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Water for 1.4 Mio people
The innovative Fixed Network secures the supply of the Al Qassim region with its most valuable resource.
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85.000 ultrasonic water meters
Modern and durable radio engineering provides fully automated monitoring of the whole distribution network.
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Current data every 120 minutes
Constant recording of up-to-date measurement for central monitoring and accurate billing.
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The challenge:
Ensure loss-free water supply and correct consumption measurement
GDOW Qassim ensures the supply of water to over 1.4 million people in the Al-Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. The sustainable use of water, being an extremely limited resource, is an ecological and economic necessity for the local water supplier.
The previously used water meters did not resist the rough conditions of the MENA region in a reliable manner. Particularly containment of sand inside pipelines presented problems: Sand deposits in mechanical meters led to inaccurate measurement. The actual water consumption was often higher than that recorded. Strong wear inside the pipeline system caused water loss due to leaks. Their quick recognition and location are essential, since any waste of water as a highly valuable resource is a painful loss.
Despite high effort on personnel, time and costs for manual reading of the meters, transcription errors could not be eliminated. Also, the metering was not very helpful in clearing up customer complaints about incorrect consumer billing.
Without current daily measurements an efficient planning for the water network was not possible. This resulted in financial losses for the water supplier, because water consumption could not be billed properly, and the durability of the water meters was limited.
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The solution:
Fixed Network with ultrasonic water meters for automatic reading
Together with on-site partner, Abunayyan Trading, Diehl Metering put a comprehensive smart metering infrastructure into operation for the local water supplier. Within the Fixed Network up to 85.000 HYDRUS ultrasonic water meters with integrated radio modules were ready for fully automatic reading in the Al Qassim region immediately after installation.
Forty-five permanently installed IZAR RDC PREMIUM receivers collect the data sent by the ultrasonic water meters and transmit them to a central FTP server every two hours. The server imports the data to the IZAR@NET meter data management software for on-site monitoring of the distribution network at the local water commission. IZAR software also transmits accurate data for the consumption calculation using an interface to the billing system of the water supplier.
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The benefit:
Sustainable use of valuable water resources
The ultrasonic metering ensure the precision of measurement and long-term stability even with heavily polluted water. Thanks to a battery life of up to 16 years, the durability of a HYDRUS ultrasonic water meter is many times higher than that of standards meters.
In addition to that it detects air in the piping and measures the actual water consumption with the utmost precision. This saves costs and eliminates inaccurate consumption measuring. The extensive radio range of the Fixed Network enables the stationary radio receivers to collect the meter data without errors. By incorporating IZAR@NET software, GDOW Qassim can now analyse the hourly meter data in detail. Alarm functions alert in case of disruptions within the pipeline or errors with the water meters, allowing leaks to be discovered and repaired promptly. An interface to the billing system enables a precise consumption billing.
The improvement of the pipeline network has minimised the non-revenue water problem and has positively affected the water supplier’s revenue. Overall the Diehl Metering solution enables an efficient and sustainable use of the valuable water resources for the whole Al-Qassim region.