The call follows the completion of ‘Project No Flow’ undertaken with the data collection provider Occutrace on the lifespan of non-household water meters, which found that the root cause of many non-consuming meters is the meter having surpassed its operational age and increasingly likely to fail.

In the project, supply point IDs with three or more meter reads showing no consumption were investigated, taken from a random sample of 2,000 supply point IDs.

Of these 771 meters identified as zero-consuming, almost two-thirds were found to be degraded to the extent of non-functionality.

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“Project No Flow has sought to establish hard facts and real-world evidence about meters that are not recording consumption to help the market understand the volume of potential zero consuming meters out there,” commented Claire Stanness, Metering Operations Manager at Wave and the project lead’.

“This first of its kind project has highlighted the issues that come with meters that are not recording consumption, issues that affect everyone.”

Along with the customers, who have to face the potential repercussions of inaccurate billing, retailers and wholesalers are also impacted with retailers having to correct and revise the bills and wholesalers seeing the impact inaccurate metering can have on the settlement process.

The study also found that many wholesalers do not have proactive replacement programmes in place for non-household meters, which would help to identify zero consuming meters and resolve the related issues sooner and thereby support the retailers in delivering reliable meter reads to their customers.

With accurate reads also comes the opportunity to identify any potential inefficiencies or cost savings for customers.

Wave suggests that to solve this issue a highly collaborative approach is needed, from the non-household water market operator MOSL, the regulator Ofwat, retailers, wholesalers, and their service providers, all working together towards a common goal of accurate and timely meter reads.

Wave also questions whether in the case of some properties being genuinely zero consuming because they were a flat above the shop or a secondary supply for the business, those meters should still be in the market or be disconnected.

The project report also suggests some potential areas that could form the basis for future metering committee or industry projects aimed at addressing issues inherent within the meter condition assessment space.

These include the introduction of a meter asset management programme and the replacement of broken meters with smart metering technology.

Specific market operational data quality weaknesses also could be tackled and new measures introduced for retailers identifying zero consuming assets.

At the outset of the project, MOSL data indicated that over 147,600 non-household water meters – approximately 11% – affecting over 113,270 occupied business premises across England were showing zero consumption.

Since the deployment began in October 2022, Vodafone Spain has already connected more than 250,000 meters to its NB-IoT network and the initial target is to complete connections to over 1 million water meters during the first 5 years of the contract.

Aqualia’s goal is to offer remote meter reading and other services to its over 3 million customers in Spain in the coming years.

Daniel Barallat, director of IoT at Vodafone Spain, says the control and management of water use in Spain is a constant and vitally important challenge today.

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“With this contract, we put our most cutting-edge technology at the service of Aqualia to actively contribute to the better conservation of natural resources and more efficient water management.”

The initiative is being undertaken as part of the government’s Strategic Project for Recovery and Economic Transformation (PERTE), which is aimed to modernise the urban water systems to improve efficiency, reduce losses in the distribution systems and improve the wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Vodafone’s Water Meter solution for homes, businesses and public institutions includes the digitalisation of the meters and the reading and analysis of the data.

In a pilot currently underway in the city of Vigo, Aqualia and Vodafone are investigating the use of the remote meter read data for detection of fraudulent activities such as tampering and reverse flow and for leak detection with hourly water balance analyses, with the aim to develop a comprehensive solution.

It is also intended to provide the data to customers to enable them to become aware of their consumption and to use the data for the prediction of consumption patterns to improve water management and broadly make the cycle more sustainable.

For example, with optimised pumping in turn the energy consumption is optimised and stresses on the network reduced, which also should reduce the risk of breakage and leaks and the loss of non-revenue water.

NB-IoT is the preferred communication for water meters in Spain as many are underground or in other outdoor locations.

The rollout has been awarded to technology provider Connexin, as part of an up to 15-year end-to-end ‘meter as a service’ solution contract.

Connexin will install 164,000 Itron water meters by the end of 2025, 612,000 meters by 2030 and up to one million meters in total by 2035.

The company also will provide a LoRaWAN wireless communications network for the up to one million households and businesses, which will enable communications with Temetra’s head end system (HES) to provide remote access to hourly water meter readings.

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“Our rollout of smart metering will support [our targets to reduce both consumption and leakage] and provide valuable insight in shaping how the industry can better understand where water is used, and make sure we’re looking after it for the future,” says Gary Adams, Head of the Smart Transformation Programme at Essex & Suffolk Water.

Adding that the company knows approximately 18% of its domestic customers have a leak at their property, he continues: “Through this smart connectivity, we will be able to detect customer side leakage more precisely and quicker than before supporting our customers in keeping their bills as low as possible.

“The hourly data will also allow us to work with our customers to demonstrate how much water they are using and provide guidance on how to reduce it to help improve people’s lives and safeguard our environment.”

This award to Connexin is claimed the largest of its kind in the UK water utility sector.

It also is the third major smart water meter win for the company, following previous awards from Yorkshire Water for an initial 30,000 meters and Severn Trent Water for 150,000 meters.

The contract is for an initial five years with the option to extend for a further 10 years.

As all of Britain’s water companies are looking to smart meters and are at different stages of deployment, more such announcements can be expected.

The shift from estimated billing to prepaid meters has not only gained the trust of water utility customers but has also led to a range of positive outcomes for both consumers and service providers.

One of the key drivers in the adoption of prepaid water meter billing has been the customer demand for transparency and control over their water consumption.

Many customers who were not yet connected to the traditional billing system have actively requested prepaid meters, as they prefer the ability to pay for the water they consume.

This shift has empowered customers to monitor and manage their water usage, leading to conscious efforts to reduce or completely eliminate wastage in their households.

With the ability to track their consumption in real-time, customers have become more mindful of their water usage, thereby contributing to the conservation of water resources.

In addition to empowering consumers, the transition to prepaid water meter billing has also proved to be beneficial for water utility companies.

By encouraging efficient water use among customers, utility companies have seen a reduction in overall water wastage, ultimately conserving water resources.

This has enabled these companies to serve more customers while experiencing an increase in revenues.

The ability to accurately measure and charge for water consumption has not only improved the financial performance of water utility companies but has also allowed them to better allocate resources to serve their expanding customer base.

While the advantages of prepaid water meter billing are evident, the scale-up of smart water meters in operations has been hindered by financial limitations faced by water utility companies.

Despite the demand from customers, the paucity of funds has posed a challenge to the widespread implementation of this innovative billing system.

As a result, water utility companies are looking to manufacturers of smart water meters to develop strategic marketing options that can facilitate the penetration of these meters into market.

Read more news from LAISON

LAISON makes strides in this regard. LAISON has catered to the preferences and requirements of water utility customers by offering convenient vending options, including online payments.

This has made it possible for customers to purchase water at their convenience, enhancing their overall experience with the metering system.

Moreover, LAISON has provided strong technical support to water utility companies, ensuring proactive problem-solving and maintenance, which has further solidified the trust between the utility companies and their customers.

In light of the demand for prepaid water meter billing and the potential for widespread adoption, manufacturers like LAISON have the opportunity to play a pivotal role in driving the market for smart water meters.

Through strategic marketing initiatives and continued innovation, these manufacturers can contribute to the realization of a more efficient and sustainable water management system in the country.

As the demand for prepaid water meter billing continues to grow and gain traction among customers, it is essential for water utility companies and manufacturers to collaborate in overcoming the financial constraints that impede the widespread adoption of smart water meters.

By leveraging the benefits of prepaid metering systems and addressing the funding limitations, both parties can work towards realizing a more efficient, transparent, and customer-centric water billing infrastructure across the nation.

In conclusion, the migration from estimated billing to prepaid water meter billing systems has ushered in a positive transformation in the water utility sector.

Customers have embraced the control and transparency offered by prepaid meters, leading to a conscious effort to conserve water and eliminate wastage.

Water utility companies have benefited from improved revenues and resources, as they strive to meet the increasing demands of their customer base.

With strategic collaborations and innovative marketing approaches, manufacturers like LAISON have the opportunity to further facilitate the widespread adoption of smart water meters, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and efficient water management ecosystem.

In 2023 DEWA achieved 1.06 minutes per customer in 2023 – marginally shorter than the 1.19 minutes per customer in 2022. DEWA attributes this primarily to the ongoing smart grid implementation, with an investment of AED7 billion (US$1.9 billion) up to 2035.

Among the initiatives launched by DEWA in the smart grid programme is a FLISR (fault location, isolation and self restoration) system – the first of its kind in the MENA region to enhance the control, management and monitoring of the power network.

