We are FCC - Nº3

water The experience and capabilities of FCC Aqualia for providing technolo- gical solutions adapted to the needs of city councils is the key to the Com- pany’s growth in the Balearic Islands where it manages nine water supply and sewerage services, six wastewa- ter treatment stations (WWTP) and three seawater desalination plants (EDAM). In order to ensure sustainable water management in the Balearic Islands, FCC Aqualia has defined a strategy underpinned by three essential tenets: promoting technological development to meet the needs of the islands; inte- grating 360º solutions, and making the community involved in caring for this resource. Cutting-edge technology in Ibiza In the island of Ibiza, FCC Aqualia has been implementing for some time new technologies that enable sustainable and efficient water management which is complicated due to the island’s water resources because of the sea- sonality caused by tourism. In Santa Eulària des Riu (Ibiza), a remote ra- dio-based meter reading technology was installed to be able to control wa- ter consumption in 400 meters situa- ted in the Santa Gertrudis district as a pilot project before extending the entire system to nearly 9000 meters throughout the town. This system, the first of its kind in the Balearic Islands, provides users with all the information they need on their water consumption in addition to en- hancing the use of water resources in the municipality. In the middle of this year, as a second phase, the Es Puig de Fita district was select to upgrade 791 individual meters and four general meters in ad- dition to implementing 40 “drop” sen- sors that collect, every eight seconds, information from all the meters within its radius to transmit this information Technology for sustainable water management in the Balearic Islands subsequently to the central base for its processing. After the first month of this service, approximately 570,000 readings of water consumption were recorded in contrast to 3,164 readings recorded annually with the traditional manual system. Thanks to these actions, 54 leaks were discovered with an average flow of 21 litres per hour. In the overall cal- culation, these leaks reported to users in less than 24 hours, would imply an extraordinary consumption of 15,120 li- tres per month. As a result of this inno- vative system, municipalities are able to know the water demand in each dis- trict and have objective and detailed information so that they can define the investment plan for the network. The success of this technology has been extended to other services ma- naged by FCC Aqualia in the Balearic Islands, such as Formentera, where there are plans to implement this sys- tem in all of the cities and towns in the Es un dispositivo híbrido, con sensor mecánico y esfera electrónica y con comunicación bidireccional. ¿Qué es un Contador “Inteligente”? Esfera Electrónica Recoge los datos de la parte hidráulica y la procesa. Incorpora display informativo y un módulo de comunicación que transmite los datos de consumos, tramos horarios, alarmas, etc para la confección de estadísticas. Módulo hidráulico Detecta el paso del agua por la rotación de la turbina, trasmitiendo su movimiento por inducción al sistema para el cálculo de los volúmenes consumidos. Partes del dispositivo Display digital Cápsula con sensores Turbina Rotor Junta Filtro Cuerpo metálico Guía eje deTurbina Fuente: elaboración propia y elster Iberconta B U S I N E S S B U S I N E S S 16