SmartWater Meter and Intelligent Water Analytics Platform for water pipeline leakages localization and end-use water demand outline

CWJ group of companies (CWJ Group) has already developed an Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) for Water Distribution Networks (WDN) supported in Wireless Water Meter Transceivers (WWMT), capable of being installed in the existing standard water meters, that can establish a meshed Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) among them. This WSN is created through the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) - All for Everyone - Energy Aware (AfE-EA) communications protocol, developed by CWJ-P. The AfE-EA protocol uses a mesh topology that can provide the total coverage of all the water infrastructure’s devices, including devices placed in building’s basements, normally not covered by other IoT communications protocols. Since this business concept in now completely established on the market by CWJ Group, with rollouts in several WDN infrastructures in Portugal, following the particular innovation that the market is demanding, this project aims to obtain an Integrated Management of Efficiency System (IMES) that includes a Smart Water Meter (SWM) with innovative functionalities and an Intelligent Water Analytics Platform (IWAP). A Smart Water Meter (SWM) will be developed with integrated communications and sensing capabilities, and an Intelligent Water Analytics Platform (IWAP), with artificial intelligence algorithms and other tools to support the business concept of Water as a Service (WaaS), as an Integrated Management of Efficiency System (IMES). The new Smart Water Meter (SWM) to be developed will integrate in one package: a water meter, communications (based on WWMT), sensors and electronics for management and measuring/data acquisition, such as acoustic data, pressure, temperature, and water conductivity, and the energy source (battery and/or energy harvesting technology). The SWM will be prepared to have special functionalities to be operated by the Intelligent Water Analytics Platform (IWAP), which will be capable of analyzing the data supplied by the SWMs, using artificial intelligence algorithms, in order to properly manage the WDN, elaborate Water Analytic Balances (WAB), perform the detection and localization of water leakages, manage the WDN pressure and perform the water consumption disaggregation by end-use.