Water utilities face a familiar problem: demand grows, budgets don’t. Your operators spend hours on manual checks and data collection instead of solving the issues that actually matter.
The path forward doesn’t require a complete system overhaul. Most utilities improve efficiency through focused interventions in specific areas, once they know where to look.
Here’s how to build an improvement plan that delivers measurable results.
Step 1: Pick One Priority
Start with a single, clear target. Trying to fix everything at once spreads resources thin and makes it harder to measure progress.
Choose the outcome that matters most right now:
Reduce operating costs – Lower your energy bills or cut treatment expenses by 15-25%. Energy typically represents 30-40% of operating costs for most water utilities, making it a high-impact target.
Optimize staff time – Free up your team to handle growth instead of routine monitoring. Experienced operators spend hours driving between sites to check readings. That’s time spent collecting data, not solving problems.
Improve reliability – Reduce complaints and demonstrate better service to your community. Even small improvements in reliability, reducing unplanned outages by 30-40%, significantly improve community perception.
Pick one. You can tackle others later, but a focused start gives you faster wins and clearer ROI.
Step 2: Find Your Biggest Time Drain
Walk through a typical week with your operations team. Not from memory, actually track it. Spend a week having operators log their time in 30-minute blocks.
Ask three questions:
What tasks take the most staff hours each week? Include drive time, data collection, and reporting. A distribution operator might spend two hours daily just checking tank levels across the service area. That’s 10 hours per week, 520 hours per year, collecting data that a monitoring system could track automatically.
Which activities require manual checks or data gathering? Every manual check is an opportunity for automation. Look at pressure gauge readings, flow measurements, and equipment status checks. If someone drives to a location primarily to write down a number, that’s a candidate for improvement.
Where do you spend money that doesn’t directly improve service? You waste energy during low-demand periods. You pay overtime for emergencies you could have prevented. You maintain equipment that’s not performing well.
Most water utilities discover their answer falls into one of three categories:
High energy costs – Your pumps run at full capacity all the time, even when demand is low
Labor-intensive monitoring – Daily trips to check tank levels, pressure readings, or equipment status. In large service areas, operators might drive 50-100 kilometers daily just for routine checks.
Reactive maintenance – Fixing problems after they happen instead of preventing them. Emergency repairs cost 3-5 times more than planned maintenance.
Identify your specific pain point. This becomes your implementation focus.
Step 3: Match Solutions to Your Priority
Once you know what’s costing you the most, the fix becomes clearer.
If Energy Costs Are Your Focus
Process optimization gives you the biggest return. Real-time flow and pressure data show you actual demand. You can adjust pump operations to match it instead of running everything at maximum capacity.
Most utilities run pumps on fixed schedules, turn on at 6 AM, turn off at 10 PM, regardless of actual demand.
But demand varies significantly throughout the day. Morning peak hits at 7-9 AM. Then it drops. Another spike happens at 6-8 PM.
With demand-based optimization, pumps ramp up and down based on actual conditions. During low-demand periods, you might run one pump at 60% capacity instead of two at 100%. The energy savings compound, you’re not just using less power, you’re also extending equipment life.
The water utilities that are implementing demand-based pumping typically see energy consumption drop significantly. Equipment also lasts longer because it runs at an appropriate capacity instead of maximum output.
If Staff Time Is Your Constraint
Automation helps your team work smarter. Remote monitoring means fewer truck rolls to check routine readings. Automated alerts catch issues before they become emergencies.
Consider what happens during a typical day without automation. Operators start early, drive to the first site, visually inspect equipment, record readings, check for leaks. Then the second site, the third, the fourth. By 10 AM they’re back at the office entering data into spreadsheets.
With remote monitoring, they start the day reviewing dashboard data from all sites simultaneously. The system catches anomalies before you even log in. They only drive to locations that need attention.
If Reliability Matters Most
Early leak detection prevents small problems from becoming service interruptions. Continuous monitoring spots pressure drops or flow anomalies that signal developing issues. You fix leaks at 50 gallons per minute instead of 500.
A small leak starts, maybe a gasket wearing out or a joint beginning to fail. For days or weeks, water seeps into the ground. Nobody notices until residents see water pooling in the street. Or until pressure drops and complaints come in.
With continuous monitoring, you see the pressure anomaly within hours of the leak starting. You dispatch a crew during normal hours. They locate and repair it before most customers notice anything wrong.
Step 4: Start Small, Prove Value
You don’t need to instrument your entire network on day one. Pick one section where the problem is most visible.
Maybe a zone with high energy costs. Or an area with frequent issues. Install monitoring there first. Demonstrate results. Then expand.
This approach gives you three advantages:
Faster implementation – Weeks instead of months to see results. A single-zone pilot can run in 2-4 weeks.
Lower risk – Prove the concept before committing full budget. If something doesn’t work as expected, you’ve limited the downside.
Staff buy-in – Your team sees the benefits firsthand before rolling out wider. The operators who were skeptical become advocates when they see how it makes their work easier.
What This Looks Like in Practice
A water utility in Volta Redonda, Brazil runs an efficient operation serving thousands of customers. Their team knew the Aterrado III zone could perform better. Water losses in that zone reached 31%.
They suspected pressure management could reduce those losses. But their existing monitoring setup didn’t give them the continuous data they needed to optimize operations with confidence.
So they took action.
The Pilot Implementation
The utility team installed pressure and flow sensors in Aterrado III. They wanted real-time visibility to make data-driven adjustments instead of relying on periodic manual checks.
The continuous monitoring confirmed their hypothesis. Pressure fluctuated throughout the day. During low-demand periods, pressure ran higher than necessary, contributing to losses through existing weak points in aging infrastructure.
The team used night flow analysis to pinpoint exactly where and when losses occurred. This gave them the information they needed to act strategically.
The Adjustments
With clear pressure and flow data, the non-revenue water (NRW) team made specific changes. They optimized pressure based on actual demand patterns. They set up alerts to catch issues before they grew.
Their water operators responded to data, not emergencies. They fixed problems early, before they grew.
The Results
The utility’s team reduced daily losses by 42,000 liters. They achieved this without replacing infrastructure or expanding their workforce. Their existing operators used better information to make better decisions.
The utility now manages the network based on continuous data instead of periodic checks. They demonstrate measurable water savings to their community. And they’ve built a foundation for expanding monitoring to other zones.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Trying to solve everything at once – Pick one focus area. Prove success there. Then expand.
Choosing technology before defining the problem – Start by clearly defining what you need to improve. The technology choice becomes obvious once you understand the problem.
Ignoring existing staff knowledge – Your operators know where the problems are. Involve them from the beginning.
Skipping the baseline measurement – Document current performance before you change anything. This baseline proves your results later.
Moving Forward
Technology works best when it solves a specific problem you’ve clearly defined. Focus on the one thing costing you the most right now, find the right intervention, and prove it works.
Your network has unique challenges. Start by finding your biggest loss time, money, or water. Then address that specific problem.
Most utilities complete a pilot implementation within a quarter. The results provide both immediate benefits and a clear path for continued improvement.
Not sure where to start? We can help you identify which intervention would deliver the clearest results for your specific network. Schedule a conversation to walk through your challenges.
Aya Bozia
Flowless CMO
