The American Water Works Association’s (AWWA) 2017 Annual Conference & Exposition (ACE17), being held June 11-14 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, is one of the largest water industry tradeshows in the calendar year in North America.
The year’s technical program will include more than 900 expert presenters in 16 defined tracks focusing on: infrastructure funding and affordability, lead management in drinking water, green infrastructure, federal regulatory agencies and innovation in the water sector, policy and water quality discussions, and public health issues with source water protection. More than 450 exhibiting companies specializing in water distribution, metering, flow monitoring, leak detection, filtration, security and wastewater will showcase products and services.
Here are a handful of new technologies and announcements sent our way from companies that will be exhibiting at the show this year.
3M
3M, Booth #700, features technologies to help you track and maintain your water assets. 3M’s drinking water pipe liner, 3M Scotchkote Pipe Renewal Liner 2400, helps protect existing pipes without many of the impacts of full pipe replacement. Also, 3M offers products that can virtually eliminate time consuming searches for hard-to-locate facilities. See technologies that use intelligent markers and GPS/GIS interfaces for accurate locating and marking of critical buried network assets.
Aclara Smart Infrastructure
Get more out of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with Aclara. Aclara offers water utilities the most complete end-to-end smart infrastructure solutions including AMI networks, analytics software, leak detection systems and implementation services. All with a single point of accountability. Visit us at Aclara.com or see us at ACE17, Booth #2733.
A.Y. McDonald
A.Y. McDonald’s Unmeasured Flow Reducer (UFR) is the solution. The UFR holds back those minute flows, allowing them to build up, and then releases them in batches, creating enough force to register on the meter. The UFR is produced in a variety of units to match up with different residential service-line configurations so that installation can be “plug-and-play,” leading to a reduction in installation costs and encouraging more widespread implementation of the device. The device is also well suited to be connected to older, existing meters. Visit AYMcDonald.com or call 1.800.292.2737.
Aquarius Spectrum
Aquarius Spectrum is a leading provider of advanced leak detection solutions for water loss reduction, burst prevention, pipe condition assessment, optimizing maintenance & operational costs. Our products helping major water utilities reduce their NRW and M&O costs by using fixed and mobile acoustic sensors. AQS-SYS continuously monitors water pipe networks using correlating sensors and cloud based software, automatically providing accurate GIS presentation of leaks and pipe condition. iQuarius provides leak detection capabilities with easy-to-use smartphone based sensors, enabling to pinpoint leaks by listening, surveying and performing ad-hoc correlation.
Badger Meter BEACON AMA & ORION Cellular LTE
BEACON Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) from Badger Meter helps cities achieve their smart water goals: better customer service and efficient, sustainable operations. As part of a managed solution approach, BEACON AMA combines the BEACON AMA software suite with the first-to-market Long-Term Evolution ORION Cellular LTE endpoint, ensuring utilities have greater control over utility management while remaining current with the latest advances in cellular communications. Visit booth #2801 during ACE17 to discover just how “smart” your water can be.
Deep Trekker Inc.
Deep Trekker, Booth #3136, manufactures underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and Pipe Crawlers. The DTG2 ROV is used in-field around the world on thousands of hydro-electric dams, dive teams, search & rescue operations, dive teams and more. Using their patented pitching system, Deep Trekker ROVs are able to navigate through the water in all directions using only two thrusters. Deep Trekker offers extremely robust systems while keeping them at an accessible price point.
HD Supply Waterworks
HD Supply Waterworks is the nation’s largest distributor of water, sewer, storm, fusible piping and fire protection infrastructure products, with more than 240 branches nationwide that serve the needs of both contractors and municipalities in all aspects of the water, wastewater, clean water, landfill, energy and fire protection industries. Visit www.hdswaterworks.com for more information.
Hydromax USA Pipeline Condition Assessment Technology (p-CAT)
The low-cost solution for non-invasive and non-destructive pipeline condition assessment from Hydromax USA utilizes an advanced technique that uses fluid transient pressure waves for detecting the sizes and locations of pipeline defects including corrosion and cement mortar lining spalling, material changes, leak locations, air pockets, the sealing status of valves and cross connections. This technology enables the non-invasive diagnosis of pipeline condition from a deployment distance of greater than one mile along a pipeline without disruption of current service and provides the identification of pipeline anomalies down to 30-ft increments along the pipe length.
Innovyze’s InfoMaster LCCA
Innovyze’s InfoMaster Life Cycle Costing Analysis (LCCA) is a GIS-based tool that allows utilities to conduct a wide-ranging risk-based economic life-cycle cost analysis, accurately estimate the lifetime performance of each individual asset in their water and wastewater networks, including their expected failures, repairs and eventual replacement, and associated costs of optimizing the management of those high-risk assets. For more information, go to www.innovyze.com/products/infomaster.