“DEWA has achieved the lowest electricity customer minutes lost in the world,” asserts HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO.

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“This is the accumulation of DEWA’s efforts in innovation and managing facilities and services through a smart and integrated smart grid.”

Smart ball technology

On the water front DEWA has reported saving 243 million gallons (1.1 billion litres) of water and AED9.66 million in 2023 with its ‘smart ball’ technology.

The smart ball is a small diameter sphere with an acoustic sensor that is inserted into the water network and travels freely at a rate of around 3km/hour driven by the water flow. Once extracted the data is analysed to pinpoint the exact locations of leaks or other anomalies.

Since its introduction in April 2021, DEWA reports having detected 81 leaks in Dubai’s water transmission network with the smart ball, with its ability to detect leaks that are missed with traditional techniques, such as small cracks in the pipelines.

Alongside the smart ball, which can typically inspect about 35km of pipeline in a day, DEWA has been implementing other smartening of its over 3,000km extent water infrastructure, including a SCADA system and smart devices.

“This is part of our efforts to achieve digital transformation using state-of-the-art operational technology, which includes real-time hydraulic modelling, a training simulation system and advanced reporting tools,” comments Al Tayer.

DEWA’s water network losses in 2022 were recorded at 4.5%, well below the averages elsewhere such as the 15% quoted for North America.

The Stream service, which has emerged from a Northumbrian Water initiated project in partnership with the majority of Britain’s other water suppliers and other organisations including the Open Data Institute, is aimed to unlock the potential of open data and stimulate innovation and collaboration in the sector.

Its appearance follows a drive by the regulator Ofwat to create an open data and data sharing culture, initially voluntary but in time to become compulsory via a licence condition, to capture the benefits it can offer.

The water companies have a wealth of data about their water and wastewater systems but also how those services interact with communities and the environment but mostly it remains siloed within the individual companies.

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“We need to operate as a sector as our challenges do not stop at company borders and bringing data together will help us solve those challenges,” says Melissa Tallack of Northumbrian Water, who is co-leading the initiative with lead architect Andy Myers.

“Most innovations involve data in some shape or form, so having this sector approach should help to enable future innovations.”

Data is available via a search function on the Stream platform – there isn’t a category listing so far – with the first use case tags including ‘Domestic tap water quality’, ‘Utility mapping’ and ‘Water quality parameters’.

With all of the water companies at some stage of a smart meter rollout, some form of consumption data is likely to become available in due course.

Ofwat has indicated that while its approach to open data means making data freely available to everyone to access, use and share, it does not mean that all data should be shared in its basic form.

However, where it is closed, for example for privacy or business reasons, justification is required and it can be made available in a more controlled, aggregated and anonymised form.

Specific opportunities that Ofwat has identified for open data include encouraging development of new business models and service offerings that increase efficiencies and enhance the customer experience and providing insights on company performance and assets to improve decision-making.

Others include enabling companies to work collaboratively to tackle shared challenges and improving transparency and trust for customers

The Stream platform is being developed with support from Ofwat with ‘Day 1’ targeted for April 2024 with what will be a pipeline of sector agreed use case datasets.

The rollout is planned to deliver a total of 250,000 smart water meters across Birmingham, Leicestershire and parts of Shropshire before March 2025.

With these, starting in Birmingham and Leicester, approximately 125,000 existing metered customers will be upgraded to a new smart meter, while a further 125,000 customers will have a new meter installed.

Once complete, and complementing the company’s 150,000 smart meter installations across Coventry and Warwickshire currently under way, Severn Trent will have converted its region into what it calls a smart water hub, with for example better customer control of their consumption and more rapid identification of leaks.

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“It’s no secret that people generally save water when they switch to a meter, and we believe as well you should only pay for what you use, and smart meters are a great way of making sure that’s the case,” says Thomas Puddefoot, Subject Matter Expert at Severn Trent.

“With climate change, and the drier summers we’re seeing, it really is important we’re conserving water as best we can. Our smart meters will help us plan and manage demand meaning our customers get the water they need, when they need it.” 

The smart metering programme is being delivered by Severn Trent with infrastructure service provider Network Plus as part of its Green Recovery programme, which is planned to see £566 million (US$721 million) investment in its water supply by March 2025.

Alongside the smart water metering, other components of the plan include pipe replacements, improving the quality of water and planning to meet future demand.

Customers with smart meters can access a digital platform where they will be able to see their consumption on an hourly basis, and also get a personalised monthly report showing how the water is used, along with tips to reducing their consumption and the water bills.

 In its 2022/23 review, Severn Trent reported that with around 37,000 meters connected online, almost 900 leaks had been identified with almost 3Ml/d savings, two-thirds of them slow leaks less than 100l/hour.

The Memorandum of Intent between DEWA and ESA is intended to pursue joint space-based activities to advance innovation and sustainability in the energy and water utilities sector.

Specifically the objective of the cooperation is to foster the development of innovative applications to support safety, affordability, operational effectiveness, agility in resource deployment and environmental sustainability in these sectors.

As a concrete step, a joint call for proposals is being prepared for the deployment and demonstration of sustainable downstream space services to address DEWA’s priorities in water management.

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Among these are improving the efficiency of water infrastructure usage, water treatment efficiencies, preventative infrastructure maintenance, water policy creation and security of the water grid and other infrastructure.

“Since its launch in January 2021, DEWA’s Space-D programme has improved the operations, maintenance and planning of our electricity and water networks with the support of nanosatellite technology, Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and the help of satellite communications and earth observation technologies,” says Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA.

“We are pleased to cooperate with the ESA to develop this programme further and provide a role model for other utilities worldwide to take advantage of space technology in the power and water sectors.”

Under DEWA’s Space-D programme, two nanosatellites have been launched, DEWA SAT-1 in January 2022 and the larger DEWA SAT-2 in April 2023.

With these DEWA has become the first utility to utilise nanosatellites to support the maintenance and planning of electricity and water networks.

Another opportunity will be offered in the ‘Commercial Applications of Space-Enabled Robotics for Energy’ thematic call, which will include DEWA input on specific use cases as well as partnering on the selected activities.

The Memorandum of Intent is the second following a November 2023 similar signing with E.ON Innovation.

As a first step of the cooperation, E.ON Innovation is collaborating with ESA on its ‘Space for Infrastructure: Energy’ initiative, providing use cases of E.ON´s energy business such as the automatic detection of damage to  power lines by extreme weather or by critical third-parties such as unannounced construction sites.

The ‘Space for Infrastructure: Energy’ call, which closes on January 26, is aimed to provide funding towards feasibility studies and demonstrations on the use of space technologies to support energy infrastructures, including power plants, transmission lines, pipelines and energy storage facilities.

ESA energy task force

DEWA is also joining the ESA’s ‘Task Force for Innovation in Energy Through Space’, which was launched in October 2022 to leverage the use of space applications to address the clean green energy ecosystem and support the growth of a sustainable green economy.

Current members include the European organisations ENTSO-E and E.DSO, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Decom North Sea, Global Alliance for Sustainable Energy, the Scotland-based Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group and Net Zero Technology Centre and the India Energy Storage Alliance.

ESA has identified a range of opportunities within the energy sector where space could facilitate innovation.

These include utility and small scale renewable generation, green hydrogen and other alternative energy carriers, ensuring security of supply, e-mobility planning, circularity and decommissioning, asset operation and maintenance and decarbonisation.

The task force is focussed on developing and maintaining an up to date overview of policies and activities in these areas, identifying short and long term priorities within them with the potential space added value and implementing initiatives to be undertaken with the members.

Rita Rinaldo, Head of Projects and Studies Implementation at the ESA, says the partnership with DEWA provides a unique opportunity to work on the development of innovative space-based applications and services for the utility sector.

“The collaboration is also an indicator of the potential space assets have to offer in the advancement of the utilities sector for a sustainable digital future. Together, we will support the emergence of innovative space solutions creating major impact in relation to water and energy sustainability and security.”

In a recent report, Berg Insight estimates that the number of water AMI endpoints in North America will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.3% over the next five years, while that in Europe is expected to grow at a rate of 16.3%.

Over the past two decades water AMI solutions have evolved, opening up new possibilities for water utilities to make substantial enhancements of operational efficiency, reduce non-revenue water and greatly improve water conservation schemes, Berg Insight points out.

“Today, the term smart metering has become a buzz word within the water sector that is to be considered synonymous with the concept of AMI.”

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North America is the leading market for both water AMR and AMI solutions globally, with an installed base of about 86.5 million active water utility AMR and AMI endpoints, representing a penetration of around 75%, at the end of 2022.

