Water consumption analysis during night hours of residential customers

Abstract

[EN] Managing and reducing water losses should be a primary concern to ensure the sustainability of a water utility. Among all the potential strategies, the design and construction of district meter areas (DMA) is probably one of the most widely used for water loss assessment and control. This is because partitioning a water network into smaller portions significantly facilitates the analysis procedures and improves the speed at which bursts and leaks are detected and located. This analysis is typically done by processing and evaluating the time series of the inflows into the DMA. The Minimum Night Flow (MNF) represents the lowest flow into the DMA over a 24-h period. MNF typically occurs between 02:00 and 04:00 AM. During this period, most users do not intentionally use water and the inflows into the DMA are mainly composed of leakage at DMA pipes and private plumbing systems. Consequently, the analysis of the MNF allows for easy and accurate quantification of the magnitude of leakage in a particular DMA. The main difficulty in applying this methodology appears when trying to disaggregate the night flows into its fundamental components: 1) Leakage in mains and connection pipes belonging to the distribution network 2) Leakage at customers' facilities, and 3) Intentional use of water by customers. The first two components correspond to continuous flows that, in most cases, remain constant during the night hours. The third component is inherently random and may vary in magnitude and duration.Managing and reducing water losses should be a primary concern to ensure the sustainability of a water utility. Among all the potential strategies, the design and construction of district meter areas (DMA) is probably one of the most widely used for water loss assessment and control. This is because partitioning a water network into smaller portions significantly facilitates the analysis procedures and improves the speed at which bursts and leaks are detected and located. This analysis is typically done by processing and evaluating the time series of the inflows into the DMA. The Minimum Night Flow (MNF) represents the lowest flow into the DMA over a 24-h period. MNF typically occurs between 02:00 and 04:00 AM. During this period, most users do not intentionally use water and the inflows into the DMA are mainly composed of leakage at DMA pipes and private plumbing systems. Consequently, the analysis of the MNF allows for easy and accurate quantification of the magnitude of leakage in a particular DMA. The main difficulty in applying this methodology appears when trying to disaggregate the night flows into its fundamental components: 1) Leakage in mains and connection pipes belonging to the distribution network 2) Leakage at customers' facilities, and 3) Intentional use of water by customers. The first two components correspond to continuous flows that, in most cases, remain constant during the night hours. The third component is inherently random and may vary in ma