Smart meters to cut water loss

Under the Smart City projects, a high-powered committee approved the installation of electromagnetic flow meters for water supply and filling post control unit and smart card-based online monitoring system for water supply. 

Tenders for the system would be invited soon, said a senior corporation official. Currently, the city has no way to account for the amount of water received, treated and supplied to consumers from five reservoirs, five water treatment plants and two desalination plants. 

Thus, 251 insertion-type electromagnetic flow meters (at an estimated cost of Rs 11.63 crore) will be installed at headworks, treatment plants and distribution systems. 

“All advanced cities know how much water they consume and conserve, helping them manage the limited resource smartly. These smart meters will help us understand that,” added the senior official. 

In fact, a Decision Support Control Room will be set up at Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewage Board (CMWSSB) headquarters, where the real-time data from these electromagnetic meters will eventually be used to schedule daily water supply. 

CMWSSB tankers, which supply about 35 million litres of water a day (MLD) through tankers in around 6,000 trips, is another area which experiences water loss, said the official. To counter this, the CMWSSB will install Filling Post Control Unit and Smart-Card based online monitoring system at its 41 filling stations with 191 filling posts. 

“As of now, there is no effective system to manage tankers filling up at these stations. Sometimes, the tankers leak because valves are not closed properly, or a driver fills up more than the volume allocated. Through the Smart-Card system, the tanker can fill only the quantity it is allocated, leaving no room for wastage,” added the official. 

In addition to this, a recently-tendered project under Smart City funding but implemented by CMWSSB will aim at installing smart meters in more than 12,500 commercial buildings. 

“Currently, we don’t know how much water big buildings use. Once the smart meters are installed in commercial structures, it will help in assessing the quantity of water used which will help us understand the water requirements of the city and meet the demand efficiently,” said the official.