HYDROLEAKS2.0

Implementation period:

December 2021 – August 2022

Coordinador

Participants

Description

The HYDROLEAKS2.0 project is an experimental development activity based on the need of water distribution network managers to improve the control of their installations. It arises from the data and results obtained in the previous HYDROELAKS project and is based on the collaboration between technology-based companies that offer different solutions in the field of digitalisation, water distribution network management companies and clusters. HYDROELAKS2.0 proposes the development of new artificial intelligence tools to calculate leaks in water operators, using high temporal and spatial resolution models that take into account both real and apparent leaks. As a final result, the project aims to generate a Digital Clone or Digital Twin of a supply network and employ new solutions that, through the use of AI, enable leak detection. The results are managed through a digital platform, which in itself represents a significant operational and economic improvement for the companies operating the water cycle, and a reduction in network management efforts. All this will be a first step that will open the door to new developments in future phases of the project.

In later phases, the project will focus on a solution for preventive maintenance, new algorithms for the operational management of water networks and leakage or the economic forecasting of investments, again based on AI solutions. The main objective of this project is therefore to calculate real, background and incremental leakage with high resolution and frequency by combining different digital tools. In this sense, the objectives deriving from this broader general objective are:

• Having reliable observed data, which implies having processes in place to detect and correct anomalous data (including missing data), at sensor level (edge validation) and at database level (database validation).
• Have processes in place to detect the presence of network leakage and to locate it as accurately and automatically as possible. Certain processes may or may not require a prior hydraulic model (data-driven vs. model based), so that a subset of these processes can be applied to other supply networks that do not yet have a calibrated model.

This project will mean an improvement in the management of water distribution networks for the operating entities participating in the project, with the possibility of being replicated and scaled according to the needs of other managing entities. This improvement will result in a better cost of service for subscribers, in a reduction of water losses, with the consequent improvement in terms of sustainability and, finally, in the improvement of the operation and maintenance of infrastructures of the network management companies.

Funding:

HYDROLEAKS2.0, with file number AEI-010500-2021b-154, is co-financed by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism (MINCOTUR) through the second call for AEIs of 2021 under the Next Generation grants and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.