With more than 2,000 telemetry units and 500 battery-powered meters in service, Water Authority Fiji gained continuous flow and pressure data that enabled accurate billing of major users, and more effective mains network operation reducing pipe bursts, water loss and operational expenditure.
Water Authority Fiji
A public water and sewerage utility company established by the Government of Fiji, WAF is responsible for providing access to quality drinking water, wastewater services and rural water supply systems all across Fiji.
The situation
Water Authority Fiji (WAF) provides water and wastewater services throughout Fiji, an archipelago of more than 300 islands in the South Pacific. It serves over 144,000 customers in urban areas, and 700,000 people nationwide including rural areas. Its area of operation covers 18,274km², supplying over 134,000 megalitres of treated water to homes and businesses every year.
Seeking a solution to monitor and manage flow, pressure and temperature within their mains network, and to develop a means of billing their commercial clients (hotels, breweries, restaurants etc.) for their water usage, WAF approached Pacific Technologies (NZ) Ltd, a leading provider of water and wastewater management services throughout the Pacific region.
The solution
Since 2017, Pacific Technologies (NZ) Ltd in partnership with Grundfos and KROHNE has supplied WAF with more than 2,000 Grundfos remote telemetry units coupled with over 500 KROHNE WATERFLUX 3070 battery-powered water meters to WAF.
The remote flow and pressure monitoring solution enables pressure and flow data to be collected across the mains network using equipment stationed at each monitoring point. This includes a Grundfos Telemetry IoT/4G unit coupled with the KROHNE WATERFLUX 3070 battery-powered magnetic flowmeter. This flowmeter was specifically selected as it measures flow, total, pressure and temperature. All data is transferred to the telemetry unit via a single serial cable connection.
The flow and pressure values are sampled and stored wittimestamps at periodic intervals of 15 minutes. The telemetry unit is also configured to trend diagnostic information from internal points, such as temperature, battery voltage and signal strength.
The data collected is then communicated to the Grundfos Connect Sensor Platform and displayed on its data visualisation application. WAF has an existing SCADA top-end system, but for this project preferred to use the Grundfos platform for near real-time data and alarm visualisation and management. A new ‘flow totalising/billing’ function was developed by Grundfos’s in-house development team to automatically generate data in a format that can be integrated into WAF’s Customer Billing System.
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 KROHNE WATERFLUX meters
- Bespoke software development
Facts:
- Topic: Rain gauge monitoring
- Location: Sydney, Australia
- Customer: Sydney Water
The outcome
Proactive management of pressure and flow monitoring points has proved highly beneficial for WAF, who can now more reliably and effectively monitor the water mains network and bill commercial clients appropriately. With the higher accuracy of the flowmeters and the data integration, revenues have increased significantly.
Additional benefits include the ability to better identify pipeline pressures, night flow patterns and reduction of nonrevenue water, and to manage risks within the mains network. The data collected and information provided has allowed for greater predictive operation, maintenance and management.
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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