This article was originally published in WaterWorld and authored by Marcos Barrera, Chief Operating Officer at Aganova.
Irish water utility Uisce Éireann needed an advanced water leak detection solution and a reliable assessment of its trunk mains network in the Greater Dublin area. As Aganova’s Chief Operating Officer, I’ll share the technical challenges we encountered when deploying smart technology in aging infrastructure and the early insights gained from this project.
Greater Dublin’s water network comprises approximately 10,000km (6,213 miles) of water mains, of which 2,500km (1,553 miles) are trunk mains. According to Uisce Éireann, Dublin relies heavily on 19th-century infrastructure to deliver its drinking water.
The majority of the area’s water is sourced from the River Liffey, which runs for 132km (82 miles) and supplies more than two million residents and most of the region’s industry. Five times more water is taken from the Liffey than from any other river in Ireland.
However, the aging network loses more than 30% of all treated water to leaking pipes before it reaches Uisce Éireann’s customers’ taps. This happens every single day. Not only does this waste money, but it also wastes natural resources and puts significant pressure on the region’s water provisions.
As with many regional water networks, the difficulty of discovering exactly what was happening, where, and when it started has always proved both challenging and expensive to rectify.
Uisce Éireann needed a more detailed understanding of its network: where leaks were occurring, which sections required closer investigation, and how maintenance interventions should be prioritized. Combining water leak detection with pipeline integrity assessment would provide the reliable evidence required to improve its approach to trunk main management. The benefits of this approach would be to reduce the amount of water lost to leaks and reduce the stress placed on the River Liffey.
With such a huge network, a decision was made to focus on the trunk areas with the highest levels of leakage. At the same time, Microsoft was exploring projects to increase water resilience of the Liffey basin that feeds some of their regional data centers, as part of their goal to produce more water than they consume by 2030. As an existing Microsoft water replenishment supplier, Aganova collaborated with regional technical partner SUEZ and Uisce Éireann on an innovative water-saving project focused on water leak detection, targeted repairs, and the assessment of some of Greater Dublin’s most challenging trunk mains.
What were the overall project goals?
The project had two main aims:
- Apply advanced water leak detection to identify and accurately locate hidden leaks, quantify their potential impact, and provide the information required to prioritize repairs and preventive maintenance.
- Reduce the amount of water taken from the Liffey, which currently stands at 600 million liters of water a year (158 MGY), in what amounts to a replenishment of the Greater Dublin area watershed.
The challenge presented by trunk mains
Not all water pipelines present the same inspection challenges. Trunk mains often run through rural areas and permeable ground, where escaping water may never reach the surface. This can make leaks extremely difficult to identify and locate without specialized in-line pipe inspection technology and technical expertise.
As an added complication, they are often dug deeper into the ground than the smaller distribution network pipes, so leaks can remain unnoticed for longer periods, resulting in higher volumes of lost water.
In my experience, this detection difficulty can significantly affect how utilities perceive their network condition. For instance, one of our customers, one of the biggest water utilities in Europe, was managing a very old pipe which conveyed water throughout a region. They believed that the whole system was in very bad shape because it was losing almost 1 million m3 of water yearly, in a section that covered less than 60km.
We inspected the pipe and found that the pipe was really in very good shape except for three specific points, one of them showing a leak of 25 l/s, almost 78% of the water lost in the whole 60km pipe.
This example illustrates three important principles of water leak detection and pipeline integrity assessment:
- The actual condition of a pipeline cannot be reliably understood through age or external observations alone; direct inspection data is required.
- The volume saved by repairing a leak in a trunk main could be higher than the water saved by tackling dozens of reported leaks in smaller pipes.
- Knowing the actual issues of the pipes can save millions in pipe restoration or replacement programs.
The solution
In water transmission systems, operators must protect two closely connected assets: the water being transported and the pipeline carrying it. Aganova addresses both through advanced water leak detection and data that supports pipeline integrity assessment, helping utilities reduce losses while making better-informed infrastructure decisions.
