Northern Ireland Water (NI Water) is the sole provider of water and sewage services in Northern Ireland. Almost 1.8 million people across the country count on them to supply 605 million liters of clean water and treat 362 million liters of wastewater daily.
Over 1,500 staff—approximately 500 of whom are frontline workers—operate and maintain thousands of assets and supply production, mechanical and electrical services, as well as metering and billing.
While NI Water had a variety of portable gas monitors in their fleet to detect the presence of hazardous gases, their existing devices did not supply real-time gas readings, had no connectivity, and had no built-in two-way communication capabilities. As an organization that has always prided itself on being at the forefront of safety and innovation across its extensive operations, NI Water sought out a more progressive—and scalable–solution.
Authority Comment
"The real-time gas readings enabled by direct-to-cloud data streaming while G7s were in use were a key feature for NI Water. With their earlier solution, NI Water had to wait until their devices were being calibrated to get a data dump. With G7, HSE personnel have an insight into each user’s gas readings, helping them to identify and mitigate gas risks a lot more effectively.” JJ O’Brien, Director at OBW Technologies.
The Solution
G7’s reliable cellular connectivity and its indoor location-compatible feature helped circumvent this issue OBW Technologies, the leading national provider of portable and fixed gas detection instruments and solutions in Ireland, participated in a public tender for the procurement of portable gas safety devices for NI Water.
OBW recognizes the safety challenges faced daily by workers in the water and wastewater industry and recommended Blackline Safety’s G7c wearable cloud-connected multi-gas monitors with integrated cellular connectivity and location technology, including indoor location compatibility.
NI Water also had difficulty maintaining a reliable phone signal across the organization due to work locations around water tanks, reinforced steel, or underground. G7’s reliable cellular connectivity and its indoor location-compatible feature helped circumvent this issue. NI Water purchased over 700 G7c devices.
The Results
The green connectivity light on G7 let NI Water team members know they were connected to the Blackline Safety network—even deep underground. They could rest assured they could always be found quickly by team members through Blackline Live.
