Waterloo deploys automated monitoring solution for water supply

January 22, 2019 – The Region of Waterloo has implemented a new automated water-level and temperature monitoring solution by eleven-x Inc. to its water well infrastructure, which supplies water to 570,000 residents.

eleven-x Inc. is a low-power IoT solution provider and operator of what the company says is the first and only public coast-to-coast network optimized for IoT.

The Region of Waterloo deployed eleven-x Inc.’s WIU-X wireless LoRaWAN solution at the conclusion of a successful pilot program that included the integration of the eleven-x WIU-X water level and temperature monitoring interface with several of the Region’s current dataloggers tracking monitoring and production wells.

Moving forward, the integration of eleven-x’s WIU-X interface with the Region’s current dataloggers used in their production and monitoring wells will provide wireless connectivity to the Region’s instruments.

The result for the Region is streamlined operations including real-time well water data being collected and communicated automatically on an hourly basis. Previously, the Region paid to have the data collected manually on a quarterly basis. Additionally, the eleven-x solution provides event-driven real-time alerts based on pre-determined parameters, such as significant level fluctuations, further improving the overall monitoring program.

In addition to the operational improvements, the Region will also realize costs savings from their groundwater monitoring program. Providing wireless connectivity for currently deployed dataloggers reduces upfront hardware purchase costs and offers a savings of 76 per cent compared to purchasing new dataloggers.

On top of the savings on the hardware, the Region will also save an additional 20 per cent of the overall program costs per year by eliminating manual data collection fees. In terms of overall program costs, the Region can expect to see a return on investment in just a couple of years, which is less than one quarter the time of a solution that requires the purchase of new dataloggers.

“Knowing what is happening on an hourly basis enables us to optimize this program and the supply of drinking water,” says Nancy Kodousek, director of water services at the Region of Waterloo.

The WIU-X is part of eleven-x’s wireless LoRaWAN interface connectivity platform. This platform, combined with eleven-x’s low power network optimized for the Internet of Things, enables the promise of smart cities, buildings, campuses and enterprise IoT applications. Supporting the use of low-cost battery powered sensors, the network addresses IoT applications where requirements include wireless connectivity, devices that require long battery life, no maintenance and a low total cost of ownership.