SITRANS MAG 8000

siemens.com/flow

Battery-operated flowmeter improves monitoring of district water usage

The customerA private water company in the northeastern United States delivers more than just clean water. They provide comprehensive and sustainable management solutions for drinking water and wastewater processing to promote public and environmental health. Serving as both a utility owner and a contract services operator, the company can customize management and operational strategies to suit local needs and meet expectations.

The challengeWith the expansion of the urban districts they serve, the drinking water management business unit realized that

they needed to review the data of billed volume vs. produced volume. An acceptable "loss“ is typically 3%, but across several districts, the company was experiencing much more significant discrepancies. Pinpointing the sources of these losses was difficult since the distribution system is so large, but they theorized that some of their larger customers were bypassing the water meters.

The company also wanted to look for fire hydrant loss since they had observed pool companies using hydrants to fill their trucks (even though that water is only intended for fire districts), as well as for leakage into the ground.

Because nearly 500,000 water meters had been deployed, the customer realized that implementing an Automatic Meter Reading/Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMR/AMI) strategy would be a very costly investment. Therefore, they decided to implement a "district strategy“ by comparing the billing, plant generation reports and population profiles of each district and then determining which districts had the largest non-billable water usage. That information would allow them to use other strategies to identify individual or group offenders.

Unfortunately, two factors made it difficult for the company to collect district data: the location of some of the water interconnects in the middle of busy highways and the fact that certain interconnects lacked a power source. The company approached the local Siemens representative to investigate a solution that would include data collection and communication capabilities. They initially considered a large solar-powered radio infrastructure to accomplish the task, but community ordinances prohibited pole or tower construction, and objections were raised against the large solar panels that would have to be installed.

The solutionThe local Siemens representative recommended the SITRANSF M MAG 8000 battery-operated electromagnetic flowmeter for continuous flow measurement at those sites with no power available. The customer agreed and 8 of these meters were installed successfully at pre-determined points throughout the water distribution network. However, they were still required to travel to each site to collect the data. That is when they decided to use the MODBUS output for the SITRANS MAG 8000. The MODBUS signal is sent to a datalogger with cellular interface for data retrieval, with no solar panels required for operation.

Since this comprehensive system was implemented, all required flowmeter data has been sent back to the customer’s SCADA system for collection. The system is now able to run calculations on usage and aid in the determination of production values vs. loss values. This data has been very useful in determining where the loss issues reside.

BenefitsCost savingsWith the battery-powered SITRANS MAG 8000, there is no need to run power to remote sites.

Time savingsUsing the MODBUS capability of the SITRANS MAG 8000, the customer was able to send meter output over the wireless network, thereby reducing field time for the meter readers.

Customer serviceThe local Siemens representative provided startup and finetuning of the installed system.

About the SITRANS F M MAG 8000The SITRANS F M MAG 8000 series of battery-operated waterflowmeters offers you the flexibility for installation virtually anywhere without sacrificing accuracy or performance. No direct power is required. The SITRANS F M MAG 8000 series includes the standard SITRANS MAG 8000 for abstraction and distribution networks, the SITRANS MAG 8000 CT with OIML R 49 and MID custody transfer approvals for bulk water and revenue metering, and the SITRANS MAG 8000 Irrigation for irrigation systems. The program features a basic version for general water applications and an advanced version with more complex functionalities.

An optional, built-in GSM/GPRS Wireless CommunicationModule is available for both the SITRANS MAG 8000 and SITRANS MAG 8000 CT and can send logged flow measurement data via email, SMS or OPC server. This keeps the operator up-to-dateregardless of location and makes it possible to commissionthe meter without visiting the site.

The case at a glance

Region: Northeastern USA

Industry: Water & wastewater

Customer: Private water company

Challenge: Find a cost-effective method to accurately monitor district water usage within a large distribution network

Product: SITRANS F M MAG 8000

Main benefits:

• Battery eliminates the need to run power to remote sites

• MODBUS capability reduces field time for meter readers

• Siemens customer service makes installation and operation easy

Date: April 2012

Siemens A/SFlow InstrumentsDK-6430 NORDBORG

Headquarter: Siemens A/SDK-2750 BALLERUP