FIDO Direct saves 4,730,400 gallons per year during a 15-mile pilot.

The Challenge

Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The city supplies potable water to over 242 thousand people through a network of 2,136 miles of water main. Scottsdale’s main surface water supply comes from the Colorado River. FIDO were selected to conduct the FIDO Direct service on 15 miles of their water distribution system. FIDO was asked to analyze a portion of Scottsdale Rd which is a very busy commercial district as well as a small section in the county in northern Scottsdale. The areas of the Scottsdale network provided were mixed material, northern area mostly PVC Scottsdale Rd being a mix of Cast Iron, Ductile, and AC mains.

The FIDO Direct Solution

FIDO carried out an acoustic sweep and leakage waypoint investigation using FIDO AI software and field engineers trained the ‘FIDO Way’ to pinpoint leaks. The project started on September 6th and concluded on September 22nd. FIDO Engineers systematically deployed 293 FIDO Bugs across the designated survey area on an overnight recording session whereby noise samples are taken at regular intervals across a 5 hour period.

On completion of the data collection, FIDO AI determined key points of interest to investigate called “Waypoints”. The Waypoints were then followed up by FIDO-trained leakage engineers to confirm, pinpoint and mark up the leaks.

What we achieved

Waypoints were investigated and yielded 2 marked up leaks within the 15 miles of FIDO Direct Pilot one of which was a hydrant that was able to be sealed with exercising the seat valve. A total estimated volume of leaks found and repaired was 9 GPM, 12,960 GPD, and 4,730,400 GPY

Before

After

“Our recent experience with FIDO was eye opening to say the least. As a distribution supervisor, I was sceptical of an AI based technology that would outperform tradi-tional leak detection methods. Leaks that surface are easy; however, the challenge facing our region, is leaks contributing to our Lost and Unaccounted for water.

Quietly working in the background their techs went about identifying potential leaks that have yet to surface within our system. Multiple locations where identified and pro-vided to us to explore by FIDO.

Each location did result in an active leak that we were previously unaware of. The most impressive however, was a leak that was identified under a major roadway. Se-ven lanes of non-stop traffic that never sur-faced. We set up traffic control and limited our dig area to a six by eight foot excava-tion. FIDO was spot on! Exactly under the area marked by an “X”.

Dustin Vrska, Water Operations Supervisor at Scottsdale Water