Itron Leak Sensor
Itron’s leak sensor, part of the OpenWay Riva solution, provides acoustic leak detection to help utilities identify leaks before they become a major problem, reducing waste and cost long-term. Strategically placed sensors analyze sound patterns to detect new and existing leaks and send the data directly to the utility, making sure they are aware of even the smallest leaks automatically. Visit Itron at booth #2625 at ACE17 in Philadelphia.
M.E. Simpson Co.
M.E. Simpson Co., Inc. provides targeted services that directly reduce non-revenue water and improve distribution system efficiencies using proven selected water loss control programs and asset management services. We employ highly skilled and trained professionals who use state-of-the-art technologies so our clients receive the highest quality Technical Services. For more information, visit www.mesimpson.com.
Mueller Co. Resilient Wedge Gate Valve
Mueller Co. has redesigned the flanged (FLxFL) end connection type in the 350psi resilient wedge gate valve product offering. Using the same bonnet and body design as the mechanical joint type, the new redesigned FLxFL end connections are now available in sizes 4 in. – 12 in. with A-2361, P-2361, and T-2361 models. These valves comply with AWWA C515 standards and are UL listed, FM approved for 350psi working pressure.
Neptune Managed Services
Use Neptune’s cloud-hosted Managed Services to access secure data anytime while preventing short-lived IT investments. Avoid the ongoing maintenance expenses of onsite utility servers, with their large upfront repair costs and costs to update or replace. Free your water utility from internal IT coverage obligations of network monitoring and software maintenance. Learn more on Neptune’s managed services at neptunetg.com.
PowerPlan Asset Management
PowerPlan’s Asset Management Planning Suite delivers a comprehensive view of an organization’s asset health. Providing the information and control you need to align asset strategies with the overall organizational goals. With a heightened focus on industry standards specific to asset management, traditional methods of managing assets across disparate systems is no longer practical. PowerPlan helps organizations build their asset management plan within their optimal financial and risk profiles with a direct link to strategic objectives.
Pure Technologies’ PipeDiver
PipeDiver is a long-range, free-swimming condition assessment tool that operates while the pipeline remains in service, making it more cost-effective than methods that require a shut-down and dewatering. The optimized 24-detector PipeDiver tool uses electromagnetic technology (PureEM) to locate and identify steel pipes that have indications of wall loss, while the 6-detector PipeDiver tool is designed to identify PCCP pipes that have indications of broken wire wraps, the leading indicator of problematic pipe.
Singer Valve
Singer’s Battery Operated SPI-MV Convertor runs independently of external power for three to five years or can be paired with a power source as backup for power outages. A solar panel can add 10-15 years extended life. It has variable sampling frequency’s that can be adapted to fit installations and maintains 2 percent of actual reading accuracy. Dual totalizer pulse output and internal data logging options can be used for SCADA integration and flow analysis.
Sensus ally Water Meter
Featuring an integrated three-state valve, the Sensus ally water meter provides utilities with more visibility and control of service connections. And, with the ability to turn service on or off, reduce flow to minimize lost revenue and measure water consumption remotely, the ally meter empowers utilities to be smarter at every point. With ally, utilities can reduce field labor costs; lower vehicle and fuel costs; optimize billing system integration; minimize leak adjustments and write offs; lower energy costs with pressure management. For more, visit www.sensus.com/products/ally.
Smart Utility Systems
Smart Customer Mobile (SCM) is an award-winning customer engagement web and mobile platform that provides self service capabilities and enables real-time two-way communication empowering the customer-utility relationship. SCM is the only customer engagement platform designed to provide a 360-degree view of all customer interactions while reducing utility operational cost and maximizes the return on investments.
Technolog
Technolog have been supplying complete monitoring and control solutions for water distribution and waste water collection networks for over thirty-five years. Technolog’s products are easily deployed to complement existing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. The battery powered, wireless dataloggers are designed to go where traditional Remote Telemetry Units cannot – in vaults, meter pits, where power is unavailable and/or solar panels are uneconomical to deploy. Visit www.technolog.com for more info.
VTScada
VTScadaLIGHT, a free version of Trihedral’s award winning SCADA software; perfect for small, municipal applications up to 50 I/O. Includes a development and runtime interface with mobile client. One installation provides world-class automation capabilities like alarms, trends, reports, security, redundancy, open connectivity and drag-and-drop screen development. Instantly intuitive features and minimal PC requirements make it ideal for a variety of projects like water tanks or treatment plants. Your first 10 licenses are free! For more, visit www.trihedral.com/light or call 800-463-2783.
WaterSmart Software
WaterSmart Software has announced the launch of its next generation customer engagement platform featuring a suite of configurable self-service modules to help water consumers quickly resolve their own questions and water related issues. This entirely reimagined customer experience helps reduce costs for utilities in the form of fewer calls, faster call resolution, fewer truck rolls, and substantially improved customer satisfaction.
