Situation

As part of Singapore’s smart water grid system implementation to support the PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency’s mission to supply good water 24/7 to its customers, 120 EchoShore^®-TX smart sensors have been installed on more than 100km of the city’s water pipe network, with daily leak monitoring scheduled for the next three years. Not only will this non-intrusive leak detection platform notify PUB of a leak or any anomaly, it will also monitor the advancement of those leaks. This will result in significant savings of valuable resources such as manpower and time, which are normally required to perform routine site inspections.

Driven by the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) and big data analytics, the EchoShore^®-TX platform combines Echologics’ proven acoustic leak detection technology with secure, reliable wireless connectivity. Once installed and activated, the acoustic sensors collect data about the pipeline section being monitored. Data is uploaded to a secure server where advanced algorithms interpret and search for leak signals, and generate reports for the utility.

Results

In 2018, the EchoShore^®-TX system successfully detected a leak on a DN700 buried steel pipe segment running alongside a major expressway. PUB’s field crew was notified and confirmed the leak through a combination of ground sounding and visual inspections. After excavation, a 13mm corrosion hole was located at the bottom of a pipe, within 500mm of the location identified by the EchoShore^®-TX system. Since it had not yet surfaced and was in a remote location, the leak would not have been identified until it had grown significantly.

Echologics water infrastructure diagnostic technology is used for water loss management, leak detection, and pipe condition assessment that results in savings of monetary, environmental, and health costs to communities.