Abstract:

EWA vision is “By 2017, EWA is a model of excellence in the provision of electricity & water services with minimum interruptions and timely revenue collection” and as stated in their objectives they are responsible for “Maintenance, development and improvement of the existing transmission and distribution network to achieve highest standards of operational efficiency and minimum energy waste”.

In 2015, there were around 140,000 domestic type revenue water meters existed in the Water Distribution System of The Kingdom of Bahrain. Most of those meters are flow displacement measurement type with size 15 and 25mm. According to the water meter manufacturers, the estimated life span of those meters are in the range of seven years in service depending on operation and environmental conditions. However, Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) has set an annual program to replace the domestic water meters after every five years of services in order to minimize the administrative lossesdespite that, the water meters failed more frequently even in less than five years.

This study is intended to examine operation and environmental causes of domestic volumetric type water meter failures in most severe tank wise areas in the Kingdom of Bahrain, based on the analysis of statistical data and defective meter testing results. It has been found that the failure phenomena fall into three major category of defects. It has been observed that 60% of the selected samples stopped recording the flow, 34% failed to satisfy the accuracy test and 6% had physical body defects. Accordingly, the study has been diversified considering alternative metering technologies such as selection of single jet water meter and ultrasonic or electromagnetic water meters to suit operation and environmental parameters of Bahrain's water network.