Smart Water Cities: Multiple pipe::scans monitoring water quality allow a smart water operation of the distribution network

Smart Water Cities aim to continuously supply the city with fresh drinking water, the environmentally friendly drainage of dirty water and the safe drainage of rainwater. In order to be able to guarantee good water quality, be it drinking or waste water, more and more cities start to monitor their water networks.

As an example, in Valencia real time monitoring of drinking water from source to tap is possible with s::can technology. Years of collaboration between EMIVASA and s::can enabled to gain valuable information to improve operation in the drinking water treatment plant and in the distribution network.
Raw and treated supplied water from the two DWTPs in Valencia are monitored with s::can monitoring stations. Moreover, many pipe::scan stations with solar panels have been installed directly at the pipe under pressure at different hydraulic sectors of the distribution network. The micro::station allows to monitor nitrates, nitrites, TOC, DOC, color, turbidity, UV254, temperature, free/total chlorine, dissolved oxygen, red-ox potential, conductivity and pH. UV-VIS spectrum is also collected.

The pipe::scan is an innovative, modular sensor system for monitoring drinking water quality in pipes under pressure. It is ACS drinking water certified and measures up to 10 key parameters in one device: TOC, DOC, UV254, Turbidity, Color, Chlorine, pH or Redox, Conductivity, Temperature and Pressure. The real-time data can be transmitted to any central database via almost any communication protocol using the revolutionary terminal con::cube. Therefore multiple pipe::scans are the ideal solution to monitor drinking water at any point in the distribution network.

The pipe::scan provides unique benefits like a quick installation directly on the pipe, maintenance without interrupting the flow and for each sensor individually and accurate, reportable measurements in perfect agreement to standardised lab reference. The installation is performed on the pipe under pressure by utilising Hawle pipe saddles. Via a “straw”, the water from the pressured pipe is pushed into the pipe::scan flow cell. A nano pump ensures that the water is pumped through the flow cell and back into the pipe without water loss and even during periods of stagnation.

A local contamination event detection software with real-time alarms, tested by US-EPA, allows a real-time detection of events, so that immediate countermeasures can be taken to prevent harmful events on the consumers. The water quality data can be sent to any central database via almost any protocol using the s::can terminal con::cube, and the stations can be reached at any time in real time via VPN connection and are 100% remote controllable. Due to its low power consumption, this terminal fits the requirements for operation in decentralised installation sites.

Over the last few years, the micro::station in the DWTP has allowed to detect real time water quality changes that affected the DWTP performance and allowed operator reaction to study THMs formation potential by combining UV-VIS spectrum and single parameters and to identify a time offset of the coagulant dosing when high turbidity raw water reached the plant due to strong episodes of rain. In the distribution network the pipe::scan enables to assess the impact of maintenance operations carried out at the pipes through the water quality in order to control stability of water quality at different residence times of the network and to see the impact of the effect of operational changes in the distribution network.

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