Announcing Next Generation Technology to Accurately Locate and Measure Leaks in Water Distribution & Transmission Systems
SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Electro Scan Inc., a global leader in the leak detection and pipe certification market, today announced that it has joined The Global Water Council. Based in Milwaukee, Wis., The Global Water Council is an organization dedicated to transforming the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River region into an international hub for water innovation.
“Coinciding with Electro Scan’s expansion into the potable water leak detection market, we look forward to making a valuable contribution to the Council and influencing water thought leaders,” stated Mark Grabowski, Vice President and General Manager, Electro Scan Inc.
Electro Scan for Water Leak Detection
The Council is comprised of more than 150 water technology companies and includes the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Science (the first of its kind), and Institute for Water Business, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
More than 100 academic scientists and researchers addressing water challenges, including supply, treatment, distribution, and reuse, are members of the Council.
“Our prolonged drought conditions in California has prompted us to seek out innovative partnerships as we begin rollout of our next generation leak detection technology,” stated Chuck Hansen, Chairman, Electro Scan. “To put things in perspective, an 8% water loss from leakage is equivalent to losing a one month supply of water, with most utilities experiencing from 10% to 30% in water losses [apparent and real losses] each year.”
Last month, Electro Scan chose World Water Day (Sunday, March 22) to announce its entry in the water leak detection market by posting a YouTube video explaining the technology.
Releasing a focused array of low-voltage high-frequency electrical current (40 milliamps) inside a water pipe, Electro Scan’s international patent-pending technology records data such as distance, water pressure, total current, and defect measurements every 14 milliseconds.
Often recording between 14,000 to 20,000 data points for each 300ft (100m) length of pipe, data is automatically stored on a mobile field device and transmitted to the company’s Critical H2O cloud application with detailed reports available in minutes.
Any water leak at a pipe joint, service connection, pinhole or crack in a pipe wall is automatically identified without operator interpretation or third-party data analysis.
“Geophysics tells us that if a pipe leaks water it will also leak electric current,” states Hansen. “For a constant applied voltage, the larger the opening, the greater the amount of electric current that will flow through an opening. Applied to water leaks, the larger the hole, the greater the flow, so we can both locate and estimate (gallons per minute or liters per second) of defect flow for any size of leak.”
Acoustic inspection equipment, such as noise loggers, listening devices, and leak noise correlators, have been traditionally used to find general locations of pipe anomalies; however, ambient noise from road traffic, water table heights, pipe material, pipe diameter, leak size, experience of the operator, recurring false-positive readings, lack of repeatability, requirement for third party data interpretation, and lengthy end-user reporting requirements limits the use of acoustic and other non-acoustic techniques to accurately locate and measure water leaks.
Hansen heard of the technology during his role as Chairman and Founder of Hansen Information Technologies, a leading water & sewer asset management application developer sold to Infor Global in 2007.
Well known in the State of California and municipal IT market, Hansen’s prior company was responsible for implementing one of the state’s most successful large-scale IT projects deploying the Integrated Maintenance Management System (IMMS) for Caltrans, managing all work orders for the California highway system. In 2002, the project was named Computerworld Honors Program Laureate.
In 2011, Hansen’s Sacramento-based investment fund acquired the intellectual property for Electro Scan, taking the next year to retool the solution and add an Amazon Web Service cloud application to support local water companies anytime and anywhere around the globe.
In 2013, Electro Scan was named Best CleanTech Company for Water & Wastewater (The New Economy magazine), Best Innovative Technology (Water Environment Federation), Joseph L. Abbott, Jr. Innovative Product Award (North American Society for Trenchless Technologies), PURE Award for Innovation (South West Water, UK), and Globie Award for Most Innovative New CleanTech Product (Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge).
“Along with our membership in the Council comes the opportunity to expand our network of potential partners,” said Hansen. “By cultivating strong ties with water industry leaders, Electro Scan will help utilities move beyond legacy inspection methods.”
“The Electro Scan Council membership reflects our commitment to improving the systematic condition assessment of critical water infrastructure,” said Grabowski. “And helps water companies prioritize their mains for repair or replacement, and also provide a tool to assess post-rehabilitation effectiveness.”
About Electro Scan
Founded in 2011, the Company designs, develops, and markets advanced leak detection instrumentation, including cloud computing applications that automatically locate, measure, and report defect flows in pre- and post-rehabilitated sewer and water pipes. Offices are located in London, Frankfurt, Toronto, and Melbourne, Australia, with corporate offices in Sacramento, California. The Company is ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO OHSAS 18001 certified.
Contact
Electro Scan
Carissa Boudwin, +1 916-779-0660
info@electroscan.com