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For millennia, humanity has built its cities and towns near freshwater sources. Over the centuries, we’ve developed complex systems that collect, pipe, and pump water through extensive underground networks directly to our homes and businesses. This unseen journey from fountains to faucets is a marvelous feat. But it is that same infrastructure that is failing us. Today, it’s estimated that, globally, more than 30% of treated water is lost to leaks.
Leaky pipes no longer tolerable or sustainable
For a long time, water has been considered an infinite resource – literally falling from the sky. Water lost through leaks was rarely a concern. However, global water demand has risen sharply. A recent study by the National Geographic Society found we consume eight times more water than we did a century ago. In many areas, this is contributing to a gap in the ability of natural, renewable resources to replenish existing freshwater supplies.
Around the world, the water gap is widening, and along with it, less tolerance for losses stemming from leaks. Teaming with Utrecht University, National Geographic created an interactive map revealing what’s driving water loss globally. Europe’s water infrastructure is especially challenged, and improvements in monitoring techniques have made water leakage rates increasingly apparent. Of all possible sources, leaky pipes were identified as the main culprit.
Authorities across the continent are under increasing pressure to deal with the real water losses from aging subterranean systems. EurEau reports that water suppliers face an average annual loss of around 25% from leaks. However, the rates vary widely, with some countries experiencing losses much higher than the average. For example, Bulgaria has a reported leakage rate of more than 60%. Ireland follows them at 53% and Romania at 41%.
EU acts to establish loss thresholds and abatement strategies for water loss
In December 2020, the EU adopted the recast Drinking Water Directive. This law focuses on access and quality of water for human consumption. Because of this, by early 2026, water utilities producing more than 10,000 m³ of drinking water per day or serving communities of more than 50,000 people will be required to monitor and report leakage rates.
The EU will use this data to establish leakage rate thresholds by 2028. Utilities exceeding EU thresholds will have two years to develop action plans and reduce leakage rates to mandated levels.
The role of advanced digital controls and analytics in water management
These water-conserving mandates will require new financial and technical resources to comply. This kind of CapEx and OpEx spending puts tremendous pressure on utilities to balance their books, comply with regulators, and deliver high-quality water to the communities they serve.
Fortunately, advanced digital control and analytical technologies are emerging to help the adoption of digital solutions more economically and technically feasible. By leveraging data from sensors attached to physical components and supervisory control software (SCADA) to monitor sensor inputs, operators can obtain a holistic view of pressure and flow deltas and losses across the entire system.
Digital twins, a dynamic digital representation of real-world entities and their behaviors, take it a step further. Utility managers can generate a contextualized view of both above-ground and below-ground assets by leveraging the modeling capabilities of advanced digital twin technologies. Using static and dynamic data, digital twins create real-time models that enable insights and interactions to drive actionable and improved outcomes.
How a digital twin helped Norway’s largest city get water loss under control
Implementing digital automation and analytics to upgrade aging municipal water systems can be challenging if not engineered and implemented carefully. That’s a given. But thanks to Schneider Electric’s digital twin technology, implementations are a more cost-effective way to gain positive operational and regulatory outcomes.
For example, Oslo kommune, the City of Oslo’s water utility, sources water from nearby lakes. The municipality consumes approximately 100 million m3 of drinking water annually from these freshwater sources. According to public officials, under current climate change conditions, if Norway’s largest city experiences two or more years of drought in a row, the lakes will not be sufficient to supply its 700,000 inhabitants – a population likely to grow in the coming years.
To meet current and future needs, the city wanted to find new sources of fresh drinking water. However, it soon became clear that leaks were a key concern as well. The city was losing 35% of its water through non-revenue water (NRW). By simply reducing NRW by 15%, the utility could save as much as 15 million m3 of water – equivalent to serving a third of Oslo’s population at the current average of per capita consumption levels.
Appealing to public officials was the fact that they could achieve their goals by 2030, much faster than alternative solutions. With this strategy, the city avoided the cost of tapping another natural source or adding expensive infrastructure that would cost the city millions to implement.
Identifying areas of water loss with digital twins
To help plug leaks, Oslo kommune contracted NIRAS, Schneider Electric’s Alliance Partner to execute a five-stage plan to find and reduce losses. Introducing a standardized method to calculate water losses, plans called for dividing the pipe network into smaller areas, then controlling and optimizing pressure in the subnetworks, and supporting more accurate analysis and reporting of key performance indicators.
A key element of Oslo kommune’s initiative was to establish a real-time digital twin of the entire supply network, comprised of 1,550 kilometers of water pipes. To gain a comprehensive view of operations, NIRAS implemented Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Water Simulation. The digital twin helped identify leaks faster and more accurately by examining water volumes, flow velocities, and direction, as well as variations in water pressure. EcoStruxure Water Simulation has made it possible for Oslo kommune’s operators to monitor system performance in real-time with analytics that support decision-making and operational efficiency.
Plugging leaks with water-smart solutions
As Industry 4.0 advances, smart water management is crucial. Water losses from leaks are unsustainable, and the EU’s Drinking Water Directive, as well as Water Europe’s 2023 report, prioritizes water efficiency to build a water-smart society. Digital technologies can break barriers to sustainability, and Schneider Electric’s digital twin experts are ready to help you develop a water-smart compliance strategy. Learn more about how we can help you tap into these resources, stop leaks, and get your water-smart strategy flowing.
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