The Tele-management System (remote system) uses computing and communication technologies to control all the drinking water production processes, collecting the data at facilities located in different geographical points, providing all the information (analysis, graphs and reports) in a Command Centre in useful time and in a user-friendly mode, which allows the user to make operational decisions in accordance with the system’s current status.

The system’s architecture has three levels (decision, communication and acquisition/control), and implemented in it are a series of equipment with autonomous processing capabilities that acquire the variables controlled and ensure the security and safety of the facilities through a constant comparison between the reference values and the real chemical and physical variables, which arise when critical values are attained, as well as automatic corrections to modify the status and/or position of the final bodies.

The advantages in using such a system are manifold and overall improve the quality of the service provided, It allows for:

• Safety in the operation of the network because the technician, when alerted to the occurrence of any anomaly – reservoir levels, lack of pressure, shortage of electricity, equipment malfunction – may find immediate alternatives given the severity of the problems meanwhile reported
• Technical management through real-time processing of the information collected from the facilities, with the possibility to intervene on the functioning status of all the control bodies (pumping groups’ valves, chlorometers, circuit breakers and others)
• Electricity management for all the pumping and treatment facilities, through the implementation of automatic processes that correlate the energy tariff and the reserve volumes
• Quality control by checking in real-time the water quality parameters
• Statistical management through the storage of data that are edited by means of balance files or operating statistics in order to improve the technical and economic conditions, ensuring the quality and quantity of the water supplied

EPAL’s supply system is managed by Command Centres with specific features according to their location:

• The Command Centres for the Asseiceira and Vale da Pedra water treatment plants, the water stations, which are responsible for controlling the water production operations (collection, treatment and storage for delivery)
• The Command Centre responsible for controlling the transport operations, from the time they leave the production units to distribution to the municipalities and distribution in the city of Lisbon

The tele-management system centralises all the operation of all operational facilities that contribute to the sustainable management of the water cycle (collection, treatment, transport and high- and low-level distribution).