Smart Water Meters Reducing Water Leaks by the Gallon

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3Q 2019 | IN-5578

As global warming progresses, water shortages around the world are continuing to grow and smart water meter vendors are increasing their deployments in order to help water utility companies combat water wastage and leakage. The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) of England and Wales is requiring that all water utility companies reduce water leakage by 15% by 2025, which can easily be done with the help of smart water meters. Smart water meters alert utility companies and end users of possible leakages and can prevent major leaks from occurring in the future.

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Water Constraints Require Smart Solutions

NEWS


As global warming progresses, water shortages around the world are continuing to grow and smart water meter vendors are increasing their deployments in order to help water utility companies combat water wastage and leakage. The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) of England and Wales is requiring that all water utility companies reduce water leakage by 15% by 2025, which can easily be done with the help of smart water meters. Smart water meters alert utility companies and end users of possible leakages and can prevent major leaks from occurring in the future.

Vodafone has announced that it is working with South East Water, a water utility company in the United Kingdom, on a pilot to roll out a trial of 2,000 smart water meters. Several different vendors are contributing to this project: Sensus, Honeywell, and Diehl are all supplying smart water meters; Visenti is providing analytics; and several different types of sensors, such as water quality, leakage, and burst detecting sensors, are being provided as well.

Floods of Smart Water Meters Are Being Deployed to the Market

IMPACT


The use of Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) allows wide geographic coverage as well as in-building and underground penetration, which means smart water meters do not necessarily have to be positioned outside customers’ houses but can be installed inside. Having smart water meters installed indoors means that only the individual customers’ water usage will be monitored, which is important when observing individual tenants’ water usage within Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs).

Smart water meters offer a variety of benefits to both utility suppliers and customers. Trials have shown significant reduction in water wastage, especially non-revenue water loss. For customers, smart water meters allow for more accurate billing and a near real-time view of their water usage. They also alert end users when possible leaks are happening within their homes, such as leaking toilets or taps. The alert that is generated informs the end user of the issue so that it can be solved, and further water wastage prevented.

By 2026, NB-IoT is expected to be the chosen technology for a staggering 60 million smart water meters, meaning that plenty of data will be able to be collected and transmitted. Previously, in 2018, Vodafone partnered with Kamstrup to trial a different NB-IoT smart water meter in Valencia, Spain, which resulted in meter readings that were 98% accurate. Areas were highlighted so that specific factors could be altered to ensure 100% accuracy in regard to meter reads.

Smart Water Meters: Advantages for the Entire Ecosystem

RECOMMENDATIONS


Smart water meter deployments offer a large opportunity for Meter Data Management (MDM) vendors within the water utility market, due to the multiple different datapoints that will be collected from the variety of different sensors deployed in the trial. The opportunity for MDM platform suppliers is mainly to prove their ability to adapt to multi-vendor analysis. Vodafone’s trial with South East Water is a prime example of a utility company partnering with several meter vendors, which is why a requirement of utilities for MDM platforms is the ability to collect and analyze data from a variety of sensor devices deployed in the distribution network.

NB-IoT is a better suited connectivity option for utilities and smart meter vendors due to the cost efficiency that it offers at the device end. It also offers a more reliable connection due to the network being used using a licensed spectrum, which benefits from low interference. NB-IoT also offers a better range than earlier cellular air interfaces, such as 2G, 3G, and 4G, and the inherent benefit of low power consumption, which is why the technology is expected to dominate connection share; water meters rely on battery power for connectivity, so low power consumption is a considerably important factor when making decisions about the connectivity technology.

Compared to other Low-Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies that operate in unlicensed Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands, such as Sigfox and Long-Range (LoRa), there are minimal concerns about radio interference with NB-IoT connections. Another benefit of NB-IoT is its ability to connect smart meters placed inside buildings and/or underground for accurate meter readings, which allows utility companies to reduce water wastage at more efficient rates and meet the environmental regulations that are being put into place. In order to attack the market successfully, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) must adapt to the technological advances that are being presented to it. For example, offering smart water meters that have NB-IoT technology and capabilities integrated into the meters that are being deployed will increase deployments.

Like many IoT solutions, smart water meters offer a solution to what is considered a significant environmental problem. The use of these meters and a digital distribution network for them offer the ability to mitigate water wastage by predicting and preventing pipeline failures and leakages at either the utility or the customer end as soon as they occur. Overall, the problem for water utility providers to battle is water wastage in what is becoming a water scarce world. If OEMs really grab at the opportunities that both NB-IoT and the environmental problems are offering, then they will also be successful taking their steps to reduce water wastage globally.

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