A solution for the thirsting Middle-East

To fight water with smart meters and data transmission

The countries of the Middle-East have been fighting for decades against the drought in the region. The lack of water constitutes an ever greater problem from a human as well as from a strategic point of view. In the capital of Oman, Muscat, for example, the envisaged solution is to stop the malfunctions of the water-pipe system. The Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) in Oman wanted to assess in its project, concluded by the end of 2009, how reliably and efficiently the systems of the smart meters work. The radio transmission devices, servers and software of the system were provided by CASON Engineering Plc. of Hungary.

Measurements in the mosque

In the two-months long Oman test-program several unexpected information came to light. „The data-analysis has shown how wasteful the water supply-service works in a country where water is a rare and expensive resource. An average Omani household spends around 50 thousand Forints a month for water while the cost of the water-production is ten-fold.”- says Ferenc Szakács, Cason's CEO about the success. „After measuring the consumption in real time and comparing it with the data of the smart meters taking measurements in the neighborhood in question, it became obvious where the water leaked in large quantities, and it also became measurable how fast and with what results the employees of the water-supply service fixed a broken pipe” – said Ferenc Szakács, adding that these information show that a water-supply system designed to operate for decades demands daily attention and work.

As part of the Oman project the water-meters of selected houses and of a mosque have been equipped with smart meters and Zig-C data-collecting devices. „Our partners in Oman were so aware of the project's importance that they even allowed us to assemble on top of the mosque the coordinator station that delivered to the center the data collected by the meters .” – remembers Ferenc Szakacs CEO. The company's appliances even made it possible for the head of the Oman water supply authority to track the current water-consumption of his house on his smart-phone.

How does the smart meter work?

„The water supply service knows exactly how much water the consumers use in total, they also know how much water gets into the system, but they have no information on what causes the difference between the two. With its currently available tools the water provider has no way of assessing exactly where and how much water is wasted and how much water the consumers really need. If the smart meters and the automatic meter-reading system cover an entire area, we can find out where and how much water leaks unnecessarily from the system, once we compare the data with the amount of water arriving into the area, ” - explains the CEO the complexity of the task.

The accuracy and authenticity of the measurements performed by Cason's data transmission tools and software have convinced the Oman authority so much that a system extending to several thousand consumers can become operational in the next phase of the project.

Learn more about the project on CASON's blogsite.