According to a study by the World Resources Institute (WRI) published in August 2023, Greece is the 19th country out of 25 that will face extremely high "water stress" and risk of water scarcity by the end of 2050. Effective management of water resources is therefore necessary and will be an issue of increasing concern in the coming years.
Given that water distribution networks are 'old' in many areas and water loss rates are very high, it is necessary to implement solutions that will have direct benefits for both municipal water and wastewater companies and consumers themselves. In this direction, the Municipal Water Supply and Sewerage Company of Aigialeia (D.E.Y.A. Aigialeia) has collaborated with G&G, a member of the Constrat Group, in order to install and put into operation an integrated system of remote control - remote management and leakage detection of metering devices of the water supply networks of D.E.Y.A. Aigialeia.
In an area like Aigialeia, with a total network length of 180+km, the inspection and maintenance are both time-consuming and costly, while it can take several days until a fault is detected, resulting in wasted water, a great waste of time and money, long water supply interruptions, etc. These factors put further strain on the already limited amount of water available for supply, while the overpopulation at weekends and during the summer season intensifies the problem.
With the remote control - remote control system there is continuous monitoring and supervision of important parameters of the water supply system and storage of historical data of its elements. Water resources are managed by a Central Control System in which the water distribution and transport network is electronically mapped and interconnected by wireless communication devices with 11 265 Local Consumption Control Stations. In conjunction with appropriate software configuration at the local stations, information from all the nodes of the water supply network is collected and processed. Thus, problematic areas (e.g. leaks) are identified with great accuracy through a balance, contributing to the improvement of services provided to consumers, timely information and intervention by the water utility in the event of damage, the preservation and maintenance of the quality of the aquifer and the water supply, etc.
The terminals also contribute to better service to consumers and the preservation of the proper operation of the water supply network, with the ability to create consumption profiles for each citizen, enabling direct control of violations in the existing meter, reducing water theft and violations.
The terminals have the ability to send wirelessly during the day the consumption measurement to the Central Control Station eliminating the need for the meter to pass through each supply separately for recording, offering the consumer the security of correct measurement and the D.E.Y.A. to issue bills on time without delays. Another contribution of the terminals is the sending of faults/alarms to the Control Centre linked to critical network situations such as leaks, breaches, unauthorised use etc. which help in the immediate calculation of the balance of each zone of the network and the performance of the network. The consumer can also benefit from the sending of such faults as it provides timely notification of possible leakage in his property in order to save water.
With the above techniques there is a theoretical reduction of leakages by 75%, a percentage which corresponds to an additional population of 22,113 inhabitants out of the 10,555 permanent water supply residents based on the 2011 census. The actual reduction in leakage is still being worked out as in order to draw proper conclusions it is crucial to collect a large amount of data with continuous operation of the system over a long period of time however the first data is moving towards. With the above techniques there is a theoretical reduction of leakages by 75%, a percentage which corresponds to an additional population of 22,113 inhabitants out of the 10,555 permanent water supply residents based on the 2011 census. The actual reduction in leakage is still being worked out as in order to draw proper conclusions it is crucial to collect a large amount of data with continuous operation of the system over a long period of time however the first data is moving towards