Of these, AMI accounted for 38 million and a penetration of more than 33%.

The number of water AMI endpoints in North America is forecast to reach 72.3 million units in 2028, driven primarily by utilities seeking to replace existing AMR solutions.

Europe is the second-largest market for water AMR and AMI solutions.

At the end of 2022, the installed base of active water utility AMR and AMI endpoints was about 68.6 million, translating into a penetration rate of approximately 45%, with just 17.8 million AMI endpoints for a penetration of around 12%.

The number is forecast to reach 44.1 million units in 2028 as markets such as Italy, the UK, Scandinavia and the DACH and Benelux regions grow alongside the historically primary markets of France and Spain.

Standards and vendors

Berg Insight reports that a variety of proprietary and standards-based communications technologies are being used for water AMI deployments.

In North America, proprietary RF networking platforms have completely dominated the market and accounted for as much as 92% of the installed base of AMI endpoints in 2022.

Meanwhile, various proprietary and open-standard RF technologies based on the EN 13757 standard accounted for roughly 47% of the AMI endpoints installed in Europe, with Wize as the single most deployed technology.

LoRaWAN and 3GPP-based LPWA technologies were also noted as emerging as real contenders within the water AMI markets – particularly LTE-M in the US and LoRaWAN and NB-IoT in Europe.

Berg Insight also reports that the water AMI and AMR markets in the two regions are largely served by local or regional players, with only a few companies such as Itron, Sensus (Xylem), Honeywell, Kamstrup, the Arad Group and the Minol-ZENNER Group, having managed to establish a major presence in both regions.

At the end of 2022, the top five water AMI endpoint vendors in North America in terms of installed base were Sensus, Badger Meter, Itron, Aclara and the Neptune Technology Group.

The top five water AMI endpoint vendors in Europe comprised Diehl Metering, Itron, Birdz (Veolia), Sensus and Kamstrup. SUEZ subsidiary SUEZ Smart Solutions also constitutes a key player in the European water AMI market by having been instrumental to the development and deployment of Wize technology.

A major challenge for water utilities is how to migrate away from walk-by, drive-by, and AMI 1.0 solutions to AMI 2.0 without a complete replacement of all meters. Additionally, they need solutions that help them identify leaks in their distribution system to best manage water usage cost-effectively.

The water utility sector is mirroring the migration that the electric utility industry has gone through with AMI 1.0, for many of the same reasons. They have had the benefit of seeing electric utilities go through this process and understanding the key benefits they can achieve. They have also learned from the challenges electric utilities have had in selecting the right next-generation technology solutions for their business.

One of the major lessons learned from the electric market experience is how important it is to not be locked into a single-meter supplier

Trilliant has the most universal AMI head-end system in the industry integrated with well over 300-meter types in the electric and gas AMI market. Trilliant is bringing this same “Power of Choice” opportunity to the water AMI market.

We can work with you to digitally transform your water meter strategy with a universal gateway that provides multiple interface options, and a head-end system that supports both complete and tactical deployments.

Trilliant’s head-end system, UnitySuite®, also provides a network and data collection management system that is being used for managing our own and third-party cellular (including NBIoT), third-party LPWAN, and mesh solutions – all from the same AMI head-end system implementation. This also enables a consolidation and normalization of integration points, simplifying the integration process.

UnitySuite supports tactical deployments which enable a utility to migrate from one system to another at their own pace, without disruption to the utility’s existing business processes. or deploy at specific premises to implement a new application like prepayment, or remote water shut-off”.

Trilliant’s expertise in a variety of wireless AMI systems has provided extensive experience in how to best manage disparate systems. With the variety of existing communications types in the market today, it is a challenge for a single vendor to integrate wireless communications into a system working in concert and providing a common WAN communication path.

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Trilliant offers a universal gateway that provides multiple interface options that can communicate with LoRA®, WMBus®, and NBIoT® in a single deployed unit. This provides the utility with maximum flexibility to continue optimizing their current assets in the field, and easily migrating to the next generation.

Trilliant’s AMI for smart water solution includes:

Software

• Trilliant’s proven device-independent UnitySuite HES platform with our “water application” module;
• API support for third-party water-related applications;
• Water analytics and customer portal;
• Software driver support for commercially available integrated cellular water meters.

Hardware

• Trilliant LPWAN next-gen network technology for these “hard to reach” battery-operated endpoints;
• Development of a Trilliant LPWAN-based Meter Interface Unit (MIU) for interfacing with water meters using 3-wire UI-1203 protocol (commonly used in North America);
• Development of a Trilliant LPWAN–wireless MBUS gateway for interfacing with wMBUS meters installed for walk-by/drive-by meter reading (commonly used in EMEA region).

Trilliant LPWAN remote monitoring unit that can interface with water SCADA RTUs for command and control of water distribution assets.

A few examples of Trilliant’s AMI for smart water in progress include:

• Deployments in North America using Trilliant’s LPWAN for Water MIU;
• Suite metering support for water in Canada using Trilliant’s LPWAN MIU Hub;
• Pilots progressing in the Isle of Mann, using Trilliant’s LPWAN to wireless MBUS gateway.

Ready to transform your smart water strategy? Let’s talk. We’re happy to discuss the next steps that make sense for your utility’s unique needs. Contact Trilliant today!

About the company

Trilliant is proud of a 30+ year history serving the world’s energy companies, utilities, and smart cities – securely, sustainably, reliably. We are passionate about delivering mission-critical solutions to our customers. Designed to offer The Power of Choice, our flexible, multi-tiered platform is device-agnostic, and drives optimal endpoints and outcomes. Visit us at www.trilliant.com

Hangzhou, China – 17 November, 2023. The delegation, comprising key representatives from the Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association, engaged in insightful discussions with LAISON’s leadership, fostering a deeper understanding of mutual goals and aspirations.

The seminar served as a platform for LAISON to introduce tailor-made solutions for the Vietnamese market. Highlighting innovations such as the PARISE LoRa STS Prepaid Smart Water Meter Solution, PARISE IoT Online STS Prepaid Smart Water Meter Solution, and Ultrasonic Smart Water Meters, LAISON showcased its commitment to addressing key concerns in the water sector. The company’s offerings aim to mitigate Non-Revenue Water (NRW), enhance revenue streams, and optimize operational efficiency.

The seminar also featured a presentation of LAISON’s hardware and software solutions, including the HDMS system, accompanied by real-world case studies that provided attendees with a comprehensive understanding of the products. The Vietnamese water utility representatives expressed keen interest, signaling a potential avenue for future collaborations.

“As a provider of smart water metering solutions, LAISON remains dedicated to continuous innovation, riding the global wave of smart metering trends,” stated Clark Dai, Deputy Manager at LAISON. “This successful seminar not only deepens our understanding of the Vietnamese market but also paves the way for mutually beneficial partnerships, helping us expand our global footprint and elevate our brand recognition.”

Read more news from LAISON

The seminar aligns with LAISON’s core philosophy of riding the global tide in smart metering. It is expected to facilitate further exploration of the Vietnamese market, tapping into its unique demands and opportunities.

Enlit Europe 2023 is setting a new record with the number of new technology developments being launched, including new meters, multiple new standards demonstrations and new insights on circularity and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

New electricity, hydrogen and water smart meters

Gridspertise, Enel’s joint owned innovation company, is launching a new electricity smart meter offering multiple communication options to enable the most appropriate to be selected in the field by DSOs.

Among these are Hybrid PLC and RF, Cellular LTE and Cellular NB-IoT. The new smart meter also is interoperable with third-party vendor solutions, allowing backward compatibility and integration with existing installations.

The offer also includes head end and meter data management systems as well as a pool of technical services and support activities in a metering-as-a-service approach.

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The Italgas group is unveiling a new hydrogen ready next generation smart meter – more details of which are to follow.

Janz, a company in Italy’s SIT group, is introducing the SmartIO ultrasonic water meter using patented technology with multi-protocol LoRaWAN and wMBus for walk-by or drive-by applications and offering a measurement accuracy up to R1000.

The meter, which is intended for residential applications, is aimed initially at the Italian market, where new developments are emerging with water losses approaching 40% as the infrastructure ages. Recent analysis by SIT company MeteRSit found that in one year in Italy there were 29 tenders with a total value of approximately €250 million ($273 million).

Via the eREGISTER and MyWater application, the new meter offers demand alarms for leaks, bursts, backflows, etc.

Staying with water metering, SM Factory is presenting adaptable smart electronic heads as a fast and easy to implement option to transform mechanical water meters into smart devices.

The heads use Sigfox technology for communication and are adaptable to different water meter types.

