Kansas City advances fire hydrant leak detection technology

Non-revenue water loss in Kansas City, Missouri, is being driven down by a successful collaboration between the municipality and California-based technology company Orbis. The partnership began in September 2022, with the installation of 150 Orbis SmartCap telemetry leak detection devices on fire hydrants and over 30 leaks have already been found.

The water network in Kansas City comprises 2,300 miles of water pipes and distributes up to 240 million gallons of water a day, serving over 450,000 people. Much of the pipework is legacy infrastructure, installed within busy commercial and residential areas. The water loss experienced ranges from small leaks in the service lines taking water to properties, to large breaks on the distribution mains traversing the city, where water can become visible as it breaks through roads and sidewalks, causing major disruption in busy areas.

The municipality is proactively reducing water loss in the distribution system, not only for visible leaks but by incorporating early detection for leaks hidden deep underground. Existing technologies could not always meet the demands of Missouri’s variable weather conditions, or the need of technicians to easily relocate and deploy leak detection equipment at short notice.

Engineers and technicians at Kansas City Water were looking for a more effective leak detection system that was robust, and adaptable and took advantage of existing urban infrastructure to build resilience. They also wanted to make a shift from reactive decision-making to data-led proactive operations by integrating smart water technologies into drinking water infrastructure systems.

Successful collaboration

Having demonstrated the capability of Orbis Smart Caps, a second order was placed in September 2023, and Kansas City Water now has 150 devices in operation in the city as part of a proactive campaign to reduce leakage on the water network. To date they have been placed in the popular Plaza area in downtown Kansas City and in a residential area, acting as initial deployment sites.

Alongside the installed SmartCaps, Kansas City Water technicians have been trained on the Orbis cloud-based Streamline portal, where they can regularly check and identify warnings for potential leaks coming from the installed devices. James Binkley, manager for meter field services at Kansas City Water said, “Since the SmartCaps have been installed, we have found 30 plus leaks. The ease of deployment and the plug-and-play strength of the SmartCaps has been a huge positive for us as we can strategically plan when and where to place them.”

The SmartCap’s pinpoint accuracy enables Kansas City Water repair teams to quickly locate underground leaks and, once an area has been fully surveyed and all existing leaks, as well as any smaller and emerging leaks, have been found, it is possible to easily relocate the caps if needed.

Telemetry data

The Orbis SmartCap is an intelligent fire hydrant and pipe monitoring device that enables remote leak detection by providing intelligent network data from a multi-sensor. Packaged into a fire hydrant, the device can convert any fire hydrant, be that wet or dry barrel hydrants or legacy hydrants, into a smart-enabled asset simply by replacing the pumper nozzle cap.

Once installed, the SmartCap emits a secure wireless signal to the cloud with algorithms enabling the SmartCap sensors to interact and connect with each other. SmartCaps use GPS to show accurate leak locations with time-stamps capturing acoustic data. Data uploads from the connected SmartCaps allow analysis of sounds for accurate pinpointing of leaks.

The Streamline portal and dashboard provide actionable alert notifications and identify locations for corrective action to enable near real-time, auto-generated, reporting for network efficiency. Alert notifications on parameters including leakage, tamper, flow, and pipe conditions can be viewed on the portal online or through an application programming interface (API) on a utility’s in-house database.

The portal gives a distance, in feet, from the hydrant, making pinpointing exact locations easier. This actionable intelligence enables utilities and municipalities to manage water network operations efficiently and effectively.

Cost savings

Drinking water systems in the US currently lose at least six billion gallons of water every day and a water main break occurs every two minutes, according to figures from the American Society of Civil Engineering – which says the country lost an estimated US$7.6 billion of treated water in 2021 due to leaks. Additionally, for Kansas City Water, some of the potable water leaking from water mains makes its way into the sewer system by infiltration. This adds to the volume being treated at the wastewater treatment plant, increasing costs and increasing strain on the plant.

Implementing Orbis SmartCaps has achieved significant water and cost-savings by alerting Kansas City Water to leaks which would otherwise have continued for weeks, even months. The SmartCap’s remote monitoring capability means no labor resource is required onsite to detect the leaks. However, the biggest savings come from the prevention of future water losses and by lowering the risk of major infrastructure damage and the costly legal claims that can result from a water main break. Nicholas Wolf, utility superintendent for leakage investigations at Kansas City Water said, “The team who are trained on Streamline portal can look for the alerts presented on the network map and can even hone-in and listen to individual SmartCaps to determine risk and whether to escalate it into action.

“The Streamline portal can easily pick up the difference between high water usage, versus line-breaks, in a way that was not possible before. All of this information and data can be interpreted, analyzed, and conveyed to maintenance crews.”

Orbis supports Kansas City Water with technical support where queries arise, with follow-up meetings and on-hand emergency contacts made readily available. Training on the Streamline portal is also available to ensure the software’s use is maximized and expanded as software developments are made. Kansas City Water says the municipality expects to expand the use of SmartCaps once the results from rollout of the second order become evident.

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