Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Services

Echologics have the expertise, tools and experience required to assist water utilities in the implementation of a Water Audit following current industry best practices developed by the AWWA and IWA. Several members of the Echologics team serve on industry committees of AWWA and IWA to help advance and promote water auditing procedures.

For most water system managers, achieving long term and sustainable reductions in NRW requires buy-in from all departments, adequate financial resources to implement the required reduction measures and technical expertise to achieve the targets. Building on the results of the water audit, establishing achievable NRW reduction targets and setting your economic leakage level requires proven experience and expertise. Using the portfolio of Echologics technologies, our in-house NRW experts can help utilities reduce NRW.

Water Auditing

Production Meter Testing & Validation
Customer Meter Testing & Validation
Unmetered Consumption Validation

Typical Application

IWA/AWWA Standard Water Balance
Water Balance Component Validation
Assessment and Valuation of Real & Apparent Losses
Component Analysis of Real & Apparent Losses

NRW Program Development & Implementation

Pressure Management
Active Leakage Control
Speed and Quality of Repairs
Asset Renewal & Replacement

Typical Application

Water Loss Reduction Program
Real Loss Reduction Services
Apparent Loss Reduction Services

NRW Program Development & Implementation

For most water system managers, achieving long-term and sustainable reductions in NRW requires political & technical buy-in from all departments, adequate financial resources to implement the required reduction measures and technical expertise to achieve the targets. Building on the results of the Water Audit, establishing achievable NRW reduction targets and setting your economic leakage level requires proven experience and expertise you can rely on.

Echologics core business has been built on technology aimed at reducing water losses – specifically real losses. We have now added services specifically aimed at helping you build and justify a business case for long term NRW reduction programs.

Our offering is divided into the following segments:

Water Loss Reduction Program
Real Loss Reduction Services
Apparent Loss Reduction Services

Water Loss Reduction Program

Establishing a water-loss reduction program involves assessing your water losses and understanding your current utility operations and management. We will work with you to evaluate your current operations and establish a water-loss reduction program that will be sustainable and cost-effective. Echologics understands that NRW programs, even if they are technically at point, can easily fail if they are rolled out without full utility approval.

This requires both an economic evaluation of the programs, establishing the economic leakage levels (ELL), and setting both your short-term ELL and long-term ELL targets. Echologics has several ELL models to establish the best programs for reducing real losses.

Typically, long-term strategies are established for a period between 3 to 10 years. Echologics can tailor the development of long-term NRW reduction strategies to meet your financial and technical needs, and provide you with the required business case to justify the programs.

Real Loss Reduction Services

Real loss reduction or leakage reduction is at the core of the Echologics® technology and business offerings. Proper management of real losses, saves our precious water resources, avoids costly and catastrophic failures, extends the life of your linear assets and helps to prioritize your renewal programs.

The Echologics offering reaches all four factors required to reduce real losses, including:

Pressure Management
Active Leakage Control
Speed and Quality of Repairs
Asset Renewal & Replacement

The specific services and technologies offered by Echologics to assist you in real loss reduction include:

Active Leakage Control
- EchoWave^® Leak Detection
- EchoShore^® Permanent Leak Monitoring
- District Metered Areas
Advanced Pressure Management
ePulse® Pipeline Condition Assessment

Active Leakage Control

Active leakage control is defined as proactively maintaining a leak locating and mitigation program to identify previously unreported leakage. Leak detection is at the origin of Echologics which first developed the LeakFinder™ leak noise correlation system utilizing an advanced noise processing algorithm to optimize leak detection on non-metallic and large diameter watermains. Echologics offers utilities with leading-edge leak detection equipment, including the Echoshore®-TX, Echoshore®-DX, and LeakFinder-ST™.

Active leakage control is at the core of Echologics field services, providing the leak detection program for leak detection on large diameter watermains and distribution system surveys.

Echologics is also pioneering the first continuous leak detection system with the EchoShore® platform. Available for both distribution and transmission watermains, EchoShore provides leak detection on a continuous basis to maximize the economic benefit of active leakage control programs.

An additional offering from Echologics in the identification and quantification of leakage is District Metered Area (DMA). A DMA is a segregated zone of a distribution network where all water supplied is measured through a single or multiple feeds, and where the flow rate is monitored and recorded during the minimum night flow period to assess the level of potential leakage within the zone. The presence and magnitude of leakage can be measured, resulting savings, and following leak repairs, confirmed. Echologics offers both temporary and permanent DMA design and implementation services.

For a total solution, coupling DMA design & implementation with the EchoShore permanent leak detection system provides your utility with the maximum defense in leak mitigation.

Advanced Pressure Management

Pressure management is now recognized by the water industry as an essential part of any long-term real loss reduction program. Utilizing advanced pressure management techniques to identify and mitigate excess pressure and surges reduces leakage volumes and the frequency of new leaks and breaks, helping to extend the life of existing linear assets.

Through Mueller Co., Echologics has acess to the technology to investigate and monitor your system for pressure fluctuations, surges and transients to design and implement an advanced pressure management program that provide immediate benefits in reducing the occurrence of watermain breaks savings costs related to reactive leak repairs and by extending the life of your infrastructure.

Pipeline Condition Assessment

Prioritizing water main renewal and replacement plans and allocating capital renewal budgets are of primary concern with many water utility managers. Desktop pipeline condition assessment models often lack calibration and high end pipeline assessment technologies are expensive and invasive. Echologics helps bridge the gap between desktop studies and invasive pipe integrity testing providing ePulse® - a non-intrusive and non-invasive pipeline condition assessment methodology which can identify the average pipeline condition to calibrate desktop studies for pipeline renewal & replacement programs.

For a full analysis of existing pipeline condition, Echologics also offers a hydraulic condition assessment utilizing flow and pressure testing to establish the hydraulic condition of watermains. The information provided can be utilized to prioritize the type and level of watermain rehabilitation work required and maximize the use of capital improvement budgets.

Apparent Loss Reduction Services

Accurate metering and billing ensures that your utility revenues are maximized. However, like with any asset, proper maintenance, testing, and replacement of customer water meters is required to achieve maximized revenues. Echologics has the expertise to review your utility water metering, meter reading, and water billing practices, along with unmetered operational uses to compare against current industry best practices and recommend approaches to minimize apparent revenue losses.

The areas where Echologics can help include:

Municipal usage audits – water quality flushing, watermain commissioning, and sewer system flushing.
Customer metering audits – meter accuracy, meter sizing, and replacement programs.
Customer water billing audits – customer reconciliation, account status, meter reading, and billing process programs.