VIDI Positioners were added to vital valves in Strømmen water utility’s network. The personnel can now check the valves’ position remotely, eliminating any guesswork or manual check-up. Sounds smart, right?
Strømmen Water Utility has divided their water supply network into four separate zones, also referred to as district metered areas (DMAs), which makes it easier to keep track of what is going on where in the system.
The valves that are installed on the “borders” between zones are called DMA valves. These are very important valves as they function as the nerves of each zone, and it is critical to know if these valves are closed, open or perhaps somewhere in between.
Precise data is key
The whole concept of dividing the network into zones relies on knowing the position of the DMA valves. Therefore, Strømmen decided to install VIDI Positioners on eight important and strategic valves, so they always have the exact information right at hand.
Based on this information, a water utility can optimise the operation of the water distribution network, extend the lifetime of installed assets, and efficiently reduce water loss.
In the map below, you can see how data is presented in our VIDI Cloud software. The map illustrates the valves’ positions in percentage after the first four VIDI Positioners had been installed.
Having direct access to this data saves a lot of manual work and time for a utility. Now they can check the position from anywhere, whereas before they would either have to guess or ask someone to drive to the location, manually turn the spindles and make sure the position was as needed.
Easy transmission of data
Strømmen is working together with Rambøll, a global engineering and consultancy company, who are supplying them with valuable GIS maps of the water supply network and its equipment.
The below image shows the GIS map of Strømmen's supply network illustrating the pipelines, valves and fire hydrants that make up the supply system. Rambøll receives data from the AVK Positioners to include in the map, which happens via the open API that makes it easy to transmit data to a third-party software. This means that the utility only needs one single system to obtain a full overview of the network.
On the map, you can see how three of the Positioners have been added, and the valve position can be seen in the GIS map descriptions combined with a red or green colour to indicate whether it is open or closed.
