Many of our New Zealand, Australian and UK Energy customers are now actively involved in smart metering initiatives.  So, understandably, conversations with our water customers also frequently turn to developments in water metering.

Unsurprisingly, many water utilities are excited about the potential of smarter metering technology. But what is perhaps surprising is that few see its primary role in active residential consumption management just yet, even in water starved Australia.

Why not? 

Many see the move from rates to meter based billing as having already achieved a step change in consumer behaviour. Metering water has forced households to evaluate the way they use water and to make savings where possible.

 Sure, further behaviour refinement is possible. The Australian Government National Water Commission’s latest publication “ Review of Pricing Reform in the Australian water sector” suggests that even stronger reforms of water pricing models are necessary – such as more accurate cost reflective pricing and some flexibility in tariffs to handle periods of water scarcity – but this doesn’t actually necessitate a wide scale smart meter roll out.   In fact, utilities already running an agile, configurable billing system should already be well set up to move down the pricing path recommended by the Commission.

Instead, what is driving current investment in smart water metering technology is its ability to tackle non-water revenue and to optimise infrastructure investment.

Non-revenue water (NRW) losses are crippling many utilities. In many Asian cities, according to the Asian Development Bank, NRW averages 30% of total output, with some utilities experiencing NRW of up to 65%!  In Ireland, the figure is believed to be closer to 40% while in Italy and UK for example, figures are around 30% and 19% respectively.

Being able to more accurately, and quickly, pin-point consumption at a meter, street and district level will lead to improved theft prevention and leakage detection. In the same way, being able to accurately analyse consumption at various nodes provides a clear understanding of water use across the network, investments in both supply and distribution can be more accurately balanced with current and potential future demand. 

Certainly, smart water meters should provide those benefits and deployments are kicking off in earnest.  Just last week, the City of Ottowa announced the roll out of 210,000 smart meters modules,  retrofitted to  existing water meters , and managed over a fixed network two-way communications infrastructure, at a cost of $25 million (CAD). 

But there are also some clever yet relatively inexpensive alternatives emerging.

We’ve written about them before but water metering technology provider Outpost Central continues to grow, securing some of the largest Australian Water utilities as customers for its battery operated pulse data logger. It captures granular data consumption at the meter level which is transmitted via the existing mobile communication networks for further analysis. Utilities can use this data to make the right investment decisions at a fraction of the cost of a full advanced meter roll out. And although it doesn’t offer a real time snap shot of consumption like a true smart energy meter it doesn’t really need to. With daily or weekly uploads to a central site with a web front end, commercial and industrial water users are now tracking their water usage, highlighting bad practises or potential leaks long before the quarterly bill arrives.

Hook this up with a high performance back office data management tool and a customer centric billing system and you also have the foundation for a smart residential meter infrastructure. But critically minus the cost, customer push back and media circus that have accompanied many roll outs of advanced metering technologies.

In fact, with a range of smarter water metering technology options and solid return on investment figures that don’t require immediate, large scale, active consumer participation, beleaguered energy executives must now be looking at their water counterparts with some degree of envy.