Advanced Leak Detection & Notification
A successful leak detection and notification program requires much more than a simple "continuous flow" flag generated by a water meter or AMI headend system. It requires a combination of:
- Expert analysis
- Multi-channel customer notification
- Task management
- Logging.
The process must be easy for utility employees to understand and manage.
AquaHawk offers one of the most accurate leak detection systems available. It combines analytics and advanced mathematics to determine in the shortest amount of time, when an account has irregular consumption.
Configurable Leak Rules
The leak detection rules can be configured for different account types. For instance, AquaHawk may flag an alert for a residential home if there are 24 x 1 hour periods of water usage--often referred to as a "continuous flow" leak. Another residential user, however, may have a humidifier or swamp cooler installed and this rule needs to be adjusted
AquaHawk will apply different rules to different accounts before generating an alert. For example:
- Was there continuous usage for 24 x 1hr. periods?
- Does the account use a humidifier/swamp cooler?
- Is the usage higher than expected?
The system will only flag a leak when all these conditions are satisfied.
"Thanks for the alert! There was a leak in a spare bathroom that had been used by guests. I wouldn’t have known for days if not for this alert. The leak was fixed this morning."
Prioritizing Leaks
Many AMI/AMR systems generate high usage reports that are long and dificult to interpret. This makes it difficult for employees to find the critical issues that require follow up.
With AquaHawk, leaks are prioritized based on their severity. An integrated notification system makes it easy for utility staff to send text, e-mail, or make automated phone calls. All communications are logged in the system for reference.
Preventing False Positives
AquaHawk is a vendor-neutral solution that integrates with most commercial meter raeading systems. We've compared our leak results to those generated by other applications. It's common for AquaHawk to catch serious problems that other systems miss. In addition, our system ignores "false positives" that other systems routinely flag.
For example, the most common leak detection method used by AMI/AMR vendors is to flag leaks when continuous hourly usage for 24, 36, or 72 hours has been observed. This is a valid method to use but it doesn't work well for commercial/industrial accounts who may use water around the clock. Moreover, a leak running this long can lead to significant water loss.
Another common way metering systems flag leaks is to set a hard-coded threshold, and the alert if the account exceeds the value. A customer who uses an average of 100 gallons of water per day would be notified if that daily value increases by 100% to 200 gallons per day.
These thresholds don't provide much flexibility and routinely miss lower volume leaks.
AquaHawk uses a much more comprehensive set of evaulations to find problem accounts.
"Greetings, I have attached my leak adjustment form along with a copy of my receipt indicating the items I purchased to make the repair. If it wasn't for the AquaHawk system, this leak would have been undetected for several more days. Thanks again for adopting such a wonderful alert system that allowed me to jump on this repair immediately!!"
Analyst Review
To ensure leak alerts are valid prior to being displayed in AquaHawk, each is first reviewed by an experienced analyst. By combining software with expert review, utilities will spend less time managing this process.
Accurately detecting water leaks is a complex problem to solve. AmCoBi has invested years refining its methods so that our system is accurate, reliable, and continually improving.