To prevent overfilling, the Environment Agency implemented telemetry-enabled level monitoring at Toddbrook Reservoir. The continuous data provided by Grundfos Telemetry Units helps the agency manage its pumping regime, improving operational control and public safety.
Environment Agency
An executive non-departmental public body, the Environment Agency was established in 1996 to protect and improve the environment in England.
The situation
The Environment Agency needed more reliable and effective level monitoring of the Toddbrook Reservoir, situated above the town of Whaley Bridge in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England.
Owned by the Canal & River Trust, a charity caring for 2,000 miles of UK waterways, the reservoir is fed by Todd Brook, a stream with a catchment area of around 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) including moorland on Shining Tor and farmland around Kettleshulme village.
Following several days of heavy rain in August 2019, the Environment Agency declared a major incident – a warning was issued that the dam was in danger of collapse after concrete slabs became partially dislodged by high volumes of water due to the rain. As a result, 1,500 residents had to be evacuated from parts of Whaley Bridge, Furness Vale and New Mills.
A reliable and proactive monitoring solution was needed to manage the threat from flooding and potential collapse should the reservoir over-fill again.
The solution
Grundfos Telemetry IoT/4G units were used to monitor the level of the reservoir, enabling the Canal & River Trust to help manage its pumping regime prevent it over-filling with water. High-volume pumps were deployed to take water from the reservoir to prevent it from overflowing and reduce pressure on the dam.
The reservoir level monitoring solution monitors various level points in a reservoir. For this project, a Grundfos Telemetry IoT/4G datalogger/remote telemetry unit coupled with a low-power pressure transducer with 4-20mA output was installed at setpoints, enabling the collection of level trend data to monitor the level of the reservoir. Two locations were selected: one upstream at the reservoir inlet, and the other in the bypass channel at the side of the reservoir.
The dataloggers are configured to wake every 15 minutes to monitor the reservoir level using the pressure transducer. These values are sampled and stored with timestamps, with the 4-20mA values scaled to indicate the level of water in the reservoir at the measurement point.
The data collected is communicated by the Grundfos Telemetry IoT/4G units to the Environment Agency’s existing SCADA system for near-real-time data, and alarm visualisation and management. At the outset it uploaded timestamped data every 15 minutes, then twice a day after alarms were added to the unit’s configuration.
The telemetry unit compares the measured reservoir level to configured level setpoints, and determines whether it is in a ‘High’ (or overflow) state – if necessary, it reports to the Environment Agency’s SCADA system, which raises an alarm enabling operators to take action. In this case, the dial-in regime dynamically adjusts to upload data every 15 minutes; once cleared, the unit dynamically reverts to communicating with SCADA twice a day.
Grundfos Telemetry IoT/4G is a self-contained datalogger / remote telemetry unit with:
- Internal battery pack
- IP68 unit enclosure
- Either an IoT (NB-IoT/ CaT-M1) or 4G (with 3G/2G fallback) modem
- Auto-switching internal and external antenna options
- Software configurable AI, CI, DI, Modbus and SDI-12 communication options
- Integrated submersion sensor
- Local diagnostic points
- Intelligent alarm reporting
It communicates with the Grundfos Connect Sensor Platform, DNP3/ WITS DNP3 Masters, or FTPS servers.
Key benefits
Grundfos supplied:
- Grundfos Telemetry IoT/4G units
- Integration with customer SCADA system
Facts:
- Topic: Reservoir level monitoring
- Location: Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, United Kingdom
- Customer: Environment Agency
The outcome
Proactive management of the pressure and flood monitoring points of the reservoir level proved highly beneficial to the Environment Agency.
The data and events generated enabled them to provide early flood warnings to the public, and the data needed for the Canal & River Trust to manage the level of the reservoir.
The Environment Agency was able to install units quickly in remote locations to provide the data needed. The ability to change the transmission rate, based on the alarm threshold, and to remotely modify the dataloggers’ configuration were added benefits. Grundfos Telemetry IoT/4G coupled with the lowpower pressure transducer offered a lightweight, small-footprint solution making use of M2M comms.
This project was originally implemented by Metasphere, a company acquired by Grundfos in 2023. The full Metasphere range of remote monitoring products and solutions for water and wastewater networks and environmental applications is now available through Grundfos.
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