DLMS and LoRa standards advance

The DLMS User Association has been particularly active of late with new agreements with EPRI and the National Electrical Manufacturing Association (NEMA) in the US to advance the adoption of the DLMS protocol in that country, and with the PRIME Alliance to align the PRIME companion profile with DLMS specifications.

Extending these activities at Enlit Europe 2023, the DLMS UA is launching Generic Companion Profiles (GCPs) as standardised solutions to provide seamless data exchange between specific devices such as smart meters, remote displays and electric vehicle (EV) charging stations – these use cases mark the initial phase, with additional GCPs under development for gas and water metering and grid edge computing.

The GCPs are agnostic to hardware devices, communication technologies, cloud solutions and consumer data exchange protocols.

Among the DLMS demonstrations taking place, Wirepas and Meter&Control are showcasing Wirepas 5G Mesh technology and DLMS interoperability.

The combination is aimed to enable utilities to benefit both from DLMS’s security and bidirectional support to push and receive messages as well as from the security of network transmissions enabled by Wirepas 5G Mesh based on the publicly available spectrum around 1.9GHz in Europe.

The LoRA Alliance also has been active with updates to the LoRaWAN standard in the utilities market.

Among these is the validation by the European Committee of Normalization (CEN) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) of LoRaWAN for smart metering for electricity, water, heat and gas.

Specifically, the CEN has standardised the M-Bus adaptation layer for LPWAN especially M-Bus over LoRaWAN under series EN13757-8, while the IEC has standardised the DLMS profile for LPWAN under new part IEC 62056-8-12.

Among demonstrations at Enlit Europe 2023, the LoRa Alliance will have a device wall with more than 30 gateways and LoRaWAN-certified end-devices and sensors from member companies designed for use in metering and utilities.

IoT and circularity

Last but not least ABB is releasing new industry reports on two key topics of interest currently – the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and circularity.

ABB has found that the majority of industrial organisations have started their digitalisation journeys to improve their operational and energy efficiencies but most are still in the early stages and have yet to experience the long-term benefits.

The second report is intended as a guide for companies to embrace circular economics in today’s throw away culture, which is expected to be a key focus for global businesses in 2024.

For power distribution assets the approach could be particularly useful as when maintained, upgraded and eventually decommissioned, significant cost savings can result alongside helping to minimise the environmental impact by avoiding emissions.

TWW meter readers will be able to read the new two-way communicating water meters remotely, eliminating almost all estimated water bills.

TWW Meter Shop personnel and contract vendor National Metering Services will begin upgrading the utility’s customers’ water meters by appointment beginning in January 2024 in Trenton, Ewing Township and Hopewell Township.

Installations take about 30 minutes and require access to existing meters in customers’ properties. TWW estimates it will replace approximately 21,000 meters in the project’s first phase.

“We continue to pursue capital projects that not only improve water quality, but also strengthen TWW’s billing and customer-service delivery, priorities that we set during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Sean Semple, director of the city’s department of water and sewer, which operates Trenton Water Works.

“Smart meters allow for automatic meter reading that eliminates nearly all estimated bills, stronger customer service and more efficient meter-reading operations.”

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Squeezing valuable drops out of smart water innovation

The New Jersey Water Bank, a programme jointly administered by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank, is funding the project. This work is part of TWW’s $405-million, six-year capital plan announced in 2019.

Trenton customers interested in upgrading to a two-way communicating water meter (Smart Meter) will receive a letter in December from TWW asking them to call the water utility’s Meter Shop to make an appointment.

Ewing Township and Hopewell Township customers will receive a letter from National Metering Services inviting them to make an appointment. There is no charge for the meter replacement.

“We are organising H2Open community forums in the months ahead to educate our customers about the Smart Meter Project and other TWW priorities to produce quality drinking water. We hope our valued customers and service-area consumers will attend and share their questions about our operations, capital work, and water quality,” Semple added.

TWW was purchased by the City of Trenton in 1859. In the last 50 years, TWW infrastructure has undergone numerous capital improvements, creating a system that consists of a water-filtration plant, an open reservoir, three pump stations, more than 8,000 valves, 3,578 fire hydrants and six interconnections between TWW and other water suppliers.

The pilot, which was launched in August with the installation of the first smart water meters in West Perth, is aimed to enable the company to understand what the future of smart meters will look like for both customers and the business.

The Water Corporation has been using smart meters for over 10 years, particularly in larger commercial properties to help with water efficiency practices and in regional areas where it can be difficult for meter readers to access properties safely.

Now the intent is to take advantage of technological advances to improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of meter readings while providing customers with a better online service.

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In addition the smart water meters are expected to offer benefits such as leak identification – critical with water becoming increasingly scarce with Western Australia having seen an average 20% reduction in rainfall since the 1970s with a corresponding reduction in dam inflows.

The properties that have been selected for the pilot are intended to represent the broader Perth population. They include those with a mixed ground topography in the hills and on the coast, a mix of business and residential customers and properties with meters located in boxes or behind fences.

LoRaWAN IoT solution for 5,000 smart water meters

As part of the pilot, consultancy Enzen and its group company NNNCo have announced the deployment of a LoRaWAN IoT connectivity solution for more than 5,000 of the smart water meters.

Dileep Viswanath, CEO of Enzen Australia, comments that water scarcity is one of the most critical challenges facing communities in Western Australia.

“Our work will help create a best practice solution that will enable the utility and its consumers to manage this life essential in the most sustainable way.”

Rob Zagarella, CEO of narrowband network company NNNCo, adds that through its telecommunications carrier license and commercial agreement with Western Power, it can access the utility’s infrastructure across its Western Australia service territory.

“This means our LoRaWAN network can be built close to Water Corporation’s smart meters, without needing to access its assets, further reducing cost.”

In addition, the two companies will deploy 41,500 concentrators, with the project due to be completed over four years.

EMASESA (Empresa Metropolitana de Abastecimiento y Saneamiento de Aguas de Sevilla) is installing the smart water meters as a key component of its digital transformation.

Since its start in January, more than 30,000 concentrators have been deployed and more than 100,000 meters connected so far.

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“This project is one of the pillars of an ambitious five-year digital transformation programme that covers the entire water cycle, placing the user and their safety at the centre of EMASESA’s management,” says Manuel Romero, CEO.

He adds that the remote control of water consumption is also a fundamental tool for combating drought, with the company with its ‘Objective 90’ targeting a reduction of consumption to 90l/person/day from the approximately 110l/person/day currently.

“This achieving annual savings of 20%, which in 10 years – the drought cycle forecast – would be equivalent to having a new reservoir.”

The smart water meters utilise NB-IoT connectivity and supply data on an hourly basis, which with AI-based advanced analysis is intended to optimise the management of the water, detect leaks and other anomalies in the network and in buildings at an early stage and deliver a better service to users.

Other plans include the development of digital twins of the water infrastructure.

With the low power consumption, the meter batteries are expected to achieve a useful lifetime of over 12 years.

With the ‘My EMASESA’ app, users are able to access their consumption or their own sustainability activities.

Other components of the digital transformation plan include the installation of sensors for leak detection on the networks and the automation of processes with the data that is captured.

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The project comes following the June publication by the regulator Ofwat of a review of open data delivery by Britain’s water companies.

There Ofwat indicated its intention to develop a licence condition obligating companies to deliver on the open data challenge and achieving a step change in open data maturity within 18 months.

In a posting, the Open Data Institute states that it will support Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water to develop and implement an open data strategy, setting out its ambition and plan for implementing open data, and becoming an open data leader in the water sector.

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In the initial stages, the focus will be on developing a shared understanding across the company of the opportunities made possible by publishing open data.

The Institute also intends to engage with a range of external stakeholders, to understand their needs as current or potential users of open data published by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, to inform priority actions and support the development of use cases.

For the longer term, the focus will be to develop a strong framework to embed open data enablers in line with Ofwat’s recommendations, developing the organisational culture and delivering on priority high-value use cases.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water anticipates harnessing the potential of open data to transform its approach to addressing long-term challenges in new ways, such as with spills analytics and drainage management.

“We see open data as being integral to solving some of the challenges we, and the entire sector, are facing,” says Kevin Parry, Chief Data Officer at Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.

“The [open data strategy] will help us work even more closely with our customers, partners and the community, and I am looking forward to seeing how it accelerates innovative thinking and new ideas.”

The Institute reports that the company has already made significant progress in open data enablers.

Among this is the launch of the Dŵr Data Academy as an internal data literacy initiative intended to support the learning and development of data skills across the entire organisation.

