The supply and distribution of precious water resources is rapidly becoming among the world’s most high-value — and high-risk — products and services. Avoiding water leaks and failures caused by corrosion or high-pressure burst incidents in pipes, tanks, and water-distribution infrastructure has become a top priority for today’s water utilities and municipalities managing water resources.
Global infrastructure investment within water systems is hard to put an accurate value on. But as an example of the magnitude, U.S. water and wastewater agencies in both the public and private sectors have infrastructure assets with a combined value that is easily into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Assets include dams, aqueducts, tunnels, transmission/collection pipelines, water and wastewater treatment plant infrastructure, pumping plants, distribution pipelines and storage reservoirs.
Typically designed for very long DSL (Design Service Life), most water and wastewater treatment plants, assets, and infrastructure will inevitably become vulnerable to unexpected damage due to corrosion or incidents related to undesired pressure/flow events. Leadership within Water Utilities is increasingly using innovation to address these integrity threats, with intelligent networks of remote sensors and data capture to optimize system parameters. It is widely recognized that a historic approach to simply reacting to incidents is not enough or sustainable; a proactive approach is needed to reduce the number of incidents that are occurring by optimizing protection and performance systems that extend operational life and eliminate the root cause of these incidents.
The Cost of Corrosion
NACE most recent Cost of Corrosion study shows that the total annual estimated direct cost of corrosion in the U.S. is a staggering $276 billion—approximately 3.1% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). The water and wastewater sector accounted for 14% of that total or approximately $36 billion. The study showed that while corrosion management has improved over the past several decades, utility operators around the world must find more effective strategies towards not only effectively identifying corrosion quickly and precisely in their systems, but to do so more efficiently by leveraging new technologies enabling proactive and predictive and preventative practices.
The Solution: Effective Cathodic Protection and
Pipeline Integrity Remote Monitoring
Remote monitoring of corrosion and pipeline sensors leverages the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in any location to deliver a platform with near real-time collection, analysis, and collaboration tools. MOBILTEX remote monitoring platform solutions enable our clients to easily and effectively realize higher safety and operational efficiencies, transformational digital capabilities, and increased infrastructure integrity.
This is effectively achieved through:
- Being able to quickly identify and assess aversive operational conditions and/or corrosion damage occurring – before it becomes widespread and disruptive.
- Ensuring remote cathodic protection systems are always operating in the optimal range for asset protection, and pipeline integrity sensors are accurately capturing valuable data, in even the most challenging locations or environments
- Streamlining data gathering, inspection and reporting for regulatory compliance – and delivering advanced analysis for trending and identifying issues before they occur
- Eliminating the extremely high-cost and safety risks associated with in-field inspection, particularly in remote or difficult to access locations
Test Station Solutions
Rectifier Solutions
CP Datalogger Solutions
The Cost of Water Network Incidents
Water firms in England and Wales lost in average more than 2,900 million litres of water every day in the period 2021-22, reports The Guardian, according to provisional data from water sector regulator Ofwat. That amounts to 1.06 trillion litres in one year, the equivalent of 426,875 Olympic swimming pools. The summer of 2022, England experienced the driest July since 1935, and extreme temperatures have resulted in a record high water demand, up to 30-40% more than the normal levels at this time of year. Several companies have implemented temporary use bans (known as hosepipe bans) in some regions following unprecedented weather conditions.
Photo credit: OSHA Online Center
The Solution: Effective Pressure/Flow Monitoring and
Pressure Management
Remote monitoring of pressure and flow sensors leverages the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in any location to deliver a platform with near real-time collection, analysis, and collaboration tools. GCR Tech remote monitoring solutions enable our clients to easily and effectively realize higher safety and operational efficiencies, transformational digital capabilities, and increased infrastructure integrity.
This is effectively achieved through:
- Being able to quickly identify and assess aversive operational conditions and/or pipe damage occurring – before it becomes widespread and disruptive.
- Ensuring remote pressure/flow monitoring systems are always operating in the optimal range for asset protection, and accurately capturing valuable data, in even the most challenging locations or environments
- Streamlining data gathering, inspection and reporting for regulatory compliance – and delivering advanced analysis for trending and identifying issues before they occur
- Eliminating the extremely high-cost and safety risks associated with in-field inspection, particularly in remote or difficult-to-access locations
Transient Pressure Monitoring Solutions
Pressure/Flow Monitoring Solutions
