Analysis of household telemetry consumption data for helping in the assessment of apparent and real losses in water distribution systems

Abstract

The availability of instantaneous data on water consumption in water utilities of water distribution systems has been increasing due to the increase in the number of customers with smart meters. The analysis of these data allows to improve the billing systems and the customers’ management and to improve the water losses estimate in each water utility. Aiming to evaluate the apparent losses, through the analysis of the water consumption profiles, and real losses, through the study of the minimum night flow, 275 domestic customers of 10 water utilities were measured using a smart meter. The water consumption profiles useful for the global error measurement of the flowmeters park identified the predominant flow between 240 L/h and 1000 L/h, with an insignificant measured volume below 120 L/h (e.g., due to customer leakages). The estimate of the mean water consumption in the minimum consumption period (between 2 h and 5 h a.m.) was 1.2 L/(customer·h) for DN15 flowmeters and 2.0 L/(customer·h) for DN20 flowmeters. Using clustering, four water consumption patterns were also identified, with differences in the consumption scales, trends and peaks during the day. This work demonstrated the potential of smart metering campaigns to collect consumption data. Moreover, it also proposes a methodology and an initial set of statistics about the domestic consumption in each water utility and in the set of water utilities, which is crucial for the technical management of water distribution systems.

Keywords

• minimum night flow
• smart metering
• water consumption pattern
• water consumption profile
• water distribution systems