Bromont wants to use a vast network of wireless sensors on its equipment and infrastructure, which can be consulted in real time. (123RF)

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How to increase the efficiency of resources, services and operations of the municipality of Bromont? There is a lead. The City plans to adopt a technology, which it will test as part of a pilot project, which should allow it to do all this, and much more.

"We want to know our assets and how they work in order to better plan future investments and use them as efficiently as possible. And the key is data collection. These are things that we already do during inspections of the structures. But the ideal is to have real-time, centralized and remote data," said Bromont's infrastructure and asset management coordinator, Justine Baudart, in an interview.

To do this, Bromont has called on the Quebec company X-Telia, a leader in the field. The company, based in Longueuil, relies on a wireless technology called Lorawan. The company describes this platform as "the new global de facto standard for the Internet of Things for connecting wireless battery-powered sensors, securely, over long distances."

Such networks are already deployed around the world. Several municipalities have adopted this interface, including Granby and Sherbrooke, as can be read on the X-Telia website.

Pilot project

In order to evaluate the performance and impact of the Lorawan system, Bromont wants to first use it on a small scale in a pilot project that will be spread over three months.

Sensors operating with radio waves, similar to cell phones, will therefore be installed on a drinking water booster, a wastewater pumping station, a generator, a drinking water reservoir and a dozen water meters, specified Justine Baudart.

The data will be sent to the partner company, which will make it available via a platform dedicated to the public works and technical services teams. They will be able to consult and analyse it without having to send staff to the field. Bromont will pay a little more than $25,000 to X-Telia to carry out this pilot project.

Vast potential

According to Justine Baudart, the repercussions of such a system will be multiple.

"Before, we were able to have data once or twice a week on some of our assets. Now, we will collect it several times a day. We will also be able to have more effective alerts on the operation and condition of our assets. Does it require immediate intervention or can we wait until the next day?"

Bromont will thus be able to better prioritise its interventions. We will also be able to evaluate more precisely the lifespan of certain equipment and infrastructures, said the asset management coordinator.

Bromont will also be able to reduce its ecological footprint, as the travel of municipal staff will no longer be necessary to inspect the infrastructures as frequently.

A range of sensor variations is on the menu. Some allow for better waste management. Cities can thus improve "the efficiency of waste and recycling collection with fill level sensors and intelligent route algorithms," mentions X-Telia.

There can also be sensors on the pavement to monitor the "reactions" of the asphalt over time. We could also count the number of passages in a park or a trail, cited Justine Baudart as examples.

"The catalogue is very extensive," she said, "and we have several options for installing sensors in many places."