Le Mans Métropole is an urban community, located in the Pays de la Loire region in France. They serve 20 municipalities, via a 1388km drinking water network and 38 configured sectors.
THE CHALLENGE
Le Mans Métropole initially deployed AMR. Siderm, which was responsible for drinking water until 2018, had deployed remote reading within its perimeter. When the authority was transferred to Le Mans Métropole, it was decided to standardise the fleet of meters and therefore to deploy remote reading on a massive scale. At the same time, Siderm had undertaken a hydraulic sectorisation study, so the need for a hydraulic monitoring tool was clear.
THE SOLUTION
Le Mans Métropole chose to continue deploying remote meter reading with SUEZ in order to provide the same quality of service to all its residents, providing them with precise information on their water consumption, and even alerts in the case of leaks or over-consumption. These value-added services were not possible with manual meter reading and the two meter readings per year that comes with AMR.
Leaks were a real problem for some users, who saw their bills rise sharply, but also for the water department, which had to deal with numerous requests for rebates. To optimise its hydraulic network, the authority also opted for the AQUADVANCED® Water Networks real-time hydraulic management system.
RESULTS
Le Mans Métropole saved significant quantities of water, more accurate billing with improved customer satisfaction and greater operational efficiencies.
LEAKAGE REDUCTION The introduction of smart metering and the AQUADVANCED® hypervision solution for the water network has increased the efficiency and responsiveness of the utility’s operators, making it possible to avoid excessive water losses. In one sector, the Mulsanne commune, there has been a reduction in the daily night-time flow by 30m3/h, which is equivalent to a saving of 250,000 m3 per year and €125,000 saved.
BILLING By avoiding excessive water losses much more quickly the authorities have been able to avoid excessive bills. They have also seen a drastic reduction in the number of requests for rebates and a significant improvement in water yield.
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES In addition to the gains in network efficiency and the improved quality of service for water service customers, the introduction of these solutions has prompted the operations department to transform its organisation and change its working methods to achieve ever greater efficiency in day-to-day operations, with the creation of a unit dedicated to leak detection, which analyses the data from remote reading and AQUADVANCED® on a daily basis.
IMPLEMENTATION
SUEZ managed the installation, integration and operations of:
- Diehl meters
- Wize network
- ON’connect™
- AQUADVANCED® Water Networks
– Geoffrey Dubost, Head of Drinking Water and Wastewater Network Operations, Le Mans MétropoleWith this technology, we know the
consumption of subscribers in a sector, the inlet and outlet flow rates and we can therefore identify and monitor the linear loss index, which enables us to optimise hydraulic performance considerably.
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