Author: Matthew Margetts, Sales and Marketing Director, Smarter Technologies.
Smart water meters are taking off in the water sector.
In terms of total revenue, the smart share of AMI and AMR is almost Doubled— From 28.2% in 2012 to 46.7% in 2020. This adoption is mainly due to water scarcity and the importance of leak detection and water retention, customer billing and service requirements, pipeline failure detection, and asset management.
As the economy recovers from the pandemic, stakeholders are investing in digitalization, and Global Smart Water Meter Market It is expected that a significant growth of 7.7% will be recorded between 2020 and 2026. Global Industry Analyst Report It is predicted that investment in smart water meters will jump from US$2.9 billion in 2020 to US$4.6 billion in 2026. The market will be dominated by the United States, Canada, China, Japan and Germany.
did you know?
Water leakage has caused heavy losses to the global industry $39 billion per year In the loss of income.
The driving factors for smart meter investment include:
- Solve the problem of water shortage
- Leak detection
- Eliminate non-revenue water
- Renew aging infrastructure
- Responding to rapid urbanization
- Enact supporting legislation
- conserve water
- Improve operational savings
- Ensure accurate water bills
- Develop a smart city
AMR for water suppliers
Utility Week recently interviewed Mark Cooper, director of smart metering at Thames Water, the largest water and wastewater service company in the UK. Thames Water serves most areas of Greater London and other areas. In the past six years, the company’s smart water meter penetration rate has increased from around 34% to 49%, and recently reached the milestone of 500,000 devices. The primary goal of smart metering is to reduce water withdrawal from the environment and ensure water supply for future generations.
Benefits of AMR
Significant difference between traditional electric meters and electric meters AMR water meter It is the means and frequency of data collection. The real-time nature of AMR data has a wide range of advantages because it enables customers and enterprises to work at any time to transform costs and consumption.
Cost-effectiveness
The idea of overhauling the entire metering system can be overwhelming and prohibitive for many suppliers. An important advantage of AMRs is that they can be retrofitted to existing instruments. This makes the transition to smart solutions easier.
Save valuable resources
The information from AMR can be invaluable in encouraging households and businesses to reduce water use and diversify demand during peak hours. Providing customers with additional views on their usage encourages them to monitor their usage more closely. For example, when it comes to water, continuous flow may indicate that a leak needs to be dealt with. Even paying closer attention to daily consumption will help consumers better understand their usage patterns and make changes to reduce consumption accordingly. This is especially important for places facing water shortage pressure.
For water companies, linking smart meter data with acoustic recorder data and other devices can help better locate cross-network leaks. This helps customers and helps water companies reduce the amount of water they extract from the environment. The information collected from AMR can be compiled and analyzed to help companies understand where the water is going, how much is consumed, and how much is wasted.
Save human resources
Manual meter reading is very time consuming and can be dangerous when the meter is located in an inaccessible location. Automating the process saves a lot of time and helps ensure employee safety.
Customer participation
Smart metering enables better customer engagement and relationships. By providing customers with more information about their consumption, you can give them control over their energy use. They can also ensure the accuracy of their water readings and billing.
With these benefits in mind, it is not surprising that utility companies around the world have adopted AMR technology as an easy-to-implement solution to reduce operating expenses and water consumption. Working with experienced AMR vendors such as Smarter Technologies Group can make the transition more seamless and provide a smarter experience for all stakeholders.