The company also is developing partnerships with several Welsh universities, including participation in a data sharing consortium with Bangor University, Cardiff University and Public Health Wales to research the presence of viruses in wastewater.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water is also a partner in the Northumberland Water led ‘Stream’ project, which is aimed to put in place the technology and processes to facilitate open data by the sector.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water is Britain’s only non-profit water company and supplies drinking water to over 3 million customers in over 1.4 million homes and businesses across Wales.

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Taggle has recently adopted the telco standard NB-IoT as an alternative radio technology and has selected AVSystem to provide NB-IoT LwM2M (lightweight M2M) device management solutions for Taggle’s NB-IoT devices.

Collaboration driving innovation

David Peters, Taggle’s CEO states: “As part of our new NB-IoT solutions we have selected AVSystem to deliver an LwM2M-based IoT Device Management Platform for all of our NB-IoT connected devices. By joining forces with AVSystem, we bring their European expertise in NB-IoT to enhance our offerings and provide our clients with unparalleled digital water meter management solutions.”

Artur Wróbel, VP Sales, IoT at AVSystem, expresses: “Our partnership with Taggle aligns perfectly with our commitment to innovating and elevating device management solutions in this region. We are excited to bring forth technologies that set new benchmarks in water management efficiency and sustainability.”

This collaboration marks a significant step forward in fostering innovation in water management solutions, leveraging Taggles’ proficiency in creating scalable and accurate monitoring solutions with AVSystem’s advanced device management capabilities and IoT expertise from the Coiote team.

Empowering utilities with comprehensive solutions

The partnership is set to deliver comprehensive remote water meter lifecycle management solutions that integrate advanced sensing technology, near real-time data collection, and robust analytics.

Key Features and Benefits

• Enhanced Remote Management: This cooperation will offer “Over-The-Air” (OTA) capability for remote configuration, monitoring, and management of digital water meters and devices to ensure efficient and robust operations.
• Scalable Solutions: The developed solutions will cater to varied needs, providing scalability to accommodate small municipal councils to large urban utilities.
• Data Security and Compliance: The combination of both companies’ solutions will ensure the highest levels of data security and help in meeting regulatory compliance.
• Sustainable Water Management: The initiative is geared towards providing sustainable solutions that contribute to water conservation and waste reduction.

Read more news from AVSystem

Conclusion

This partnership between Taggle Systems and AVSystem will continue to drive innovation in the Digital Water Metering landscape in Australia. Both companies, with their shared vision and combined expertise, will continue to develop and deliver water conservation, utility management, and environmental sustainability solutions for Australian water utilities.

About Taggle Systems

Taggle Systems is a pioneering Australian company, specializing in developing state-of-the-art low-power, wide-area network technologies, primarily focusing on applications in water metering and environmental monitoring.

About AVSystem

AVSystem is a global software company with a focus on device management, IoT, and unified management platforms, offering solutions characterized by high scalability, performance, and flexibility.

In its second five-year review, the Commission highlights the need for urgent action in the energy sector including the phasing out of fossil fuels and electrification of the system to meet net zero and the need to improve asset and resource management in the water sector to ensure that the demand does not outstrip supply.

While there is still a long way to go in creating a secure net zero energy system, it is achievable with the right policies and a relentless focus on delivery, the Commission states in its report.

“The good news is that modern, reliable infrastructure can support economic growth, help tackle climate change and enhance the natural environment,” writes Commission chair Sir John Armitt in the foreword to the report.

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“We stand at a pivotal moment in time, with the opportunity to make a major difference to this country’s future. But we need to get on with it.”

Net zero energy sector

Among actions recommended is accelerated deployment of offshore wind, onshore wind and solar power and support to the market to deploy the necessary accompanying flexible technologies, i.e. electricity storage and demand side response.

Investment also should be incentivised in large scale hydrogen and gas with carbon capture and storage power stations that can provide electricity even during extended calm or cloudy periods, while a “transformational change” is required in planning, regulation and governance to expand the transmission and distribution networks.

On electrification the Commission recommends electrifying heating with heat pumps, stating that there is “no public policy case” for hydrogen to be used to heat individual buildings and that it should be ruled out as an option.

To deliver this households should receive a subsidy of £7,000 ($8,481) and up to £4 billion ($5 billion) per year should be allocated to support lower income households.

There should be increased adoption of electric vehicles, with a nationwide network of at least 300,000 public charge points across the country by 2030.

The core networks to transmit and store hydrogen and carbon to decarbonise the industrial sector also need to be put in place around the country.

Smart water metering

Regarding the water sector the Commission states that without action to adapt to a changing climate there could be an over 4,000Ml per day gap between the demand and supply of water by 2050.

A twin track approach to drought resilience should be followed, both managing demand, including leakage, and increasing supply.

To this end on the supply side at least 1,300Ml/day should be provided by the mid-2030s through additional water transfers and supply infrastructure.

On the demand side, the objective to halve leakage from 2017-18 levels by 2050 should be maintained and compulsory metering beyond water stressed areas enabled by 2025, with the systematic rollout of smart meters a first step in a concerted campaign to reduce water demand to 110l per person per day and to reduce non-household usage by 15% by 2050.

These actions and others across other infrastructure sectors, including transport and digital connectivity, are estimated to require an increased investment from an average £55 billion ($66.6 billion) per year over the last decade (around 10% of UK investment) to around £70 to 80 billion ($85-$97 billion) per year in the 2030s and £60 to £70 billion per year 2040s.

Public sector investment will need to rise from £20 billion ($24 billion) per year over the last decade to around £30 billion ($36 billion) in the 2030s and 40s.

Private sector investment also will need to increase from around £30 to 40 billion ($36-$49 billion) over the last decade to £40 to £50 billion ($49-$61 billion) in the 2030s and 2040s. This includes around £20 to £35 billion ($24-$42 billion) per year between 2025 and 2050 in renewable generation capacity and flexible sources of generation, electricity networks, and hydrogen generation, storage and networks and a carbon capture and storage network.

100 million smart meters and counting …

Since the early 2000s and Enel’s leading role in the development and manufacture and large scale rollout of a first generation of smart meters, the technology and its subsequent evolutions has been incorporated in 100 million smart meters.

Those smart meters have been deployed in Italy, Spain, Romania, Republic of San Marino, Malta, Brazil, Peru and Chile.

Making the announcement, Robert Denda, CEO of Gridspertise, who coordinated Endesa’s rollout of the technology in Spain and has led its subsequent development from effectively a communicating digital counter to an intelligent grid sensor, described it as “a key milestone in our journey towards the new era of sustainable and reliable smart grids”.

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It also comes coincident with the second anniversary of Gridspertise, Enel’s grid technology subsidiary, jointly owned with CVC Capital Partners, which has established itself as a key supplier of a growing portfolio of technologies for DSOs for the digitalisation of the grid.

As a reflection of this Gridspertise is introducing what it describes as a new flexible and future-proof smart meter into its portfolio, with the facility to exchange or adapt the communication technology directly in the field.

Depending on customer needs and location, it allows choosing the most appropriate solution among several communication protocols, including hybrid PLC and RF, cellular LTE and cellular NB-IoT.

Look out for its introduction at Enlit Europe 2023 in Paris from 28-30 November.

New era for smart meter data in Japan

Restrictions on the use of metering data by third party corporates have been dropped in Japan, the publication Nikkei Asia has reported.

Until now only utilities have had access to the data from the smart meters, of which there are approximately 80 million in operation in Japan – but now other companies may use the data for a fee to enable them to develop solutions for example for decarbonisation or another that Nikkei Asia highlights, monitoring of the elderly.

The publication reports that around 20 corporate groups are poised to introduce services.

Among examples quoted is Daiwa House Asset Management with plans to calculate carbon dioxide emissions based on electricity use by residents of about 240 properties owned by the group.

Another is Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions looking to help companies adjust their power usage with demand management.

A third is Tokyo-based startup Girasol Energy intending to monitor for broken solar panels remotely by comparing actual output with anticipated output based on sunlight and other data.

Among the quality of life services, Mitsubishi Corp. and the utility Chubu Electric Power are teaming up on a service that detects abnormalities in the routines of elderly relatives in real time, with potential to generate 1 billion yen ($6.7 million) in annual revenue in three years.

The first data provided will be from the service area of Tokyo Electric Power, with expansion nationwide by 2024. The data will be day old initially, but real-time data is expected to become available in 2025.

Kaifa goes OSGP and Sigfox

Kaifa, the electronics and metering solution provider, is expanding its offerings on two fronts with the choice of the OSGP architecture for its intelligent smart metering and the Sigfox 0G technology for advanced water metering solutions.

