Custom Zone Metering Helps Utility Detect Leaks

High Tide Technologies

The Water Authority of Dickson County (Tenn.) (WADC) is a regional water and wastewater provider that serves more than 40,000 residents in Dickson, Hickman and Williamson counties. Since its inception, WADC has experienced impressive growth—more than 40% in water customers and more than 100% in wastewater customers. It expects to continue its exponential growth in an effort to supply the long-term water and wastewater needs of the communities it serves.

WADC is a long-time customer of High Tide Technologies. The relationship began in 2008 with WADC adding several HTT-1100 units to monitor its expanding water system. This marked a transition from radio-based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) to cloud-based SCADA that saved WADC a substantial amount of money while providing it with vital information about the health of its equipment and operations. Over the years, WADC continues to turn to High Tide Technologies whenever it needs to upgrade its monitoring systems.

Custom Zone Metering Solution

Most recently, WADC purchased 67 HTT-1100 units as part of a comprehensive cloud-based SCADA solution to implement zone metering on its water main. 

“WADC needed a solution that allowed them to segment their entire system, eliminating costly water leaks,” said Steve Bennett of WASCON Inc., a High Tide distributor.

With 657 miles of water main, efficient zone metering is crucial to WADC’s operations. The custom solution provided by High Tide Technologies has effectively divided WADC’s coverage area into zones, enabling it to isolate and fix leaks in a timely manner. Along with providing timely information about water leaks, the custom SCADA solution helps WADC in its efforts to scale company growth. With access to data on flow rates in specific zones, it can accurately gauge supply and demand as populations grow. 

Custom Solar Panels

For this application, the HTT-1100 units were equipped with 60-W solar panels to power the unit as well as WADC’s equipment. This allowed WADC to install a meter anywhere they wanted to collect data. The solar panel customization is particularly noteworthy about WADC’s HTT-1100 units.

“We boosted the wattage of the solar panels to accommodate the power required by the HTT-1100 units along with WADC’s meters,” said David B. Mundie, Ph.D., president of High Tide Technologies. “Our standard unit is 30 watts; we went up to 60 watts.”