FEATURED ARTICLES

• Capitalizing On Flow Monitoring With Trimble Raven Eye

  The Des Moines Wastewater Reclamation Authority (WRA) is the regional wastewater facility for the Des Moines metro area, providing water services to 18 metro area municipalities, counties, and sewer districts in the Des Moines area. 

• Maximizing The Value Of Asset And Work Management Systems

  Here’s how asset management and work management solutions integrated within a GIS-centric system of action can do a better job of supporting both tactical and strategic aspects of utility operation.

• Resolving Utility Pain Points With Better Analytics

  Fear of the unknown is a common concern among water and wastewater operators thanks to obscured leaks and inefficiencies. Comprehensive analytics solutions built around existing mapping and data points offer new hope.

• Trimble’s System Of Action™ Offers Real-Time Operational Awareness

  Escondido, California, has been on a growth trajectory, having tripled the typical rate of development in the past few years.

• Kansas Water Utility Identifies Non-Revenue Water Through Water Technology

  Mitigating non-revenue water (NRW) challenges has taken an increasing role in water utilities over the past several years. There is a saying in the water industry that ‘what gets measured gets managed’. The value of real-time accurate data such as delivered by Trimble’s digital water technology has been a useful tool for water utilities in that regard. 

• PARSA Enhances Wireless Wastewater Monitoring With Trimble Telog Ru-35 Technology

  Trimble Telog® technology helps Plainfield Area Regional Sewerage Authority (PARSA) become proactive to emerging problems.

• The Power Of Real-Time Monitoring Solutions

  San Francisco Public Utilities Commission turns to Trimble Telog enterprise solutions to monitor and manage critical water and environmental data.

• IoT Remote Monitoring Takes Asset Management To New Heights

  While good enterprise asset management programs help decision makers maximize asset life and prioritize long-term capital investments, the programs are only as good as the systems and data supporting them. Discover how water and wastewater utilities are employing Internet of Things (IoT) continuous data collection and monitoring capabilities with enterprise asset management (EAM) systems to move from reactive maintenance, based on periodic inspections or failure, to proactive asset management for better asset performance, reliability, and resilience.

• Remote Monitoring Provides Water Resilience During Crisis

  Managing three drinking water treatment facilities, multiple pump stations, more than 350 miles of pipelines, and a wastewater treatment facility is challenging even in normal conditions for a small city where agriculture is an economic driver and water demand can exceed 22 MGD.

• Large Utility Relies On Trimble For Integrated Approach To Smart Meter Deployment

  The solution, which includes Trimble Unity software and the Trimble R2 GPS, also provides officials the means to be proactive with inspecting for lead service lines.

• City Of Sacramento Uses Trimble Technology For Their Water Meter Reading Automation Program, ROI Realized Within Three Months

  In early 2015, about 58 percent of the city was on metered water service -- but the DOU aimed for 100 percent metered service over the following few years. To that end, the DOU launched a multi-year Water Meter Reading Automation program to install the Badger Meter (Badger Meter, Inc., Milwaukee, WI) Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) which includes smart meters, a fixed communication network, software and meter deployment handhelds. To compliment Badger’s meter deployment handhelds (developed by Trimble) the city opted to use Trimble software on the handheld devices. By combining the Trimble software and Trimble handhelds, DOU leaders determined they could achieve significant savings on the AMI installation project.

• Loudoun Water Digitizes Field Operations With Trimble Unity

  Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., Loudoun Water provides drinking water and wastewater services to more than 80,000 households in one of the nation's fastest-growing counties. Loudoun Water maintains over 1,200 miles of water distribution pipelines, more than 900 miles of wastewater collection system pipelines and a growing reclaimed non-potable water system. To keep pace with increasing demands, Loudoun Water decided to improve its process for handling asset maintenance and field service work orders.

• Trimble Telog Helps The City Of Ft. Wayne, Indiana See Beneath The Streets

  In 2007 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) issued a consent decree to the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana to improve water quality and prevent negative effects from CSO events by achieving over a 90% reduction in these overflows by the end of 2025.

• Orange County Sanitation District uses Trimble Unity For Wastewater Manhole Asset Maintenance, Mapping And Inspection

  The Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) is a wastewater treatment facility that serves Orange County, California. It consists of two operating plants, referred to as Plant No. 1 located in Fountain Valley and Plant No. 2 located in Huntington Beach. It is the third largest wastewater treatment facility west of the Mississippi River.