To inspect Greater Dublin’s trunk mains, we deployed Nautilus, Aganova’s free-swimming acoustic pipe inspection technology designed specifically for large-diameter pressurized pipelines. The system travels with the water flow and collects data from inside the pipeline while it remains in service.
The platform integrates multiple acoustic sensors in a neutrally buoyant spherical housing, enabling it to traverse up to 35km of pipeline per deployment while maintaining consistent sensor positioning. The acoustic array continuously monitors the pipe wall through 360-degree scanning, capturing leak signatures and structural anomalies as the device moves through the network.
Following the inspection, the collected data is processed using AI-powered algorithms to detect, classify, and locate leaks and anomalies such as air or gas pockets, with leak locations identified to within one meter. Where applicable, the analysis also estimates the flow rate associated with each leak, helping the utility understand its severity and prioritize repair activities.
One of the main advantages of this technology is that the pipeline inspection process can be performed while the pipeline remains in service. This enables accurate data collection without interrupting supply and minimizes the need for excavation or disruptive civil works. Its natural buoyancy systems allow it to move along a trunk main without bumping into obstacles, which increases the accuracy of its readings.
The sphere was developed through years of field inspection experience, incorporating lessons learned and adjustments along the way. Few changes are needed to the system, regardless of the project or its requirements. None were required for the Dublin project.
Safety is paramount in drinking water systems, and the device has received a number of key certifications that attest it is safe for use in potable water operations, for example, in the USA, Canada, and the UK.
The technical challenges of deploying in Greater Dublin
Dublin’s ageing infrastructure presented several challenges ahead of the deployment of the system. Drawing on our experience across more than 4,000 km of previous pipeline assessments, we knew that a successful pipeline inspection process depended on two fundamental requirements: establishing suitable insertion and extraction points for the device and understanding the navigation conditions throughout each pipeline section.
The system operates in any pressurized water piping system with a minimum diameter of 250mm and flow velocities above 0.1 m/s, making it well-suited for Dublin’s trunk main network specifications.
What preparation was needed before the project began?
For Dublin, all known technical issues were identified beforehand.
Each pipeline inspection process begins with a technical exchange with the utility’s engineers and a detailed review of pipeline drawings, alignment, connections, fittings, access points, and operating conditions. A pre-inspection field survey is then conducted to validate this information, address health and safety requirements, and prepare the deployment plan.
Our study showed insufficient insertion and extraction points (typically DN100 air valves), so hot-tapping is being used to install them as needed. At no stage is the water supply interrupted.
What role does AI play in the system?
AI plays a strategic role in the system. It is used to improve decision-making, efficiency, and resource management.
By integrating AI into the analysis, Aganova can identify and locate leaks accurately, estimate their potential impact, and transform complex inspection data into actionable information. This helps utilities reduce unnecessary excavation, prioritize maintenance resources, and improve infrastructure planning.
Key Nautilus AI features include:
- Water leak detection using deep learning and automated data analysis.
- Integration of multiple data sources to improve localization accuracy.
- Estimation of the flow rate associated with detected leaks.
- Calculation of the potential water, energy, and emissions savings resulting from repair.
- Identification and classification of relevant pipeline anomalies.
- Decision support for maintenance and pipeline integrity assessment.
Overall, AI-powered analysis transforms inspection data into practical intelligence for water leak detection, repair prioritization, and pipeline integrity assessment. This enables utilities to make faster, better-informed maintenance decisions while reducing operational costs and minimizing disruption to customers.
Working in partnership with Microsoft and Suez
This project brings together complementary expertise from Microsoft and Suez alongside our acoustic and electromagnetic sensing capabilities.
Collaboration is vital for progress. In discussions with stakeholders in municipal water and industrial stewardship, we found Uisce Éireann and Microsoft’s water-saving goals were closely aligned. By structuring the project with Suez as the regional technical partner, we maximized synergy among all parties.
In terms of what each partner contributed to the overall project: Uisce Éireann focuses on improving trunk mains efficiency and provides engineering and monitoring; Microsoft aims for a positive water impact by 2030, offering funding and technology; we deliver innovative solutions; and Suez delivers field service for the Aganova Nautilus system. Together, these partners are advancing trunk mains management.
