Abstract
Apparent water losses can be problematic to water companies’ revenues. This type of loss is very difficult to detect and quantify and is often associated with water meter anomalies. This study was motivated by a water company’s challenge that links a decrease in water consumption to water meters’ malfunction. The aim is to develop a strategy to detect decreasing water usage patterns, contributing to meter performance assessment. The basis of the approach is a combination of statistical methods. First, the time series of billed water consumption is decomposed using Seasonal-Trend decomposition based on Loess. Next, breakpoint analysis is performed on the seasonally adjusted time series. After that, the Mann–Kendall test and Sen’s slope estimator are used to analyze periods of progressive decrease changes in water consumption, defined by breakpoints. A quantitative indicator of this change is proposed. The strategy was successfully applied to eight-time series of water consumption from the Algarve, Portugal.
Highlights
A recurring problem that troubles water companies is that of timely detection of malfunctioning water meters
There are several studies [e.g., Arregui et al (2006, 2013) and Pacheco et al (2020)] that analyze the influence of parameters in the water meter metrology such as fatigue tests, depositions, incorrect water meter sizing, water consumption patterns, among others
This issue is of great importance because while real losses are recognized, apparent losses are not perceived well likely because apparent losses cannot be directly seen and are mostly related to economic losses
Summary
A recurring problem that troubles water companies is that of timely detection of malfunctioning water meters. Defective water meters impair the management of water supply and diminish water companies’ revenues. Water meter under-registration resulted in apparent losses and lost revenue (Moahloli et al 2019; Fourie et al 2020), being apparent losses one of the components of NRW. As Criminisi et al (2009) explain, apparent losses are caused by unauthorized consumption and meter inaccuracies, corresponding not to physical but rather to financial losses. Since they are water volumes taken from the network and consumed but not accounted for, as a consequence, the company will be jeopardized by the unaccounted water volume, resulting in an important impact on the utility’s water and economic balances
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