Analysis of Telemetry as a Technological Measurement System in Drinking Water Conduction Networks

Abstract

Water is perhaps the most valuable resource for humanity and its presence on earth is threatened by various anthropic factors. Thus, one of the goals for the companies providing the drinking water supply service today is to achieve a correct management of the water resource. This leads to the search and implementation of new technologies that allow water losses to be minimized throughout the system, in order to improve the Non-revenue Water Index (NWI) and to be able to positively impact environmental, social, economic, and institutional aspects. Responding to the above need, telemetry has been started in drinking water measurement systems, being this a technology that allows remote reading of water consumption in homes without the need to enter users' facilities or homes; ensuring 100% of water meters are read without errors associated with human factor. The objective of this paper is to present an assessment of the use of telemetry as a technological system for measuring drinking water in a municipality in a developing country. The advantages and disadvantages of this system are evaluated against conventional measurement. The number of read errors associated with the human factor is also compared. The results showed a reduction in read errors using the telemetry system. On average, the reduction in reading errors during the study period was 14 times. The outcomes showed that the NWI of the municipality under study decreased by 6.0% once the telemetry system was implemented as a drinking water measurement system in residential users. The implementation of the telemetry system reduced the number of operators responsible for reading on water meters. Staff savings were 10876 USD/year.