By Kathryn Kretschmer-Weyland
June 7, 2010

The same strategies and technologies that make the Smart Grid smart can also make municipal water systems more intelligent. Yet with all the focus on developing a Smart Grid for delivery of electricity, it is easy to forget that municipal water utilities may reap just as many benefits from smart technologies. These technologies can help achieve the goals of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Water Council to conserve water, secure water distribution networks, and improve cost efficiencies.

Key to understanding what is going on in the water system is data. This data is collected from numerous sensors that monitor activity at critical points in the distribution system – from meters inside the home to water treatments plants. It is impossible to know how the delivery system is performing without this information.

It is also important to understand that a Smart Grid for water requires two-way communication. Not only do utilities have to communicate information to meters and other sensors, but also these devices must be equipped to provide feedback about their status in the network.

Two-way communications can help water utilities pinpoint problems such as leaks. It is normally difficult to determine how much water being pumped into a municipal system is actually getting to consumers. Water is metered coming into the system as well as when it reaches consumers. Knowing how much water is lost in-between requires such difficult computations that these analyses are usually done only once a year or so. Two-way systems provide for reading the entire water system at once, simplifying analysis of water losses and allowing cities to identify possible leaks faster. A two-way communication system can also provide the mathematical calculations that pinpoint the location of leaks on water mains.

Two-way communication also makes it easier for municipal water utilities to understand who is using water, and when. Using the information provided by two-way meters, rate structures can be set up to charge people and businesses that use large amounts of water at peak times higher rates, allowing municipalities to more fairly allocate the costs of maintaining the infrastructure for peak usage.

What’s more, water utilities also depend on the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) devices that keep tabs on critical infrastructure and processes at water treatment and wastewater collection and treatment facilities. SCADA data can forewarn utility managers of situations that could affect water quality and safety.

Today, both advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and sensor networks transmit back to the utility using different so-called backhaul technologies. AMI systems might send data via a public cellular telephone network while SCADA devices might directly connect to the utility over a private local-area network. The problem with these systems is that they are costly, slow, and often insecure.

Plus, once data from AMI reaches the utility, specialized software is required to help both the utility and consumers get the most useable information from it. Customer-care web sites can present usage data and other information to consumers, helping them make better decisions on using water, while specialized meter-data-management software makes it easier for utilities to understand what is going on in their systems.

Aclara RF Systems Inc., a Platinum Partner with The U.S. Conference of Mayors, offers a well-developed strategy to meet the diverse requirements of municipal water utilities for automatic meter reading, leak detection, networking, customer care, and meter data management. Its two-way STAR® Network provides water utilities with reliable, advanced capacity to capture not only readings from individual meters, but also water'system reads for advanced analyses. Its STAR ZoneScan leak-detection system allows water utilities to pinpoint leaks on the main, identifying problems before they become catastrophes. The Acendant Network™ eliminates the clutter of communications strategies employed by utilities today and replaces it with a single, multipurpose, wide-area network (WAN) that seamlessly links with the utility local-area network (LAN). Finally, Aclara Software® applications for customer care and meter data management provide useable intelligence for making wise decisions about

Together, these solutions represent the industry’s leading technologies to support the Smart Grid for water, offering advanced meter reading, leak detection, device networking, and customer communications to municipal water utilities nationwide. Over 100 water utilities, including cities large and small, have chosen Aclara.

For more information on how Aclara’s technologies can help your city, contact Jeff Bean at 202-446-8140 or send e-mail to jbean@usmayors.org, or Jeannie Fanning at 240-393-9672 or send e-mail to jfanning@usmayors.org.