leaky faucets and work proactivelywith customers to address them.” A D R I A N S U T O RWater Distribution Supervisor, City of Walla Walla, Washington Flexibility for the long haul Water challenges in wine country Walla Walla was losing 30 percent of itswater annually due to failing pipes andaging meters when they decided to makechanges to gain greater visibility acrosstheir service area. Walla Walla’s initial smart networkdeployment combined Sensus iPERL®residential water meters and OMNI™commercial meters with the two-wayFlexNet®communication network. Thesystem allowed the city to transition frommonthly to hourly usage data with remotemeter monitoring capabilities that improvedleak detection. “We’re one of the oldest cities in the state,so water loss and aging infrastructure arecomplex issues that are linked,” said Sutor.“We wanted a system that could help usapproach the challenge from multipleangles.” “The system has helped us quickly detecteverything from large water main breaksright down to running toilets or leakyfaucets and work proactively with customersto address them,” said Sutor. “The numberof leak forgiveness applications we receivefrom customers has dropped by 75 percentas a result.” Walla Walla began their journey towardlong-term improvement by transitioning toa smart utility network from Sensus, a Xylembrand. The solution gave the utility bettervisibility across more than 11,000 watermeters. Better yet, it gave Walla Walla afoundation that was scalable down the road. Advanced pressure monitoringcaptures a failing pressure reducingvalve (PRV) and alerts the utility innear real-time so the issue can beaddressed quickly and not becomea costly problem. As water loss improved and dipped below30 percent, the utility team brainstormed thenext phase of their smart water journey. Cityemployees identified pressure monitoringas another effective avenue to reduce waterloss and streamline customer service. said Sutor. “These data insights allow us totake action before any issues become costlyproblems.” Seasons change Walla Walla relies on its smart technologyto monitor pressure levels as they varyacross zones throughout the day. The teamanalyzes the accumulated data to pinpointtheir next strategic move. For example,when demand from irrigation customersdrops during the winter, the system datatells technicians exactly how much to adjustpressure settings to optimize operations. A pulse on pressure Walla Walla’s next move was to roll outSensus ally®water meters coupled with theSensus®Smart Gateway Sensor Interfacefor advanced pressure monitoring andmanagement. This combination allowsremote oversight of pressure andtemperature. The wider view quickly paidoff when technicians investigated customercalls regarding low pressure. “Data takes out much of the guesswork,”said Sutor. “It eliminates the need to sendmore trucks into the field, which helpsreduce our carbon footprint and betterconserve resources.” “We analyzed the data and determinedthat pressure was underperforming in oneregion during a specific time period,” saidSutor. “It turned out to be a demand issuecaused by a large irrigation customer andwe were able to adjust our pressure settingsto get the issues quickly resolved.” Comparing near real-time data with theutility’s hydraulic model allows the utilityteam to deliver a high level of customerservice around pressure monitoring. Italso provides more detailed views intobackground leakage that’s not visible andunderground. “Whether it’s a leaky pipe or a failingpressure reducing valve, the technology letsus know if something is off with our system,” Constant creek-level monitoring in Walla Walla keepsauthorities informed of rising water levels during heavyrainfalls. Water level visibility ABOUT SENSUS Walla Walla found their network and thebattery-powered Smart Gateway sensorscan enhance public safety by monitoringflood-prone regions. During one of theirworst rainfall events in decades, creek-levelmonitoring came in handy. Sensus, a Xylem brand, provides remotely-man