• GEORGIA WATER AND POWER (GWP)
    GEORGIA WATER AND POWER (GWP)
    Case history
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GEORGIA WATER AND POWER (GWP)

Monitoring and Early Warning System for Jinvali Dam in Georgia

REQUIREMENTS

In May 2018, under the mandate of "Georgian Water and Power" (GWP), the Joint Venture CAE S.p.A. & Field S.r.l. was assigned a project to establish the Monitoring and Early Warning System (EWS) for Jinvali dam in Georgia.

The aim of this system is to protect the population of over 1 million people in areas under risk, which were identified along the 15 kilometres downstream of the dam, under the responsibility of Georgian Water and Power LTD. Thanks to several field inspections conducted by CAE-FIELD, the Early Warning System for Jinvali Dam was successfully configured.

 

CHARACTERISTICS

The system allows to:

-       Perform an early diagnosis of the conditions that can affect the proper dam operation, leading to its breaking.

The system continuously monitors the parameters that best describe the safety level of the dam and, if necessary, it allows corrective actions to be taken in advance.

The boundary conditions that most contribute to the occurrence of such extreme events are:

  • the condition of the dam body
  • the water level of the lake
  • the flood downstream of the dam
  • the turbidity in drainage measures

-       Activate the evacuation notification system.

In case of emergency, when one or more thresholds are exceeded, the system either activates its acoustic devices (a total of 5 stations with sirens) which are connected via ACTI-Link radio, or sends messages (voice or text) to the monitoring operators and to the potentially threatened population. Moreover, the network has a mobile instant messaging service that can send text messages even in a pre-warning stage.

This project is an example of complementarity between structural works and early warning systems, which was designed in order to make any "dam emergency plan" more concrete and effective.

 

COMPOSITION

For the radio connection, among the alerting devices the ACTI-Link module was selected. ACTI-Link is a communication device developed by the CAE designed for the remote activation of monitoring and alerting system.

Regarding alerting methods, the system activates its acoustic devices (5 stations with sirens) connected via ACTI-Link radio, or sends messaging service to operators and populations.

However, an adequate installation of the EWS system is not enough: it is essential to perform regular maintenance to ensure the system reliability over time. Additionally, a specific training program is also provided, both on-site and at CAE headquarters, Italy, to ensure that the clients acquire the necessary skills for the management and maintenance of the system.