In selecting the OSGP, Kaifa believes that interoperability standards are needed to guarantee innovation in terms of adopting new technologies and open standards as they become available, a statement reads.

“The digital era brings new opportunities, and Kaifa is ready to take advantage of this with a key focus on the sustainable innovation in energy management.”

In joining the OSGP Alliance, Kaifa intends to work with other industry stakeholders to provide solutions and services to create more value for their customers and society.

The Sigfox 0G technology opportunity, which includes bringing to the market the Sigfox 0G and LoRa dual-mode hybrid solution, is through a partnership with Sigfox owner UnaBiz and is expected to see the development of solutions that are “not only accurate and reliable but also cost-competitive, scalable and environmentally friendly to the water metering sector”, the company states.

The two companies have collaborated previously and most recently on the rollout of 120,000 smart water meters powered by Sigfox 0G technology by Brazilian partner network WND Brazil for the water and sewerage services supplier Iguá Saneamento.

The agreement includes the installation of the Gridstream RF Mesh IP network to cover more than 30,000 Revelo advanced meters being deployed across its service territory, along with software hosting and project support.

“We selected a smart grid technology capable of providing long-term energy management benefits for our members,” said Ron Holcomb, Tipmont president & CEO. “Being able to offer load disaggregation technology and other energy management applications to our membership is a key part of our strategy.”

The platform aims to provide access to granular data which, when combined with machine learning, will enable real-time load disaggregation, anomaly detection on both sides of the meter and autonomous decision making at the grid edge.

The announcement follows another announcement that Landis+Gyr deployed advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) for water meters by the City of Neenah Water Utility in Wisconsin.

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Under their multi-year agreement, the water utility will deploy more than 11,000 RF Interpreter Register water modules for existing and new water meters, aiming to allow the water utility to receive interval data from all of its meters, including alerts that could help customers save on water bills.

Operating under a network-sharing agreement with Wisconsin electricity provide We Energies and Landis+Gyr, data from the meters will be transmitted over We Energies’ Gridstream RF Mesh network operated for electric metering in the city.

“The ability to utilise an existing network for our AMI deployment not only presents cost savings for the utility but also overcomes many of the challenges a water utility faces when deploying network infrastructure,” said Anthony Mach, water utility director at City of Neenah.

“The ability to add a two-way AMI system will also benefit our customers by providing features such as leak detection and other alerts to help manage water use and costs more efficiently.”

Business plans submitted to the regulator Ofwat by the country’s 16 water companies for the period 2025-2030 – for what is known as the 2024 price review (PR24) period and also asset management period 8 (AMP8) – all feature smart metering, either as continuation of existing programmes or new programmes to launch.

In that period – and subject to Ofwat’s final decisions on the plans in December 2024 – upwards of 8 million smart water meters could be deployed across Britain at a cost in the region of £2 billion (US$2.4 billion).

Ofwat’s demand for the business plans for the PR24 period was that they should deliver a “step change” in performance and investment “to drive improvements for the environment and customers”.

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In particular Ofwat indicated the need to strengthen capacity in water resources along with a reduction of pollution from storm overflows to meet the challenges of climate change and population growth as well as to embrace innovation, such as making greater use of digitalisation.

Smart water meters proposals

While the different presentations of the business plans make it difficult to extract complete figures without in-depth assessment, some standouts are as follows.

Anglian Water, which serves 4.3 million people with water supply, aims to complete its full smart meter rollout by 2030. Per capita consumption is planned to be reduced to 124l/day, towards Ofwat’s 2050 target of 110l/d.

Welsh Water/Dŵr Cymru, which serves 1.3 million households, should achieve 48% smart meter penetration in 2023 and is targeting 65% by 2030, corresponding to about 220,000 additional meters, towards 96% penetration by 2050.

Severn Dee/Hafren Dyfrdwy proposes to replace 15,340 existing meters with smart meters, corresponding to about 24% of properties served.

Northumbrian Water proposes to extend its smart metering programme in the water stressed areas of its service area at a cost of ca £125 million ($152.2 million).

Severn Trent Water proposes to install approximately 1 million smart meters to achieve a 16% leakage reduction.

South West Water proposes to install about 530,000 smart meters.

Southern Water proposes to install over 1 million smart meters at a cost of £165 million ($201 million).

Thames Water proposes to install a further 1 million smart meters, increasing the penetration from 54% currently up to 74% by 2030 and with accelerated rollout to cover 100% of the meterable businesses.

United Utilities proposes to install 900,000 smart meters.

Wessex Water proposes a rapid rollout of smart meters to 40% of household and business customers by 2030, corresponding to almost 1.2 million meters.

Yorkshire Water proposes to replace 1.4 million end of life meters with smart meters and new developments and customers opting to be metered for the first time will also receive smart meters by 2030. The company is targeting upgrading all household and non-household meters to smart meter technology by 2040.

Affinity Water proposes to deploy 400,000 smart meters, covering about one-third of its customer base.

Portsmouth Water proposes to deliver smart meters to 324,000 customers as part of the evolution of its network and the installation of smart meters for nearly all its customers by 2035.

South East Water proposes to replace and upgrade 275,000 customer meters towards a complete rollout by 2035.

South Staffs Water is proposing to launch a universal metering programme and with an installation rate of 31,000 water meters per year to increase the penetration from 53% currently to around 76% by 2030 towards a 100% target in 2035.

SES Water proposes to accelerate the installation of 194,000 smart meters.

Decision timelines

All the companies’ business plans with their supplementary documentation are publicly available and will be publicised to their respective customers during the remainder of the year.

Ofwat anticipates publishing its draft determinations towards the end of Q2 of 2024.

The PR24 period begins on 1 April 2025, with its outcomes to then start reflecting in customer bills.

Updated Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water data 9 Oct.

The ‘Connect Up’ programme of Snohomish PUD, one of 28 PUDs in the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest of the US, is expected to see the upgrading of approximately 350,000 electricity meters and 23,000 water meters with smart meters.

The programme began in August and is slowly ramping up as meter readers, customer service field reps and metermen gain experience in the different conditions in the field to enable them to safely perform the meter exchanges.

“There is a lot of planning and even more people power to build a department from the ground up,” says Mitch van Wegen, meter deployment superintendent, who is leading the electricity meter deployment team.

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Smart meters have been in the sights of Snohomish PUD since the late 2000s but they have only become cost-beneficial as the costs of the infrastructure and technology have reduced.

The current programme has been putting in place the infrastructure since 2019 with a brief postponement in that period due to supply chain issues.

The deployment started in the Bothell-Mill Creek area in the southwest of Snohomish County and broadly will run from urban to rural and south to north.

Benefits anticipated from the smart meters include the provision of 15-minute consumption data for customers, flexible billing periods, elimination of estimated bills and same day meter service, while longer-term plans include outage detection and new rate designs, including special electric vehicle charging rates.

With the smart water meters, an additional key benefit expected is the rapid detection of leaks via unusual spikes in water usage.

Snohomish PUD, the largest of the PUDs in Washington and the twelfth largest publicly owned utility in terms of customers served in the US, regards the new smart meters as a significant step as it becomes a ‘utility of the future’.

The memorandum of understanding between the three companies is aimed to “redefine water metering in Mexico and beyond”, they say in a statement.

Leveraging WND’s Sigfox 0G network, the collaboration should facilitate efficient monitoring and management of water resources.

Currently, the coverage of the 0G network extends to more than 60% of the national population with a commitment to expand its deployment. In the first stage, the focus was on condominiums, with the second now expanding the network to the rest of the population.

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“As Mexico’s 0G network operator, WND Mexico is fully dedicated to providing the robust coverage that is essential for the deployment of IoT solutions powered by Sigfox, including water metering,” says Daniel Philippe Guevara, CEO of WND Mexico, subsidiary of the WND Group, which also operates 0G networks in Brazil, Colombia and Peru.

“We share a long-term vision with WaterMeter Corp, recognising the importance of security, stability and continuity in the utility market. Together, we hope to transform the smart water metering landscape.”

Sigfox 0G is a low power wide area networking (LPWAN) protocol for the IoT now owned since April 2022 by Singapore headquartered IoT service provider and Sigfox operator UnaBiz, following the receivership of the original Sigfox organisation.

Marco Mendoza, CEO of the water solution provider WaterMeter Corp, says that customers expect solutions that meet their basic needs, accounting for 100% of water, gas or electricity cost-effectively and operationally practical and fitting their implementation budgets.

“This is precisely why we are committed to the Sigfox 0G technology, which allows us to read meters remotely cost-effectively, predictably and extremely energy efficiently.”

