The word of water is on a fast march towards getting smarter. In its research published last year, IoT analyst firm, Berg Insight revealed that the installed base of water utility AMI endpoints in Europe and North America amounted to 46.1 million units in 20191. What’s more exciting is the fact it forecasts that this number will surpass 100 million units in 2025 and the total number of communicating utility water meters – including both AMI and AMR endpoints – will grow from 132.4 million units in 2019 to 204.6 million units in 2025. That’s a LOT of smart data. And that presents exciting opportunities for water companies!
Data data everywhere…
Water‐metering technology has been steadily improving in terms of precision, accuracy, and reliability. However, only recently have communications technologies improved and become cost‐effective enough to change how the data generated by these meters are collected. The introduction of Automatic meter Reading (AMR) and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) have resulted in drastically improved, more integrated methods of metering, communication, data storage, and analytics.
AMI meters measure the volume of water transferred between locations and reports this information through bi‐directional communication with the system’s communications infrastructure to the utility’s central server, where the data can be cleaned, stored and analysed.
Advizzo sees the predicted increase in smart data generated from AMIs as great news. AMIs provides more transparent information about where, when and how water is consumed, which, when used to its full potential will deliver incredible benefits – to water companies, customers and the planet!
What more data means for water companies
- More opportunity to provide customers with water saving insights and advice via digital channels – encouraging them to reduce consumption
- More opportunity to digitalize your relationship with customers – providing more dynamic saving insights on their my account or utility apps
- More opportunity to engage with customers with excessive water consumption patterns
- More opportunity to improve leak detection such as irrigation issues and leaky appliances that could become very costly for the customer
- With accurate data there’s also more opportunity to build appliance disaggregation level insights, to understand which appliances within a household are using the consuming the most water
- More opportunity to identify specific customer segments, such as vulnerable customers, in order to provide them some specific attention and support
- More appropriate responses to regulatory compliance such as Ofwat, PCC reduction or the new California 2022 water conservation rules – demonstrating proactive action to help reduce water consumption
Looking further ahead
Whilst the opportunities above can be capitalized on immediately using the smart meter data that’s already available, the forecasted increase in smart meter data over the next few years promises to deliver some longer term and important benefits. The opportunity to help customers reduce their water consumption will of course have a direct impact on energy consumption. The water energy nexus is achieved when the embedded energy (from storage, extraction, treatment and distribution) required to provide water is avoided. Although there are currently very few studies that quantify the embedded energy reductions attributed to water reductions, savings of up to 20% have been suggested.2
Additionally, smart meter data can help water companies achieve the government’s target for net zero emissions by 2050. Residential housing is responsible for 22% of all UK emissions. With more detailed data and information on individual household appliances and consumption, it will be easier to provide customers with valuable insights and information to help them move to more efficient water and energy appliances.
It’s time to untap these opportunities
Let Advizzo help you to untap the incredible opportunities that smart meter data can deliver. Talk to us today about our behavioral science based customer engagement solutions and let’s drain every last piece of intelligence and insight from your smart meter data.
Learn more about smart meter acceptance programs led by Advizzo.
Source
1 http://www.berginsight.com/ReportPDF/ProductSheet/bi-smartwater1-ps.pdf
2 https://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/Guidance%20on%20water%20and%20associated%20energy%20efficiency.pdf