AVK Smart Water trials commence in the UK where a needle valve fitted with an AVK Smart Water Pressure Management Device is installed at a pumping station.
Kielder Water is the largest artificial lake in the United Kingdom by capacity. Its principal role is to underpin the Kielder transfer system where water is taken from the river Tyne and transferred to the rivers Derwent, Wear and Tees.
The nearby pumping station, the largest in the UK when it was built in 1979, is the facility that transfers the water via a tunnel from the Tyne to the other rivers. The water arrives at the pumping station at 19 bar, the same pressure you would experience at a water depth of 195 meters.
The first step is to reduce the pressure. This starts with an AVK needle valve (DN200, PN25) which reduces the pressure from 19 bar to 10 bar.
Local or remote control
The needle valve is fitted with an AVK Smart Water Pressure Management Device (PMD). The PMD can be controlled remotely. In the case of the pumping station, the PMD is initially being managed locally with the plan being to move towards remote communication via ethernet Modbus, a standard communication protocol for connecting industrial devices.
Real time monitoring
The challenging performance metrics imposed on water companies by PR19, particularly with regards to leakage, resilience and customer service, have increased the focus on the benefits of holistic approaches to network and systems management. It is envisaged that smart devices located across the network sending and receiving data and instructions via the Internet of Things (IoT) will enable water companies to respond to system events in real time.
Smart solutions
The AVK Smart Water PMD is just one of a portfolio of smart water network products being launched by AVK during 2020. It places AVK Smart Water in the vanguard of companies developing solutions for water companies in this frontier technology.