The Sigfox 0G smart meters will be targeted to municipalities in Mexico with key challenges in the sector including water scarcity, non-technical losses and leaks.

UnaBiz has committed to ensuring the continuity and durability of the 0G network and services in Mexico for the next 15 years

The Sewerage and Water Board has announced that the installation of infrastructure including the wireless base stations for data communication as well as staff training on the new technology is almost complete, which will enable the smart meter rollout to commence.

The rollout will replace almost 140,000 analogue water meters with the digital technology, with the intention to resolve challenges stemming from the age of the Board’s water distribution system.

The current water meters are an average 14 years old and are known to often under record the water use.

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With the new smart meters, metering and billing will be more accurate and also the Board intends to benefit with leak detection from the more frequent meter reading.

The Board also intends to use the data to better plan its investments in renovation or expansion of the water infrastructure.

Ghassan Korban, Executive Director, says the Board has spent the last few years planning and building the foundation for the smart metering system.

“As we reach this milestone, we are proud to show tangible progress to our customers. Now, we hope our customers recognise we hear their concerns and are committed to modernising our systems to meet their needs.”

The Board has contracted Aqua-Metric as the smart meter vendor, which in turn supplies Sensus’s FlexNet technology.

The rollout will commence with 1.5-inch and 2-inch diameter smart meters for residential, multi-family and commercial customers, with other sizes following later in the year.

The Board has reported that data from over 95% of the meters will be collected by at least three base stations to ensure backup is available.

The programme is expected to take three years, to complete by the end of 2026.

The integration, believed to be a first for quantum-based cyber protection in smart meters, sees quantum computing-hardened encryption keys integrated into all Honeywell’s smart meters for gas, water and electricity.

This enhanced security is aimed to set a new benchmark for protection against data breaches and to help ensure the uninterrupted operation of the utilities infrastructure.

“By integrating Quantinuum’s encryption technology into our smart meters, we’re advancing data security for our customers and shaping the dialogue on how the utility industries should approach cybersecurity in the quantum era,” says Hamed Heyhat, President of Smart Energy and Thermal Solutions at Honeywell.

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“This integration underscores the necessity for continuous innovation to stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape. It is a level of protection that is imperative in our increasingly digital and interconnected world.”

Quantinuum’s Quantum Origin generates keys through quantum computing-enhanced randomness – a feature of the quantum world – which makes them unpredictable and thereby able to significantly enhance the data security.

Specifically a quantum cryptographic seed is generated on a quantum computer, which is then verified for strength and the keys are generated.

Tony Uttley, President and COO of Quantinuum, comments that robust cybersecurity requires a multifaceted approach, taking advantage of the latest technologies.

“Our work with Honeywell demonstrates the importance of using the power of today’s quantum computers to create a more resilient cyber infrastructure to better protect customers.”

Quantum Origin is designed for both devices and infrastructure, with keys generated directly into devices or on demand via the cloud.

The smart meter products with Quantum Origin from Honeywell are available now to customers in North America and Europe.

Through the agreement between the clean tech major and the British water holdings company, the EnergyIP MDM X platform will connect the meter points, aiming to enhance the Group’s ability to detect and reduce household water leaks.

The water utility is undergoing a major rollout of smart meters, which report data back to the cloud on an hourly basis.

Siemens’ Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution will allow the utility, which services 4.5 million people in the North East of England and in the South East as Essex & Suffolk Water, to analyse the data from the water meters to identify household consumption anomalies and alert customers of potential leaks on their properties.

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Siemens collaborated with NWG’s team to design, develop, test and launch the meter data management SaaS, which is powered by the technology company’s EnergyIP software.

According to Siemens, it represents the largest solution of its kind implemented by the company for the water industry in Europe, as well as its largest deployment of grid software to date.

Gary Adams, head of smart transformation at NWG, said: “The EnergyIP MDM implementation is a critical cornerstone in our smart metering journey, allowing us to effectively manage the large volumes of metering data we will receive and to drive efficient operational activity for both our customers and our wider business providing access to granular smart data at the click of a button.”

The system will ultimately help NWG to meet UK water regulator Ofwat’s targets for reducing leakages and per capita consumption.

EnergyIP MDM X for Water is part of Siemens Xcelerator, the company’s digital business platform.

The retrofit, which encompasses electricity, gas and water meters, is aimed to enable remote meter reading in the diverse environments around the capital Jakarta.

There the meters are in locations including inside private apartments, residential areas, industrial water utilities and shopping malls, which has resulted in meter reading being both challenging and expensive.

Chen Deyu, CEO at Sindcon, says ST Microelectronics’ STM32WLE5 LoRaWAN wireless microcontroller was selected “for its high integration benefits to our customers and because it enhances performance, size, security and power consumption.”

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The STM32WLE5 wireless MCU is a sub-GHz wireless microcontroller featuring an Arm Cortex-M4 core operating at 48MHz.

The MCU contains 256kb of Flash memory, 64kb of SRAM, LoRa modulation, and AES 256-bit encryption.

With the STM32WLE5, Sindcon’s retrofitted meters contain an advanced battery management system that can support accurate remote readings for up to 10 years.

The project is Sindcon’s first deployment in Indonesia using the STM32WLE5CC wireless MCU and is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

Sindcon is involved in several LoRaWAN smart meter installations in Indonesia.

Over the past five years, the company has installed more than 1,000 LoRaWAN smart gas meters for restaurants and other commercial customers in more than 20 shopping malls in the country.

A recently reported new customer is Indonesia KFC, which has adopted Sindcon’s gas meter technology.

In another project, Sindcon has partnered with IoT solution provider IoT Kreasi Indonesia on prepaid gas metering in Jakarta for the country’s state-owned gas transmission and distribution company PGN Group – believed to be a first in Southeast Asia.

In the first phase, some 2,000 LoRaWAN prepaid gas meters have been deployed in collaboration with Chint, whose G1.6 model gas meter has been re-engineered to offer prepayment and LoRaWAN wireless data transmission.

Sindcon also has partnered with IoT Kreasi Indonesia on Semtech LoRa and LoRaWAN based smart electricity and water meter deployments in multi-tenant residential buildings.

The conventional standard ISO4064/OIML R49 mainly refers to the metering and mechanical features of the water meter, such as R100 or R160, the length of the meter is 165mm or 190mm. There is currently no unified standard for smart water meters except IEC62055-41,51 which is the standard for STS prepayment functions.

The DLMS in the AMI function is more popular in smart electricity meters, so how to select a smart prepaid water meter has become a challenge for water utilities. This article tries to propose the key aspects of the reliability of smart water meters.

Generally speaking, according to the special working environment of tropical rainforest or dry desert climate in African countries, the requirements for smart water meter will be more strict than in Asia or South America. In summary, the critical aspects of the smart water meters that need to be considered are as follows:

1. Communication Method for Remote Data Reading

In the previous article, “Why Prepaid Water Meters Must Be Smart”, we have explained why prepaid water meters must support remote reading or two-way communication. So how to choose the suitable communication method from GPRS, NBIoT, 3G, 4G, LoRa, LoRaWAN, Sigfox or Bluetooth? First, whether local telecommunication companies provide NBIoT network which specifically designed for smart meters or other IoT devices as a LPWAN network.

Compared to GPRS, NBIoT module has the characteristics of low battery consumption, and the data flow cost of NBIoT is also much lower than GPRS, 3G or 4G network, the common point is that all of these communications require a SIM card, either an e-SIM for PCBA or a physical SIM card, which means the water utility needs to pay for data flow on a monthly basis.

2. Battery Life from 6 Years to 10 Years

Battery lifespan not only depends on the battery capacity indicated by mAh, such as the ER26500 is typically 8500mAh, but also closely related to the power consumption of smart water meters in different situations, such as communication technology. And how firmware is designed to manage power consumption, like sleeping mode. And 3rd, the power consumption is also related to the working environment, IP level of the meters and the components. Sometimes manufacturers declare battery life of more than 8 years or even higher, but without any documentation from the battery provider, theoretical calculations such as Saft or Tadiran may require further evaluation.

3. IP Level for Smart Meters and Independent Components Such as PCB or Battery

The IP level of the smart water meter is preferable IP68, since the smart meter can sometimes be immersed in water. But when the service life of the meter increases to above 3 years or more, only the meter body is IP68 may still be a challenge, because the material of the meter may start to deform due to sunlight and rain, so it is better to require that the battery cabinet, valve, and PCB must IP68, and have a 3rd party certificate.