• Sutton & East Surrey Water Uses Trimble Unity To Provide A Modern Solution For Field Crews

  Sutton & East Surrey Water (SESW), located in the southeast of England, supplies around 160 million liters of water to 655,000 people and 17,000 businesses through a water network that covers 835 square kilometers. Groundwater accounts for 85% of their supplied water; the remaining 15% is extracted from Bough Beech reservoir, and they maintain 3,400 km of water mains. Their major assets include: one surface reservoir, eight treatment works, 23 pumping stations, 31 service reservoirs, and Water towers

• Brunswick & Topsham Water District Achieves Significant Cost Savings With Trimble Water's Mapping Solution

  The Brunswick & Topsham Water District had maintained extensive maps and information cards for the infrastructure of the water system. The job of surveying and mapping the hydrants, valves and other assets in the water system was a manual, labor intensive process. The District identified that automating the process would greatly reduce some of the field time dedicated to benchmarking, surveying and paper based map redlining. This data when returned to the office, resulted in the need for the data to be drafted on maps and distributed so the updates could be integrated into the card catalogs and data binders where the District tracked this information.

• Remote Monitoring For Water Quality And Public Health

  New technology helps utilities meet the challenges of maintaining a safe and adequate public water supply.

• Smarter Spending: Using Data Analysis To Drive Infrastructure Investment Decisions

  Data analysis around pipe condition, inflow & infiltration (I&I), and overflows can build a case for the approval of infrastructure funding in budget planning.

• Beyond The Buzzword: How Utility Operators Can Use Big Data For Better Asset Management, Operations, And Customer Engagement

  Big Data is more than a marketing buzzword. It’s become an essential tool for helping utility operators prioritize capital investments, manage network assets, and provide a higher level of service to customers.

• Automated Wireless Monitoring Of Wastewater Collection Systems

  Trimble Telog offers a comprehensive remote monitoring system, Telogers, for wastewater collection system operators. Telogers provides an automated system of collecting, archiving, analyzing, presenting, reporting and sharing data from collection system remote assets such as flow meters, rain gauges, CSO/SSO surcharge sensors, lift stations, pretreatment water quality, air quality, and pressure sensors.

• Keep Tabs On Your Lift Stations

  Lift stations are so omnipresent in wastewater collection systems that it’s not uncommon for a given utility to maintain hundreds of them.

• Cloud-Based Remote Monitoring For The Utility

  In today’s connected world, remote monitoring of water or wastewater system assets is available to any size of utility. As enterprise systems for the large cities continue to evolve in their complexity, nimble cloud-based solutions where the data is housed outside of the utility are offering an affordable monitoring platform to smaller cities and distribution networks.

• Pressure Point: Overlooked Pipeline Tech Strengthens Water Distribution Systems

  Water distribution might sound as easy as passing water through pipes, but good municipal managers know better. With failing infrastructure rampant and an increased focus on operational efficiency, water quality, and conservation, distribution systems demand oversight and optimization. 

• Technology Helps Reduce Pressure On Pipes … And Utilities

  Water distribution might sound as easy as passing water through pipes, but good municipal managers know better. With failing infrastructure rampant and an increased focus on operational efficiency, water quality, and conservation, distribution systems demand oversight and optimization. 

• Distribution System Monitoring: How To Collect Data In Remote Locations

  Consistent and reliable data acquisition is recognized as essential to efficient operations and asset management. But collecting data outside the plant can be difficult, especially when no power is available.

• 12 Monitoring Applications That Will Keep A Finger On the Pulse Of Your Water Distribution System

  “You can’t manage what you don’t monitor”, an adage first attributed to Lord Kelvin applies to practically everything including water distribution systems.

• Maintaining Data Acquisition Capabilities Through Storms, Cyber Attacks

  Not all technology holds up during a weather emergency. Electricity often fails, communication methods are compromised, and computer networks go offline.

• Hardware And Software Tied Into One Platform

  In this episode of Water Talk, George Elaro sits down with Angela Godwin to discuss Trimble Utilities' suite of offerings that focuses on the needs of each utility. 

• Leveraging Digital Infrastructure Management Technology For Real-World Benefits

  For many utilities, large and small, hang-ups over new and innovative technology for infrastructure management often boil down to “How are we going to implement (or pay for) all of that?” Fortunately, a new approach to integrating existing GIS and asset data, Internet of Things (IoT) real-time data collection, powerful analytical software, and more is providing solutions to turn tough challenges into manageable solutions that are accessible on a subscription basis.

