Romanian utility ApaVital S.A. secures water supply with Xylem Vue’s smart leak detection

Iasi, one of Romania’s oldest and most vibrant cities, is charting a modern path forward. Like many urban centers, it faces the challenge of aging infrastructure and water loss. Non-revenue water, or water lost due to pipeline flaws, broken meters or unauthorized use, is a nationwide challenge, with nearly 41% of treated water in Romania lost before reaching consumers.

ApaVital S.A., a leading utility serving 500,000 people in 90 locations across northeastern Romania, is taking a proactive approach. With a focus on performance, resilience, and compliance with the updated leakage standards set by the European Drinking Water Directive, the utility is strengthening its system to deliver long-term value.

“ApaVital has set high standards for service quality and resilience,” said Mihail Dorus, Managing Director at ApaVital. “We have an integrated vision of what needs to happen to us as a company and where we need to go in the coming years.”

To help achieve this vision, the utility is leveraging Xylem Vue’s advanced water loss management technology to monitor its network in real time, detect leaks early, and prioritize repairs to increase efficiency and ensure a more reliable, sustainable water supply for the community.

What leak detection technology did ApaVital implement to reduce water loss?

As the largest regional utility in northeastern Romania, ApaVital manages a vast drinking water network of over 4,900 km as well as a 2,000 km sewage network. The utility drinking water system includes 200,000 meters, 58,000 of which are smart meters, and approximately 200 pumping stations, 226 storage tanks, and 550 district metered areas (DMAs).

With Xylem Vue, the utility can unify data across this extensive network, providing operators with real-time visibility and tools to proactively detect and address leaks, fraud and theft in real time to optimize its network.

How it works: Using Xylem’s high-performance Cordonel bulk sensors, ApaVital analyzes Minimum Night Flow (MNF) and continuously monitors multiple parameters, including the total volume of water supplied, metered consumption, average daily flow, pressure deviations and remote meter readings. The Xylem Vue platform uses artificial intelligence to identify abnormal patterns that may indicate leaks or unauthorized consumption. These insights guide targeted field interventions and support more precise, efficient water loss management across the network.

The same data is now laying the groundwork for a digital twin of ApaVital’s drinking water system – creating a dynamic model that will further strengthen decision-making through What-If scenario simulations, source traceability and long-term planning.

Harnessing the power of integrated data

To tie it all together, ApaVital uses Xylem Vue’s Unified Network Management application to monitor and manage its entire water network in real time. The solution has enabled the utility to digitize and monitor its assets, such as pipes, pumping stations and reservoirs, via custom dashboards, synoptic views and 3D-guided tours of the facility, providing operators and managers with a complete picture of system health and actionable insights to guide daily operations.

• Plan and invest for the future: The platform generates detailed replacement plans, Gantt charts, and cost estimates, while dashboards provide insights into network length, leak density, and likelihood of failure and break distribution by material and age.
  
  
• See the whole system in one place: The platform also centralizes operational data from assets in a single view, from water balance and customer consumption to hydraulic efficiency, replacing the need for multiple platforms and paperwork.
  
  
• Act faster with intelligent decision support: Built-in algorithms and artificial intelligence evaluate multiple solution pathways in real time, streamlining decisions, reducing response times and guiding operators toward the most effective actions before issues escalate.

Results: ApaVital reduces daily water loss and strengthens network performance

The impact is already visible. In just six months, ApaVital cut night water usage by 64% in one district, and across the entire network, injected volumes have fallen by 44% – lowering operating costs while strengthening efficiency, reliability and long-term resilience.

With Xylem Vue’s integrated digital platform in place, ApaVital can now continuously assess and optimize its linear infrastructure, streamline workflows, and deliver a more sustainable, resilient water supply to the communities it serves.

“The Xylem Vue platform is exactly what we need to manage our assets and monitor our network in a unified way,” said Cristian Chirica, Head of Asset Management Department at ApaVital. “It gives us the insight and control to reduce losses, protect our infrastructure and deliver better service every day.”

Bringing together vision and technology to secure water supply

ApaVital is setting a new benchmark for digital water management in Romania. By deploying the Xylem Vue Platform and suite of advanced digital tools, the utility is transforming how it manages losses, assets, and performance – with a clear goal to cut non-revenue water below 20% and strengthen water security across the Iasi region.

By turning data into action, ApaVital is building a smarter, more resilient water network – one that protects critical infrastructure, improves reliability, and delivers more water, more efficiently, to homes and businesses. Together with Xylem, the utility is showing how intelligent solutions can strengthen communities today and lay the foundation for a more water-secure future.