Koppal district in Karnataka has opted for digital water management solutions for minimising water shortages by deploying 635 digital flowmeters and technologies to improve control at pumping stations and reservoirs.

 

ABB's end to end solutions implemented by L&T Construction Water & Effluent Treatment IC for the Government of Karnataka helps local water authorities to track, measure and optimize water use in drought-stricken regions of South West India, as well as pump and distribute clean treated river water to village homes. 

 

Until now, responses have ranged from preserving ancient wells to following age-old water conservation practices, but thanks to digital technologies, the Kushtagi and Yelburga villages will soon benefit from ABB’s digital water management solutions as part of a multi-village clean drinking water scheme.

 

ABB’s engagement spans the end-to-end automation and instrumentation of the project, from the pumping station at the river to the treatment of clean drinking water. The route comprises 620 overhead tanks and 16 reservoirs. The project involves putting in place a network of RTUs (remote terminal units) for remote locations and pumping stations and ABB Ability Symphony Plus SCADA to supervise and control the operation. 

 

The SCADA solutions help monitor and analyze daily flow consumption patterns thereby identifying possible leaks and sending the information in real-time to the central control room. This helps to avert water loss because it means that leaks are identified and can be repaired swiftly.

 

ABB’s AquaMaster 4 elctromagnetic flowmeters, running on battery power, will offer reliability even in low flow conditions, in areas where most mechanical flow meters would fail. They offer measurement accuracy down to flow velocities lower than 0.1m/s where most meters struggle to even detect flow. As the vast majority of leaks are small but continuous, the ability of AquaMaster to detect small variations in flow is crucial in combating the water shortage challenge in the Koppal district.

 

With inbuilt tamper-proof datalogging, self-diagnostics, and a smart integrated GPRS communication module, AquaMaster 4 facilitates automated meter reading (AMR) and links to an automatic billing system, providing transparency in consumption data, with user-specific tags and access control. 

 

GIS (graphical information systems) enables preventive maintenance and permits easy navigation to the site of a potential leak, thanks to Google Maps GPS assistance. The meters can be verified by the ABB Ability Verification for measurement devices solution, which extends the life cycle of the product, validates accuracy, and provides the customer with a health-check report in accordance with the ISO9001 standard. This makes AquaMaster 4 a perfect choice for Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) projects.

 

G Srinivas Rao, Head of ABB Measurement & Analytics in India said, “This project shows how ABB’s digital water management solutions can be deployed not only in cities but also to provide clean, drinking water in the villages that are crucial to our agrarian economy. We are proud partners in this project in the state where ABB India is headquartered, and in the district which contributes so significantly to our agricultural output.”