Course Introduction
Water utilities generate large volumes of operational, customer, financial, metering, network, asset, quality, and service-performance data that can be transformed into actionable intelligence for improving efficiency and reducing water losses. This Water Utility Analytics and Non-Revenue Water Intelligence Training Course provides a practical framework for analyzing water production, distribution, consumption, billing, leakage, pressure, customer behavior, infrastructure performance, and service reliability. The program places non-revenue water at the center of utility analytics while connecting NRW intelligence with operational efficiency, revenue protection, asset management, customer service, and long-term utility performance. IWA identifies water-loss management as a critical component of sustainable water-service delivery and emphasizes systematic approaches to identifying and reducing losses.
The course develops a structured understanding of water utility data from source to customer. Participants examine treatment-plant production, bulk-water transfers, transmission and distribution flows, district metered areas, customer meters, billing systems, pressure sensors, SCADA, GIS, maintenance systems, work orders, laboratory information, and customer-service records. Particular attention is given to data quality, measurement consistency, meter coverage, timestamp alignment, asset identifiers, and reconciliation between physical water flows and commercial records. EPA guidance on advanced metering infrastructure highlights how frequent water-use data can support billing, leak detection, water-resource management, conservation, security, and reliability, making modern metering an important source of utility intelligence.
A central theme is non-revenue water analytics and water-loss accounting. Participants learn to distinguish real losses, such as physical leakage from mains and service infrastructure, from apparent losses associated with unauthorized consumption, metering inaccuracies, and other commercial factors, while also accounting for authorized but unbilled consumption. The World Bank's utility benchmarking material defines NRW as the difference between water produced and water sold and identifies these different components as essential to understanding loss performance. The course therefore moves beyond simply reporting NRW percentages toward volume-based, connection-based, cost-based, and operationally meaningful indicators.
The program then develops analytical methods for identifying where, when, and why water losses occur. Participants analyze district metered area inflows, minimum night flows, customer consumption, pressure patterns, leak events, bursts, meter anomalies, and changes in network behavior. IWA's Water Loss Specialist Group emphasizes accurate measurement of water entering distribution systems and the importance of pressure and flow information for understanding leakage and targeting interventions. Historical IWA material also demonstrates how hourly customer-meter and flow data can be analyzed to identify patterns associated with bursts and unauthorized consumption.
Water utility analytics extends beyond NRW to customer intelligence, revenue assurance, asset management, service performance, and operational planning. Participants learn how to segment customers by consumption and behavior, identify abnormal demand, detect potential meter problems, analyze billing and collection patterns, evaluate network and pump performance, prioritize maintenance, and monitor service reliability. Digital transformation is increasingly expanding the analytical role of sensors, smart meters, SCADA systems, and operational data in water systems; IWA's recent digital-water material highlights these technologies alongside AI and machine-learning applications for urban water systems.
The final component is an integrated water utility analytics and NRW intelligence project. Participants combine production, DMA, customer-meter, billing, pressure, network, leakage, maintenance, and asset datasets to develop a complete performance intelligence framework. The project covers water-balance analysis, NRW decomposition, loss prioritization, anomaly detection, customer intelligence, operational KPIs, dashboards, and intervention scenarios. Participants finish with a practical methodology for converting fragmented water utility data into evidence-based decisions that can support leakage reduction, revenue protection, infrastructure investment, operational efficiency, service improvement, and sustainable water-resource management.
Duration
5 days
Who Should Attend
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Water utility managers responsible for operational performance, NRW reduction, revenue protection, service reliability, and utility efficiency.
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Non-revenue water managers and water-loss specialists involved in leakage detection, water balances, DMAs, pressure management, and loss reduction programs.
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Water utility data analysts, business intelligence professionals, and data scientists working with customer, metering, network, billing, and operational data.
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Network and distribution engineers responsible for water flows, pressure management, leakage control, hydraulic performance, and distribution-system optimization.
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Water production and treatment professionals analyzing plant output, bulk flows, production efficiency, and distribution-system supply.
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Metering and commercial professionals responsible for customer meters, billing accuracy, consumption analysis, revenue assurance, and apparent-loss management.
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Asset management and maintenance professionals analyzing pipelines, valves, pumps, meters, reservoirs, failures, work orders, and infrastructure condition.