• Exelon's Aquify Leverages Trimble's Digital Water Technology To Expand Its Analytics Services For U.S. Water Utilities

  Trimble and Aquify, Exelon Corporation's water analytics service company, today announced that Aquify will leverage Trimble's advanced IoT and remote water monitoring technologies to expand its services for water utilities.

• Trimble Releases Advanced GIS Capabilities For Trimble Unity Remote Monitoring And Work Management Software

  Trimble announced the latest release of its Trimble Unity Remote Monitoring (RM) and Work Management (WM) software for smart water management.

• Reduce CSOs/SSOs With Enhanced Data Flow

  Every time it rains, towns and cities across the U.S. dread the prospect of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) or sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) that can result from sheer volume or from restrictions or blockages. Either way, the costs in terms of consent decrees and fines can make it worthwhile to find better ways to identify, quantify, and manage those problems — typically starting with a better flow of automated, continuous data.

• Non-Revenue Water: Stop It Now, Or Pay For It Later

  The patterns associated with non-revenue water (NRW) losses in drinking water systems prove the old adage of ‘pay me now, or pay me later.’ Breaking the cycle of wasting labor and treatment chemicals on the 10, 20, or 30 percent of water that escapes and turning it into one of investing in systems to identify NRW losses can cost less in the long run, leaving more to spend on upgrading aging distribution infrastructure. Here’s how.

• Is There A Weak Link In Your Water System Data?

  Water distribution and wastewater collection system operators and their consulting engineer partners who appreciate the importance of accessing, managing, and analyzing data for better decision-making also need to recognize how the reliability of that data is so critical. Here is a review of many facets of data collection and communication that influence data reliability within infrastructure monitoring solutions.

• Reaping The Benefits Of Proactive Asset Management

  The more a water distribution or wastewater collection operation knows about its infrastructure, the better equipped it is to optimize performance, maximize asset life, and prioritize long-term capital investment. Here is a breakdown of enterprise asset management (EAM) opportunities and the advantages they offer — from more timely data collection, to more in-depth cost analysis, to more cost-effective decision-making.

• Mapping Assets For Resilience And Response In Emergencies

  Among utilities concerned about resilience and response in natural disasters or other emergencies, precise asset inventory and mapping are high priorities. In truth, there is value in having the same information for everyday purposes as well. For anyone who has ever had a problem locating or tracking key water or wastewater system assets, here are several good reasons and ways to avoid a last-minute scramble.

• Asset Monitoring: Are You Getting Your Money’s Worth?

  Mapping the assets of a water treatment, water distribution, or wastewater collection and treatment system is just the means to an end. Maximizing value from that effort requires systematic planning and a healthy curiosity for looking into patterns of activity. Here are some considerations for turning raw asset data into more valuable benchmarks for better decision-making across multiple aspects of water operations.

• Is Your Utility Prepared For A Natural Disaster?

  Recent natural disasters and emergency events that impact utility operations run the gamut from windy, rainy, and frigid weather to wildfires, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Fortunately, an often-underutilized aspect of “smart water” technology extending far beyond automated meter reading and billing holds promise for community-wide resilience in the face of such disruptive events.

• Ready Or Not? A Checklist For Building Natural Disaster Resilience

  You’ve seen the headlines, read the case studies, taken stock of your resilience plan (or lack thereof), and posed the question “What now?” Here are a dozen ways battery-powered wireless recorders and transmitters can support a new Resiliency Master Plan for your utility and your community — one that can provide cost-saving and even life-saving insights under extreme conditions.

• Down-To-Earth Non-Revenue Water Strategies

  Non-revenue water (NRW) and, in particular, water loss through leakage has become an increasing priority focus for water utilities around the world.  With failure rates of aging infrastructure increasing and growing water stress due to population growth and climate change, reducing the loss of essential water resources is paramount.  Leak monitoring and detection systems from Trimble Water help water utilities proactively identify and reduce NRW and water loss, prevent service outages, and prioritize infrastructure repairs. Easy-to-use wireless and mobile leak detection solutions provide clear, accurate, real-time insights into the condition of the water network beyond the treatment plant.  Paired with Trimble’s intuitive cloud-based GIS software, Trimble’s solutions make it simple for water professionals to visualize, manage, and analyze data from the field and use that knowledge to improve productivity and network performance.

• Water Hammer: Identifying The Causes Of Transient Events

  A video from Trimble Water highlighting their comprehensive, cost effective solution for proactively monitoring pressure transients and water hammers. This solution provides utilities with the data needed to reduce future transient events that contribute to pipe failures and non-revenue water loss.