Great potential in reducing water waste

Replacing leaky water pipes is a costly process and it often causes big traffic problems when the tarmac of roads is removed. These are widespread excuses for letting large amounts of precious, clean water disappear into the earth instead of being of use for the customers of water supply companies.

The solution to this issue is called Demand Driven Distribution. It was devised by Business Development Manager, Jim Rise, who admits that it is not able to completely stop the water waste.

- However, our temporary results indicate that it can reduce water waste by 15 percent. Mind you, without the costs and problems connected with digging up roads and replacing water pipes, says Jim Rise.

Several advantages

He explains that the solution uses Grundfos’ expertise in controls.

- The system controls the pressure in the water pipes so it will never exceed what is exactly the required pressure to ensure there will always be water enough for all the customers of the water supply companies. This means the pressure may be reduced for a large part of the day and night, when consumption is low – and when the pressure is reduced, less water will leak from the pipes. A further advantage of reducing the pressure is the reduction of energy consumption by an average of 25 percent as well as a reduction of new leakages in the pipes, says Mr Rise.

Great interest

The savings are so large that the average payback time for the control equipment is less than one year, including new pumps. According to Marketing Coordinator Helle Hessel, this is arousing great interest from water supply companies.

- Customers very often have goals and regulations to live up to and so they are very interested in our solution which reduces water waste as well as energy consumption, she says.