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SCADA, GIS, smart-metering, telemetry, and digital-water professionals supporting utility monitoring and data-driven operational management.
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Customer-service and commercial managers seeking analytical methods for consumption behavior, billing exceptions, unauthorized use, and revenue performance.
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Water-sector regulators, government officials, and public-sector analysts evaluating utility efficiency, service levels, water losses, and performance indicators.
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Consultants, researchers, engineering professionals, and technology providers working on water-loss management, digital utilities, and infrastructure performance.
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Finance, planning, and executive professionals requiring integrated intelligence on water production, losses, revenues, operating costs, assets, and investment priorities.
Course Objectives
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Develop a comprehensive water utility analytics framework covering production, distribution, consumption, metering, billing, network performance, assets, maintenance, customer behavior, and service reliability.
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Integrate data from SCADA, smart meters, AMR/AMI systems, billing platforms, GIS, customer databases, pressure sensors, maintenance systems, and water-production records.
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Construct and analyze water balances that distinguish system input, authorized consumption, apparent losses, real losses, billed consumption, and other components of non-revenue water.
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Calculate and interpret NRW performance indicators while understanding the limitations of percentage-based measures and the importance of volume, connection, pressure, and cost context.
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Analyze district metered area data to identify abnormal flows, minimum night flow patterns, leakage signals, bursts, unauthorized consumption, and changes in distribution-network behavior.
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Apply customer and metering analytics to identify unusual consumption, meter inaccuracies, billing anomalies, potential unauthorized use, demand patterns, and revenue-protection opportunities.
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Analyze pressure, flow, asset, maintenance, and operational data to identify infrastructure-performance problems and prioritize leakage-control and asset-management interventions.
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Apply forecasting, anomaly detection, statistical analysis, and scenario techniques to support water-demand planning, NRW reduction, maintenance, and operational decision-making.
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Build water utility dashboards that communicate NRW, leakage, production, consumption, billing, service, asset, and operational KPIs to technical and executive stakeholders.
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Complete an integrated water utility analytics and NRW intelligence project that converts multi-source utility data into actionable strategies for loss reduction, revenue improvement, service performance, and infrastructure investment.
Comprehensive Course Outline
Module 1: Water Utility Analytics and Non-Revenue Water Intelligence Foundations
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Examine the water utility value chain from abstraction and treatment through transmission, distribution, metering, billing, customer service, and operational management.
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Explore major utility data domains including production, bulk flows, network pressure, customer consumption, billing, assets, maintenance, water quality, service interruptions, and financial information.
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Define core utility KPIs including system input volume, billed consumption, NRW, real losses, apparent losses, water supplied, pressure, service continuity, meter performance, and revenue indicators.
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Establish an integrated water utility intelligence framework connecting operational, commercial, customer, asset, financial, and NRW analytics.
Module 2: Water Utility Data Integration, Preparation and Quality Management
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Integrate production meters, bulk meters, SCADA, AMR/AMI, customer billing systems, GIS, pressure sensors, maintenance platforms, and operational databases.
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Apply data-quality controls for missing readings, meter failures, duplicate records, inconsistent units, timestamp discrepancies, estimated consumption, and incomplete customer information.
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Develop consistent identifiers for treatment plants, reservoirs, transmission assets, DMAs, pipelines, meters, customers, pumps, valves, and operational events.
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Build repeatable data-preparation workflows that improve reconciliation, traceability, validation, refreshability, and confidence in utility performance analytics.
Module 3: Water Balance, NRW Accounting and Loss Intelligence
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Construct comprehensive water balances covering system input, authorized consumption, billed consumption, unbilled authorized use, apparent losses, real losses, and non-revenue water.
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Analyze the causes and characteristics of physical leakage, unauthorized consumption, meter inaccuracies, billing problems, and other commercial or operational losses.
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Evaluate NRW using volume-based, percentage-based, connection-based, pressure-related, and financial indicators while understanding the limitations of individual measures.
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Develop NRW intelligence reports that quantify loss components, identify priority areas, track trends, and support targeted loss-reduction strategies.
Module 4: District Metered Area and Leakage Analytics
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Design analytical approaches for district metered areas using inflow, customer consumption, pressure, minimum night flow, and event information.
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Identify abnormal DMA flow patterns associated with bursts, leakage, unauthorized consumption, meter issues, operational changes, and other network events.
