Hitachi Begins Sales of Water Leakage Management System in Southeast Asian Countries

Hitachi, Ltd. announced that it began sales of a new type of water-leakage management system for use in emerging countries, including those in Southeast Asia. The system utilizes information technology to estimate areas with large amount of leakage in water pipe networks, thereby streamlining water leak management operations. Hitachi plans to extend sales of the system as a key product in its water environment solutions business, and to further strengthen and extend its global development.

The system uses Hitachi's proprietary simulation analysis combining: flow and pressure information from sensors attached to the water supply pipe network; asset information, such as materials used to construct the water pipes; years since installation and aging; and hydraulic analysis technologies that estimate water flow rate, flow speed, and pressure by simulating water flow within a water supply pipe network, to virtually divide the water pipe network and then estimate small areas with large amount of leakage.

The system compares actual values for flow and pressure measured by sensors against values calculated in a hydraulic analysis simulation that takes into account the distribution of aging pipes to estimate small areas with a large amount of water leakage. Since it estimates the overall leakage amount for each small area rather than estimating the position and scale of individual leaks, it can estimate areas with multiple leaks regardless of individual leak size, making water leak management operations more efficient.

The system enables operators to estimate water leakage in small area units before commencing operations to identify leak points in the field. This identifies which areas the operator should focus leak countermeasures in, helping them to conduct water leakage management operations efficiently.

Furthermore, the system can be installed at low cost since the minimum configuration requirement is a flow rate sensor and a water pressure sensor at the inlet point of the water supply area and a pressure sensor for each small divided area. These features contribute to efficiency gains for operators in managing water leakage, as well as higher earnings due to reduction of leakage.

The system was test-bedded in a series of field experiments from August 2013 to September 2014 in Public Utilities Board (PUB)'s water distribution network. PUB manages the entire water cycle in Singapore, from rainwater collection and the purification and supply of drinking water, to the treatment and reclamation of used water. PUB also conducts advanced research and development in water technologies and offers opportunities for water companies to test-bed their solutions at its facilities under actual site conditions.

In field tests conducted by Hitachi, an experiment was carried out where water was discharged from fire hydrants to simulate leaks in order to verify the effectiveness of the system. Under a condition where 3.5 percent of the average water supply volume was released from one identified area, the system was able to accurately attribute the increase in consumption from the simulated leak in the water release area. The system was successfully applied while only using readings from a selected few installed sensors in the tested water supply network.

Keywords: Water-Leakage Management, Water Pipe Networks, Flow Valves, Pressure Valves, Flow Rate Sensor, Water Pressure Sensor, ARC Advisory Group.