Cannonsburg Water District

Cannonsburg Water District has embarked on a combination of projects to vastly improve the data that is available to manage their water district.  The District along with The C.I. Thornburg Co. as a partner, has invested in new Sensus iPerl water meters, the Sensus Flexnet AMI fixed base meter reading system with Analytics, a new large zone metering system, and an Allen Bradley PLC based VHF radio telemetry and SCADA system to automate and monitor the water tanks and booster stations.  This integrated technology has allowed the district to manage their water system, share information internally, to maximize efficiency and minimize water loss.

Tim Webb, the General Manager for Cannonsburg Water District had a vision for this project that included a data collection system that would provide real time monitoring and control of his system so that the district could ultimately provide the most efficient, highest quality water, and financially sound water district in the region.  On the meter side, they installed the Flexnet AMI infrastructure which included two base station towers and one R100 to collect data from their 3800 residential and large meters.    For the boosters and tanks, the District installed a radio telemetry system that would automate the filling of the tanks with booster pumps, provide tank levels, pump run times, pump running amps, suction and discharge pressures, etc back to the office to graphically display on the SCADA computer.  The telemetry system included four tanks, seven boosters and the office site.  On both the Flexnet AMI system and the SCADA system, they get real time alarms and data with which to make educated decisions about how to manage the system.

The new water meters give Cannonsburg the highest quality and most accurate meters on the market,  the Sensus Omni turbo large water meters for commercial sites, booster stations, and zone metering, and the iPerl for residential application.  The iPerl will provide the District a .03 gallon/min accuracy, This technology, when teamed with the Flexnet meter reading infrastructure, will also allow them to manage their system by providing real time alarms like reverse flow, tampering, leak and high usage alarms.  Each meter is equipped with a 2 watt radio powered by a 20 year battery that transmits and receives on a frequency that is protected by the FCC.

Since Tim’s initial vision, technology has evolved to allow for even better data collection.  They will be adding battery powered Sensus Gateways (data collection and communication devices) that will communicate back through the Flexnet system, to provide remote water line pressures and water quality from instruments throughout their system.  These additional sites that communicate directly with the Flexnet infrastructure will provide more real time data and alarms to help them properly manage their system to help boost water quality and minimize water losses.

The District also decided to strategically install 50 zone meters in six different zones throughout the system to provide information that will lead the most efficient water loss program in the region.  These meters will also transmit back through the Flexnet data collection system.  Cannonsburg will use the zone meters to compare to the billing usage to find water loss in the system.  The C.I. Thornburg Company will integrate the data in these reports into a graphically generated Water Loss Dashboard to display on a web portal so that everyone that has password can access and view.

Tim says that his vision is being realized.  “The various technologies being utilized by our system are all being woven together to create a system that helps reduce loss of water and loss of revenue. All together these systems work as one, giving us the ability to find and repair leaks more efficiently, charge for consumed water more accurately, reduce labor intensive on site visual leak detection, monitor the system health and water quality in real-time while in the office, in the field, or even remotely from anywhere with a internet of cellular connection”.

1. What was the vision by Tim and the District leaders?

Our vision was to create a monitoring system, using existing technology in way that had not been used, to determine water loss areas while saving time, money and, resources.

2. How many meters are in the system?

Cannonsburg Water has approximately 3800 customer meters.

3. How many towers are there for the Flexnet infrastructure?

Cannonsburg Water currently has (2) M400 Base Stations and (1) R100 Collector.

4. How many zone meters?

Cannonsburg Water is divided into 6 zones consisting 50 zone meters.

5. Testimonial on the technology, the data, the results of the system.

The various technologies being utilized by our system are all being woven together to create a system that helps reduce loss of water and loss of revenue. Older customer meters were inaccurate especially during low flow conditions. The use of the Sensus iPerl meter has given us the ability to bill for a more accurate amount of usage across the system. Through Sensus Analytics and our billing software, we are able to determine immediately if a meter is using water to an account that is inactive thus reducing theft of services. Along with the billable usage improvements, the use of Sensus Flexnet and with Sensus Analytics we have been able to set up virtual meter groups that gives us hourly to daily consumption readings that are then compared to our Sensus Omni meters real-time hourly or daily flow demand and line pressures for each virtual meter group. This allows us to quickly determine areas of water loss for quicker repair times. With the addition of Wonderware Telemetry we can now also compare water storage tank usage, pump station suction and discharge pressures and station runtimes with zoned areas to help determine locations and severity of leaks. All together these systems work as one giving us the ability to find and repair leaks more efficiently, charge for consumed water more accurately, reduce labor intensive on site visual leak detection, monitor the system health and monitor water quality in real-time while in the office, in the field, or even remotely from anywhere with a internet of cellular connection.