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Analyze temporal patterns to distinguish normal demand behavior from potential leakage and other unexplained differences between supplied and consumed water.
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Develop DMA performance scorecards that rank areas by loss volume, leakage indicators, pressure conditions, customer consumption, intervention history, and improvement potential.
Module 5: Smart Meter, Customer Consumption and Revenue Analytics
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Analyze AMR and AMI data at hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and customer levels to understand demand patterns and identify unusual consumption.
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Segment customers by consumption volume, usage pattern, connection type, tariff category, location, seasonality, and other commercially relevant characteristics.
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Detect potential meter problems, abnormal consumption, billing exceptions, inactive accounts, unusual demand patterns, and indicators requiring field investigation.
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Connect customer-meter analytics with billing and revenue information to strengthen revenue assurance, consumption forecasting, customer service, and apparent-loss management.
Module 6: Pressure, Network Performance and Asset Analytics
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Analyze pressure data across zones, DMAs, pressure-management areas, and critical network locations to understand relationships between pressure and leakage or service performance.
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Integrate GIS, asset registers, failure records, work orders, pipeline characteristics, age, material, diameter, and location data for infrastructure-performance analysis.
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Identify recurring pipe failures, burst-prone areas, valve problems, pump issues, and other infrastructure conditions associated with water losses and service interruptions.
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Develop asset-risk and intervention-prioritization frameworks using failure history, leakage impact, criticality, condition indicators, service consequences, and replacement or rehabilitation considerations.
Module 7: Water Demand Forecasting, Anomaly Detection and Operational Intelligence
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Develop water-demand forecasts using historical consumption, customer segments, seasonality, weather, calendar effects, service conditions, and other explanatory variables.
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Apply anomaly-detection techniques to identify unusual production, flow, pressure, consumption, meter, pump, and network behavior requiring investigation.
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Analyze relationships among production, demand, pressure, storage, pumping, supply interruptions, and customer consumption to identify operational constraints and improvement opportunities.
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Build operational scenarios for demand changes, supply disruptions, leakage reduction, pressure interventions, infrastructure failures, conservation programs, and network expansion.
Module 8: Pumping, Energy and Water Production Performance Analytics
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Analyze treatment-plant production, bulk supply, pumping volumes, reservoir levels, operating hours, flow rates, and production-demand relationships.
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Evaluate pump and pumping-station performance using flow, pressure, energy consumption, operating hours, efficiency indicators, and maintenance information.
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Identify opportunities to reduce energy intensity by connecting pumping schedules, demand patterns, pressure requirements, storage conditions, and equipment performance.
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Develop integrated production and distribution dashboards that connect water supplied, demand, pumping, storage, losses, service levels, and operational costs.
Module 9: Water Utility Performance Dashboards, Benchmarking and Executive Intelligence
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Design dashboards covering NRW, real losses, apparent losses, production, consumption, leakage, DMA performance, customer meters, pressure, assets, maintenance, and revenue indicators.
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Create visualizations for geographic loss patterns, flow trends, pressure profiles, customer consumption, NRW components, asset failures, and intervention outcomes.
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Develop benchmarking frameworks that compare utility, zone, DMA, customer, asset, and operational performance using appropriately defined and contextualized indicators.
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Establish executive intelligence workflows using exception reporting, KPI thresholds, trend monitoring, intervention tracking, and recurring management reviews.
Module 10: Capstone Water Utility Analytics and NRW Intelligence Project
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Integrate production, DMA, customer-meter, billing, pressure, GIS, asset, maintenance, leakage, and operational datasets into an end-to-end utility analytics solution.
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Construct a detailed NRW assessment that quantifies major loss components, identifies priority areas, analyzes trends, and highlights data-quality limitations.
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Develop a water utility performance dashboard presenting production, consumption, NRW, leakage indicators, DMA performance, customer intelligence, pressure, assets, and intervention KPIs.
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Present an integrated NRW and utility-performance strategy that converts analytical findings into practical actions for leakage reduction, revenue protection, asset management, operational efficiency, and service improvement.
Training Approach
This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.
Tailor-Made Course
This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808
Training Venue
The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.
Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant
Certification
Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.
Airport Pickup and Accommodation
Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808
Terms of Payment:
Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.
