Municipal Water Utility Deploys Solar/Wireless Site Cameras for Major Redevelopment

The Challenge

Denver Water is a responsible and proud steward of Colorado’s most treasured natural resource, sustainably providing high-quality water from Colorado’s snowmelt and watersheds to 1.4 million people in the city and county of Denver and surrounding suburbs. Established in 1918 as a non-political municipal agency independent of city government, Denver Water is Colorado’s oldest and largest water utility.

In 2016, Denver Water began its innovative Operations Complex Redevelopment Project at 1600 W. 12th Avenue in Denver, Colorado. The 34.6 acre campus will include equipment shops, fleet maintenance warehouses, space for pipe and materials storage, trade buildings as well as Denver Water’s administration building, which houses 600 employees. Mortenson Construction was selected as the general contractor for the project, which is expected to be completed in late 2019.

Sustainability is a key factor in the Redevelopment Project as the complex has been designed to incorporate LEED certification and educational demonstrations of net zero energy and leading-edge concepts around the management of all water sources.

As a public utility agency, transparency with stakeholders was of key concern. The Denver Water team sought a camera solution that would offer simple sharing of real-time project status with state and local officials, with Mortenson Construction and its trade partners, with its employees and with Denver Water customers.

The Solution

Denver Water selected Sensera Systems for an end-to-end camera solution to provide cost effective, seamless, and transparent project monitoring and progress tracking.

“We were looking for a cost effective site camera that provided a flexible public page and sharing feature to keep all our stakeholders engaged in the project. Sensera Systems MC-78 Cameras offered time-lapse, LiveView, recording and video streaming. The fact that they are solar powered and wireless allows us to move the cameras as this large project progresses and simplifies installation and lowers our costs. The public URL feature made it easy for us to share real-time progress with all the stakeholders.” —Mark Thomas, Sr. Infrastructure Technician, Denver Water

Denver Water has deployed multiple Sensera Systems’ MC-68 model solar /wireless site cameras that include 100% solar operation 24/7, with time-lapse, live video streaming, built-in DVR, and LiveView features. The built-in public URL provides an automated live hosted web page for sharing projects with the public.

Turnkey Solution

square Complete end-to-end solution — Camera hardware, cellular data connectivity, cloud-hosted servers, and ease of use software are all provided in one complete package.

square Solar-powered, LiFePO4 Batteries — No on-site power required. System is energized by the sun and powered at night by a lithium ion phosphate battery pack. Camera can run on battery power for up to 5 days.

square Real-time, remote monitoring — Leverage robust remote surveillance and monitoring to ensure safety and productivity when you can’t be on-site.

“The cameras offered a wide range of capabilities, including time-lapse. The public URL feature made it very easy for us to share real-time progress with stakeholders.” —Mark Thomas, Sr. Infrastructure Technician, Denver Water