Inventory Management Optimized at Water Utility Company

Clear Lake City Water Authority (CLCWA)

Clear Lake City Water Authority (CLCWA) has been providing water, sewer, and drainage services to the Clear Lake area for over 60 years. CLCWA strives to offer excellent customer service, superior water quality, and enhanced environmental protection.

Applications: Fuel Inventory Management

Market: Water Management

Challenge
CLCWA’s main objectives are to reduce overhead costs while maintaining a safe and environmentally sound field operation. Similar to many water utility organizations, CLCWA used a wooden dowel as a dip stick to check the level of fuel in its tanks, multiple times a week.

“Checking the fuel tank levels several times a week was necessary but also an inefficient way of managing our fuel.” said Frank, Wastewater Superintendent

Physically traveling to the remote tank takes time. Having to climb the tank to check the inventory with a dipstick is an unnecessary risk and cost. Key concerns are minimizing irrelevant projects, increasing fuel management efficiencies, and maintaining a consistent and reliable schedule.

Solution
In 2023, Clear Lake City Water Authority installed the TankScan TSUT811 tank monitoring system on two fuel tanks in Clear Lake (Greater Houston), Texas. The remote monitoring system leverages existing wireless cellular infrastructure and a cloud software application to eliminate large startup and setup costs associated with typical SCADA systems. The install requires screwing the monitor into a 2” port on the top of the tank and plugging in the battery. The cloud application is set up remotely and offers unlimited users, historical trending, and email/text notifications.

The tank levels are viewed from a field operator’s cell phone or from a PC at a remote office. The system is cost-effective due to its use of existing infrastructures through internet connectivity, internet browser, email, text message, and cloud computing. The user is provided with accurate readings to devices he already owns, understands, and supports.

Results
CLCWA has seen numerous benefits from remote level monitoring, including:
• Reduced labor and overhead associated with trips to the tank locations
• Improved reliability of their facility operations with remote tank level visibility
• Improved confidence and reduced environmental risk with automated notifications
• Improved safety by eliminating the need to climb the tanks

“TankScan is great for tracking fuel inventory on a consistent and reliable schedule”, said Frank.

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