Large European grant for work on water!

Intellisondes selected by ‘SmartWater4Europe’ project

The European Commission has awarded a €6m grant to the SmartWater4Europe project led by the Dutch water company Vitens; a consortium of 21 organisations, of which Intellitect Water is one.

John Howell, Sales Director of Intellitect Water, is delighted with his company’s inclusion: “By developing and implementing intelligent drinking water supply networks, the project aims to demonstrate the advantages of the water quality data that the Intellisonde generates in the understanding of water networks to ultimately make operational network improvements.

“Naturally, we are excited to be involved in the project, because it provides a high profile opportunity to demonstrate the improvements in water quality, operational efficiency and customer service that are made possible by in-pipe monitoring.”

Intellitect’s contribution to the project will involve the installation of Intellisondes in the Vitens’ distribution network (“Innovation Playground”) involving around 2,300 km of pipe and serving approximately 200,000 consumers. Each Intellisonde will feature a full suite of sensors for monitoring Free Chlorine, Mono-Chloramine, Dissolved Oxygen, pH/ORP, Conductivity, Pressure, Temperature, Turbidity and Flow. In addition to internal datalogging, the sondes will transmit data in real time to Intellitect Waters’ data hub.

The project brings together public and private water operators, research organisations and smart technology providers in a bid to design the drinking water supply system of the future.

“The current method of water supply and distribution is outdated, reactive and certainly not intelligent,” explains Erik Driessen, Vitens’ Innovation Manager. “For example, we take samples, and the lab tells us a day later that the water consumed yesterday was OK. This is not how it should be in the future.”

The project evolved after Vitens, which had already conducted a pilot project, joined forces with three other sites across Europe which were also trialling smart water technologies.

The sites include: Acciona Agua’s demonstration site in the city of Caceres in Spain, which is located within a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the University of Lille’s campus at Villeneuve d’Ascq in France and a Thames Water network in the heart of London.

SmartWater4Europe is a 4 year project, beginning in December 2013, and the overall aim is to make a business case for smart water supply networks across Europe. However, John Howell says: “The Intellisondes will be installed from the beginning of 2014, so Vitens will be able to focus on exploiting the benefits that smart data provides.”