4. The material of the meter body, such as brass, or different types of plastic.

In Africa, the theft of brass material is inevitable, so a plastic body may be more suitable for water companies. Additionally, the Meter Casing material must be UV-resistant, resistant to high temperature up to 65°C and fire-resistant. Water permeability characteristics are also an optional indicator for choosing materials because of the high humidity in some areas.

5. Leakage Detection Inside or Outside the Door

The leakage detection function of the smart water meter can be realized through night flow monitoring. As the main IoT device in the water pipe network, the smart water meter is also an important part of the DMA, District Management Area, which is another major topic of water leakage management.

6. Bypass Detection and Anti-tamper Functions

Cases of bypassing smart meters usually occur because of the purpose of evading payment. Smart water meters must have the ability to close valves automatically or record events when they occur, and technical solutions may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, and water companies can compare and choose an effective way. Other anti-tamper functions such as anti-magnetic and meter cover opening events etc. can be considered as optional functions.

7. Prepaid or Postpaid Working Mode

Prepaid water meters are only one working mode of smart water meters, and there is one paradox that in most cases, water utilities cannot cut off the water supply to industry users who do not pay for their bills, such as government institutes, hospitals etc.. Therefore, it is necessary to design prepaid functions in the platform, and smart meters support remote valve control.

8. Flexible Water Purchase and Payment Solutions

The concept of digitization is well known today, and it can help water companies adjust their operations processes. With the integration of smart water meters and Mobile payments, organizations no longer need meter reading workers, who can join smart water meter maintenance teams, or build telecommunications networks. Mobile payment platforms now are also popularly used in mechanical water meter billing. And for STS prepaid water meters, they have inherent advantage since they adopt digital encryption technology for 20-bit token transmission.

9. SaaS Software Based on Cloud or Web System Based on Physical Server

Many software companies now recommend cloud-based software solutions, since it is more flexible and expandable when the number of system users continues to increase. But some countries still have limitations on data security, so if leading cloud service providers such as Amazon and Google have not yet established branches in specific countries, a physical server-based web system is also a good choice for water companies. Both of them are not required to be installed on a PC, only user ID and password authorization to log in to the system, check reports or start daily operations like Registration or Vending.

10. Training and Local Maintenance Support

Training may need to take place in different stages, such as a Concept Presentation during ROI, a Request for Interest from the project team or a pilot project stage, and eventually extend to the whole operations team. Local maintenance is a very important factor in ensuring the success of a project, which relates to technical support, training and supply of CKD or components. Many water companies now prefer local assembly with local maintenance as one of the main modules in the workshop.

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Anyhow, there are some other factors that may affect the sustainability of prepaid water meter services, but if water companies can understand the most important of these causes, it will definitely help avoid the failure of smart water meters and digital billing projects, which is a big investment and expect to bring the significant improvements in operations.

If you have any comments, please contact the author: Mr. Raymond Zheng on WhatsApp, +86 131 85002086, laisontech@gmail.com

The solution, believed to be the first to use Amazon Sidewalk for data communication, is comprised of the Subeca ‘Pin’ as a Bluetooth meter register to replace the standard register on the water meter.

Once commissioned, the utility is then able to utilise the Amazon Sidewalk communications network, with the free communications benefit that it offers.

“This is a very inexpensive way for a utility to start building out an AMI platform,” says Patrick Keaney, CEO of Subeca.

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Subeca’s Pin is claimed to work with the majority of existing water meters and that it can be retrofitted in less than a minute.

To get the product out on the market the company has launched an ‘Explorer kit’ comprised of three Pins and the use of its Engage data platform for one year, available to 100 utilities.

Amazon Sidewalk is a long-range, low-bandwidth, low-power community wireless network for IoT that is enabled on Amazon Echo and certain other devices.

It is based on Bluetooth low energy and 900MHz LoRa and is believed to potentially provide coverage to over 90% of the population in the US – its only country of availability so far.

Subeca’s Pin includes the Bluetooth meter register as the core data collection component and the Bluetooth low energy and LoRa modules.

The company’s product offering also includes the ‘Act’, a Bluetooth wireless ball valve that will open, restrict or close upon command from a Bluetooth-capable mobile device or through the company’s Link data collection device.

Subeca has previously developed a LoRaWAN solution with a Pin featuring AWS IoT Core for low-cost communication.

Keaney, who has been CEO of Subeca since May, is the former worldwide head of development at AWS Water, with a focus on the development of IoT and cloud services in the water sector.

Put simply, smart metering is key to managing energy, water and gas consumption effectively. And critically, Lightweight Machine-to-Machine (LwM2M) technology plays a pivotal role in making smart metering more efficient and responsive. Let’s explore how.

Understanding smart metering

Smart metering solutions provide valuable, real-time insights into resource consumption. In contrast, traditional metering systems suffer from a host of limitations. These include infrequent data collection, reliance on manual readings and limited visibility into real-time consumption. These systems also often fail to detect anomalies or leaks promptly, leading to wastage and higher user costs.

But how does LwM2M fit in here? LwM2M both facilitates and improves smart metering. It has the capability to enhance its efficiency and accuracy (if the LwM2M data model is in use) while boosting its real-time monitoring capabilities.

Through IoT device management, LwM2M ensures seamless smart metering connectivity, transforming how we monitor resource use.

LwM2M: Unveiling the technology

At the heart of today’s smart metering revolution is the Lightweight Machine-to-Machine (LwM2M) technology, designed for efficiency, scale and interoperability. Key features and advantages include:

• Lightweight: Consumes less bandwidth and power, making it cost-effective and ideal for large-scale IoT deployments. With LwM2M, IoT-based smart metering systems can offer massive benefits without bloated hardware and data storage.
• Efficient: Enhanced transmission rates enable swift and accurate data flow.
• Remote management: IoT device management is seamless, offering real-time monitoring and control.

In smart metering, LwM2M has a capability to foster robust machine-to-machine communication. It may simplify data transmission, making it faster and more reliable, and amplifies remote management capabilities, transforming how we monitor and control infrastructure elements such as routers, gateways and last but not least smart meters.

LwM2M in energy consumption monitoring

LwM2M supercharges smart metering systems, boosting their capabilities in energy management:

• Real-time data: LwM2M enables instantaneous data collection and analysis, offering immediate feedback to consumers. The result? Smarter, more efficient energy use.
• Demand response programmes: LwM2M can integrate with these programmes, allowing utility providers to adjust power production based on real-time demand, reducing waste and improving service reliability.
• Predictive maintenance: Leveraging LwM2M, IoT-based smart metering systems can predict maintenance needs, preventing malfunctions before they occur.

In essence, LwM2M transforms cellular IoT smart meters into proactive, precise instruments for energy monitoring and management, offering yet more benefits of smart metering.

LwM2M in water metering

LwM2M is a game changer in the field of smart water metering, driving accuracy and sustainability:

• Accurate measurement: By enabling precise data collection, LwM2M ensures consumers are only charged for actual water usage.
• Leak detection: The technology allows for early detection of leaks, preventing wastage and reducing utility bills.
• Remote monitoring: With LwM2M, consumers have real-time insight into their water consumption, promoting conscious usage and sustainability.

Essentially, LwM2M empowers consumers with the data they need to make informed decisions, optimizing water use.

LwM2M in gas metering

LwM2M transforms the landscape of gas metering, heightening safety and efficiency:

• Real-time monitoring: LwM2M enables live tracking and analysis of gas consumption, ensuring optimal usage and cost-efficiency.
• Anomaly detection: The technology excels in spotting irregular gas usage, helping prevent wastage.
• Leak prevention and safety: LwM2M enhances safety by promptly identifying potential gas leaks, helping to prevent accidents and property damage.

By integrating LwM2M into gas metering systems, users gain a more detailed, real-time understanding of their consumption habits. It’s a leap forward in gas safety and efficiency.

Final thoughts on LwM2M

LwM2M isn’t just a step forward in smart metering; it’s a leap. Revolutionizing energy, water, and gas management delivers real-time insights, enhanced safety and waste reduction. It’s not just about better resource management; it’s about smarter, more sustainable living. The future of smart metering is here, powered by LwM2M.

About AVSystem:

At AVSystem, we pride ourselves on being a trusted and reliable partner for IoT deployments. We understand that proper device management is crucial to the success of any IoT project, which is why we have built our reputation on providing best-in-class solutions to ensure that our clients achieve scalability, interoperability and security.

Website: https://www.avsystem.com/coiote-iot-device-management-platform/ 

Anjay IoT SDK: https://www.avsystem.com/anjay/

Coiote IoT Device Management Platform: https://www.avsystem.com/coiote-iot-device-management-platform/