Understanding domestic water consumption in Betania, Panama City through smart water meter technology powered by LoRaWAN

Resumen

Panama, while being a country with the fifth place of most annual precipitation, it is facing immense challenges regarding its water management. An aging distribution network and dated regulations in the sector have created an environment where it’s estimated that around 39% of all water produced is unaccounted for as “Non-Revenue Water”. This presents a major challenge for the potable water utility company, Instituto de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (IDAAN), which faces multiyear operational deficits and is actively seeking new ways to aid in the reduction of operational losses. A solution can be found through the application of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) technology to enhance the information obtained by the service provider from consumers and their water usage. This research, performed in the jurisdictions of Betania, a mostly residential neighborhood from the 1970’s located in Panama City intends to show the operation, future and results provided by a metering network enabled by Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) networking. Through the application of LoRa communication technology, the data obtained from several dwellings equipped with Smart Water Meters using AMR technology can be analyzed to determine water demand behavior and peak factors of water consumption to support changes in current water distribution system design. Preliminary analysis of the data shows an average consumption of 407.5 ±98 L/person/day with hourly and daily peak factors of 1.9 and 1.13, respectively.