Press and Media

15 Jun 2022

Free Lunch and Learns ON Digital Analytics in the Water Industry

TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory are offering free on-site Lunch and Learns at your premises within the United Kingdom, describing how data science techniques can be used in the water industry to locate and predict leakage in water networks. The Lunch and Learns are being operated under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, (BEIS) Flow Programme which looks to expand flow metrology knowledge to UK Industry.

By combining the facilities of the UK’s National Standard for Flow Measurement with emerging data science techniques, we provide end-users with a means of interpreting meter-specific diagnostic data and relating the response of data to specific operating conditions. The experiments and data science techniques utilised, can be redeployed to address specific end-user requirements on a case-by-case basis, as well as form the foundation of a much larger condition-based monitoring system. These approaches can also be used to provide the back-end functionality to a much simpler interface that simply tells the user what the prevailing fault condition is.

By utilising the knowledge and experience gained within the oil and gas industry looking at the use of data science techniques and flow metrology, TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory are now looking to transfer this knowledge and experience gained in the oil and gas industry to the water industry. We are developing a software suite that will give the operator information on the performance of their electronic flow meters and can also be used to locate and predict leakage in water networks.

In recent years, the availability of inexpensive computing power and measurement databases has enabled the development of powerful data analysis techniques that allow metering networks to be monitored daily. Such techniques can give operators details about meter performance and leakage and are much more effective than the traditional water balance calculations over the distribution network. The most appropriate techniques that may be applied over an inter-connected network of measurements include:

• Condition based monitoring techniques that use the diagnostic data that modern electronic flow meters generate to determine the health of the flow meter and to verify that the meter is reading correctly.
• Data validation and reconciliation techniques that undertake network analysis and use statistical techniques to identify the flow meters most likely to be responsible for imbalances, allow water companies to target maintenance to where it is most required. Using this technique, engineers may quickly identify which meters are reading outside their uncertainty bands and take appropriate remedial action. It can also be used to determine the level of leakage in a network.
• Fault prediction analysis - by making use of historical data and using machine learning techniques it should be possible to predict where leakage is likely to occur in the water networks.

Combining multiple data analysis techniques such as these should allow modern software techniques to be developed that will enable water companies to:

• Verify the performance of modern electronic flow meters
• Perform network analysis and identify leakage on their networks
• Predict where leakage events may happen in the future

If you are interested in having a free Lunch and Learn at your premises or via a remote meeting, please contact Dr Carl Wordsworth on [email protected] or 07590 734069.

To find out more about our services, visit our flow measurement web pages.