Challenge
The water and wastewater utility for the Romanian cities of Turda and Campia Turzii, along with 13 other municipalities, Apă Arieș wanted to boost the overall hydraulic performance of their drinking water system to ensure service quality and reduce water loss, especially in rural areas near Turda. The objective of the project is to make significant progress in the digital transformation of the CA Aries utility in Turda.
The plan is to deploy almost 8,000 remote reading and sector metering devices in conjunction with Xylem Vue platform. CA Aries supplies water to around 80,000 people in the Turda area. The geographical scope of this project is all the rural areas surrounding the city.
By doing this, the utility will:
- Achieve 100% data readability via NB-IoT and backup solutions such as drive-by and walk-by radio collection
- Define and integrate DMAs using flow and pressure sensors, feeding data into the Xylem Vue Leak Detection module
- Ensure automatic synchronization of the meter and customer database with the utility’s internal AURA system, enabling autonomous meter network management
- Deploy an integrated AMI software platform for analytics, data visualization, and decision-making support
- Deliver targeted training sessions to enable field and back-office personnel to operate, interpret, and maintain the smart infrastructure and software tools
Solution
A remote reading infrastructure has been designed for this project that provides direct communication between meters and the Xylem Vue platform. To achieve the final goal, an infrastructure with different types of devices has been created so the desired functionality can be obtained at the lowest cost for the client. In addition, practically all the drinking-water-sector solutions included in the Xylem Vue platform portfolio will be deployed, including the Smart Water Engine (SWE).
Outcomes
By enabling the remote transmission and integration of consumer data, Apă Arieș will be able to reduce the operational costs associated with meter reading, especially in the rural areas that come under the scope of the project, as well as improve its hydraulic efficiency, reduce NRW, improve leak detection across its distribution network and increase the speed of its meter reading process.
Moreover, the utility is taking a quantum leap in digital transformation, providing it with a robust architecture and a series of solutions that will drastically enhance its operational performance.