The United Kingdom Society for Trenchless Technologies Selects Electro Scan Project That Found Defects Missed By CCTV Inspections
Birmingham, England, UK — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Electro Scan (UK) Limited has won the 2015 Best Project Award as announced by the United Kingdom Society for Trenchless Technologies (UKSTT), completed in partnership with CPS Environmental on behalf of Severn Trent Water Plc.
Chuck Hansen at UKSTT Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremoney, Birminham, England
The project was the largest and most comprehensive comparison of the Electro Scan technology and Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) inspections using the WRc Manual of Sewer Condition Classifications.
Electro Scan represents a next generation solution that detects leaks in sewer and water pipes by automatically measuring the change in electrical current able to pass through the wall of a pipe. No operator coding or third party interpretation is required.
The award was presented at the UKSTT Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony held April 24, 2015 in Birmingham, England.
“I am proud that our UK company was selected for this prestigious award,” states Mark Grabowski, General Manager of US-based Electro Scan Inc.
Working under the guidance of Severn Trent’s in-house engineers and project managers, the project was conducted in an English village that had experienced persistent and unexplained sewer flows.
CCTV had been used on multiple occasions so a key objective of the project was to determine if Electro Scan could identify and measure defects not found by previous visual observations.
“Debris, surcharged pipes, and fats, oils and grease (FOG) make it difficult, if not impossible, to use CCTV to accurately determine defects or their severity,” states Grabowski. “By using our [Electro Scan] low voltage leak detection technology we allow users to automatically locate and estimate defect flows.”
Result: Electro Scan’s international patent-pending technology not only identified a number of potential sources of infiltration, not seen by previous CCTV inspections, but provided estimated defect flows for each sewer main and each identified defect.
While Electro Scan completed 100% of the survey area, by comparison CCTV completed only 75% of the same area, due to numerous survey abandonments.
Leakage rates were estimated in litres per second (l/s) with results available within minutes from the Company’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) Critical Sewers® cloud application.
“Electro Scan, it’s the future,” comments Neil Walton, Managing Director of CPS Environmental, based in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, UK.
The UKSTT’s Best Project Award (Small Scheme Category) is based on technical or professional excellence as well as demonstrated innovation and protection of the environment.
Other UK awards for Electro Scan have included The New Economy Magazine Award for Best CleanTech Water & Sewer Company (2014) and the South West Water PURE Award (2013).
Major US awards for Electro Scan include Best Innovative Technology Award, Water Environment Federation (2013) and Best Innovative Product Award, North American Society of Trenchless Technologies (2013).
“The cost of incorrectly diagnosing pipe conditions using legacy inspection techniques can negatively impact a water utility’s CAPEX, OPEX, and TOTEX,” says Chuck Hansen, Managing Director, Electro Scan (UK) Ltd.
“Undetected defects can often result in the wrong repair or the acceptance of a poorly installed trenchless project,” continues Hansen. “In some cases, a spot repair may fix one leak, but create two larger ones at both ends of the repair. In other cases, relined pipes with winkles, overheating marks, tears, or poor service reconnections may pass visual inspection, but also may ‘pass’ water [leak], too.”
“Electro Scan does not replace CCTV,” states Grabowski. “But, water utilities are recommended to first Electro Scan their pipes; then, schedule CCTV to specifically capture pipe conditions at major defect locations identified by Electro Scan.”
Electro Scan’s ability to find and measure defect flows in relined pipes is recommended to certify trenchless projects.
About Electro Scan
The Company develops and markets 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
Carissa Boudwin, +1.916.779.0660,
carissa@electroscan.com