Water monitoring trial programme for drought-stricken Texas cities

According to Olea, its platform focuses on the health of large commercial and industrial water meters, which can lose accuracy by more than 10 per cent per year under normal conditions. Cities have a responsibility to keep these meters working correctly as they can account for 40-60 per cent or more of a utility’s annual revenue.

Through Olea’s AI-based edge computing technology, utilities have “never-before-seen” insights into the health of their largest revenue generators, enabling utilities to achieve a new level of commercial meter performance and dramatically reduce water loss.

“Our field crews were particularly impressed because they were able to identify problem meters quicker than our traditional testing schedule would”

The pilot programme with the City of Irving in Dallas County looked at an initial batch of 50 commercial meters. Olea claims it uncovered performance issues with 35 of those meters, enabling the City to forego time-consuming, water-wasting industry practices like flow testing. Olea technology also identified the cause of meter issues, enabling Irving to resolve issues more quickly and efficiently.

“Olea’s technology has already made a significant impact for the City of Irving,” said Ashley Waits, a utilities engineering manager for the City of Irving. “Our field crews were particularly impressed because they were able to identify problem meters quicker than our traditional testing schedule would.”

As a result of the Olea pilot, the City of Irving reports it was able to reduce water loss and ensure its largest customers were billed accurately, which in turn recovered an estimated $160,000 in annual revenue and helped to keep rates low for residents.