Digital Transformation Lessons from a Smart Monitoring System for Potable Water Treatment

对于德国海森州的第三大城市，奥伯齐特（Oberzent）的水手来说，艰巨的任务是参观每个水库并单独植物以阅读测量值并检查乐器。奥伯森特（Oberzent）采用了新的低功率洛万网络（远程广泛的区域网络），这发生了变化。Lorawan规范是一种网络协议，旨在通过区域，国家或全球网络无线连接电池操作的设备，并针对关键物联网（IoT）要求（IOT）要求，例如双向通信，端到端安全性，端到端安全性，移动性和本地化服务。

In addition to the LoRaWAN adoption, parts of the city’s measuring systems have been modernized to integrate the individual reservoirs and plants into a cloud-based monitoring system. This provides the city’s water masters with all information they need at any time, whether they are using a mobile device or at their computer in the operations center.

Smart technology boosts efficiency
The reliability of the water supply in each of the city’s 19 districts has top priority in serving the city’s 10,248 citizens. The local water masters maintain a total of seven springs, two deep wells, and 18 reservoirs. As there are just four water masters in charge of maintaining the water network, each has a corresponding high workload. To ensure the water supply network is always running smoothly, the water masters had to deal with obstacles in the Odenwald forest every day, as they were required to gather and process information from 19 decentralized water infrastructure facilities spread out over a territory of 165 km2. To do this, water masters spent a large portion of their workday driving around to the facilities, taking away time that could be spent on other water management tasks.

The installation of a cloud-based monitoring system has now made all relevant information available in centralized form for the water masters. This makes it possible to visualize data from 60 decentralized sensors across 35 flowmeters, 17 level meters, seven pressure meters, and two analysis panels for quality monitoring. The lack of stable cellular service coverage in many areas of the Odenwald forest made it necessary to set up wireless data transmission that does not use much energy. The LoRaWAN technology is ideal for this application where small amounts of data have to be transmitted over long distances (up to 15 km/9.3 miles). Additional benefits of LoRaWAN are low energy consumption, low costs, and secure data transfer. Even though the LoRa alliance specifies a uniform standard, LoRaWAN can be used without a contract with a mobile communications provider. The local energy utility, Entega, manages construction and operation of the LoRaWAN network in Oberzent.

Everything at a glance
The city’s water masters now see all relevant data points from their water treatment system on a cloud-based dashboard. The dashboard, developed byEndress+Hauserusing its Netilion IIoT (industrial Internet of Things) technology, shows the various networks and can be used by the water masters on a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops. This makes it possible to skip the daily routine visits to the reservoirs and water treatment stations and perform work on various terminal devices remotely through the technology’s web-based service access. This allows the water masters to use their time much more effectively. It has also increased the water masters’ ability to react thanks to proactive processing of problems in the water network.

“Our water masters can now spend more time on their core tasks and less time making trips out to plants. This is key because these specialists are currently in short supply on the job market,” says Christian Kehrer, mayor of Oberzent.

借助网络IIOT生态系统，Endress+Hauser为智能城市提供了各种解决方案。在Oberzent，Netilion提供了创建和编程单个仪表板所需的基本数据，以显示整个水处理和存储过程。这是在在线服务Netilion Water网络见解中实现的，该洞察力可以通过泄漏检测或储层管理等动作进行监视水网络以及过程优化。

Endress+Hauser has vast process knowledge in the water and wastewater industry as well as in instrumentation. This makes us a strong partner, whether you need one individual sensor or a fullfledged cloud application as a complete solution. Endress+Hauser offers plant operators certified instrumentation for all processes, combined with solutions for data transfer as well as data processing and visualization.