Using water efficiency technology to better track consumption
26 March 2024 Reading time: 3 minutes
“By installing AMR technology across our estate, Business Stream have made it far easier for us to track our water use. We are now better placed to understand our water consumption and potential opportunities to make savings as we look to generate environmental efficiencies”.
Background
Saltend Chemicals Park (SCP) is owned and operated by px Group, a leading provider of services in the process, energy and high complexity industrial sectors. px Group is responsible for processing around 30% of the UK’s gas supply.
SCP is home to some of the world’s leading manufacturing, chemicals and renewable energy businesses. The 370-acre multi-occupancy site on the banks of the Humber has over 1,000 employees and contractors on site every day. Given the manufacturing undertaken on site, they are large water users, using on average 6,000,000m3 per year.
The challenge
The site had various meter points that needed to be located in order to provide accurate meter reads. The on-site security team needed to be available to provide access and some of the meter points were difficult to locate. In one particular case, the meter required maintenance teams to remove overgrown shrubs and an engineer with confined space training to locate the reading due to the depth of the chamber.
The solution
To provide an easier and more effective way to monitor SCP’s water use, we installed six Automated Meter Readings (AMRs) strategically across the estate.
AMRs are small devices that send meter readings in 15-minute intervals to a centralised point via either a wired or wireless connection to provide almost real-time data. They don’t require physical intervention from onsite personnel and the data can be accessed 24/7, 365 days of the year. The devices remotely monitor water use and can identify any issues as soon as they arise, including burst pipes, leaks or equipment failure.
In addition, we’re rolling out a short training session on the online portal so that the SCP facilities team can take further ownership of tracking and reporting on their water use.
The result
The AMRs are providing high consumption alerts when there’s a sudden spike in water use, helping to quickly detect any hidden leaks, and give SCP better data to report on their water use. The AMR data will also enable SCP to track their progress in reducing water use to support their carbon reduction targets and will help to ensure accurate consumption data is recorded for billing purposes.
We’re fully committed to improving our environmental performance and are certified to ISO 14001:2015. You can find out more in our environmental policy.
