Valuable drinking water is lost every day due to damage to the network of water pipelines. This can be caused by various factors: the age of the network, pipe material, quality of installation, geology of the subsoil and material for the pipe bedding, distribution volume and pressure level.
As a result, reducing non-revenue water and damage within the water distribution grid is a key task for the water industry. Given that local authorities are responsible as the infrastructure owners for renovating grids (except for one investment – VaK Beroun a.s.), Energie AG’s measures focus on locating and remedying leaks, which are analysed via a reporting and benchmarking process. In recent years, extensive investments have been made in modern hardware and software for hydraulic network modelling, as well as in expanding district metered areas, supplying equipment and providing employee training.
In the international water sector, unit water leakage is a commonly used measure of unaccounted for water. This is a key figure indicating the pipeline networks’ condition; it reveals how many cubic metres of drinking water are lost per kilometre of a pipeline network per year (converted to a unit diameter). Currently, the benchmarking is carried out on in 51 Energie AG supply areas with more than 5,000 residents each. In 2007, 73% of networks were in good condition and 10% in average condition. Despite pipeline networks growing older and being subjected to increased wear, it has been possible to increase the proportion of networks rated as good to 94% in the last 11 years (previous year: 90%). 100% of networks have received a good or satisfactory rating. Since 2016, there have no longer been any networks rated as unsatisfactory in Energie AG’s Czech service area.
Since 2019, interesting information about Energie AG’s Czech Republic segment (including key performance indicators, benchmarking and environmental topics) has been published at www.energieag-bohemia.at and www.energieag.cz, as well as in the “PowerNEWS” digital newsletter. The digital newsletter has taken the place of the “WaterPages” print edition since last year. This saves paper and allows us to share up-to-date information in a timely manner with employees, customers, partners and interested parties.