Smart Water Metering for Better Water Resource Management

Smart water metering can support water conservation efforts. Climate change will affect water resources by impacting the quantity, variability, timing, and intensity of rainfall, increasing the frequency of droughts or flooding.

Intelligent water metering will help countries and communities better manage their water resources and thus make them more resilient to any impacts of climate change.

Smart meters allow users to track their water usage and spending daily and help detect spillage in the network, which could help reduce water wastage.

OpenPr reports that smart water meters have helped developed countries reduce water wastage by nearly 20 percent. In developing countries, water losses can reach up to 50 percent.

The article says that European countries are the most active users and promoters of smart water metering due to strong government support. The use of the technology has also helped water utilities lower their operational costs.

The article notes that globally there is an uptake of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) by water utilities to curb their losses from spillage, thefts, and wrong metering daily while they supply water to consumers. Increased development of AMI has also led to increased adoption of smart water meters.

In New Zealand, smart meters in its two towns – Renwick and Havelock- have reduced water usage by 25% due to the smart meter’s leak detection characteristics. These towns have also previously struggled to meet demand during the summer months.

Smart Energy International reports the benefits that these two towns gained from installing smart water meters.  

• First, it provides for a quicker and more effective meter reading that assists water utilities.
  
• Second, these water meters provide residents with the fairest way to pay. According to Operations and Maintenance Engineer Stephen Rooney, “Water meters are the fairest way to pay, as you only pay for the water you actually use, giving people control over their bill. It also helps secure future supplies by encouraging people to conserve water, and it helps to identify leaks and get them fixed quickly. It also reduces the capital and operational costs related to water supply.”
  
• Third, “For the Council, the leak detection characteristic of the meters has been a key benefit, with the meters able to detect flows from a leaking tap to a full-on broken pipe.”

The article mentions that smart water metering is taking off in New Zealand, with a water leak averaging 20 percent. The growing demand for smart meters will likely exceed its supply.

With rapid urbanization and growing water scarcity from climate change, cities are challenged to deliver water efficiently and balance rising demand with limited supplies.

The uptake of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) can help efficiently manage limited water supplies, as exemplified in the two New Zealand towns.

Through smart water meters, water utility systems can reduce water losses through leakage detection. The demand side can promote water conservation in usual and unusual situations through changes in people’s practices, culture, and attitudes towards water resources.

Implementing an AMI will present an asset management challenge for utilities. AMI comprises a considerable volume of assets, including meters, modules, network communications infrastructure, remote disconnect/reconnect switches, and demand response/load management (DR) system components (in-home displays, programmable/controllable thermostats, load control devices).

Suddenly, utilities have additional assets to manage. Efficient management of these assets and utilities would ensure that these assets continue to be reliable, accurate, and efficient. The opposite will result in additional and unexpected expenses due to failed equipment.

The article on EE online discusses how to implement an asset management strategy on AMIs. According to the report, managing AMIs should be different from managing their legacy meters due to the following reasons – the remote nature of automated meters, sophisticated communications infrastructure, and enterprise-wide AMI systems.

Because of AMIs features, utilities should develop a “detailed, clearly-articulated plan” that provides a framework for both proactive and reactive asset management” that identifies the following: asset targeted for management, measures, and data, to assess the health of assets, actions necessary to maintain the assets, data inventory in one location, and organization responsible for managing the AMI assets.

Sustainable water resource management needs innovative solutions such as advanced metering infrastructure and smart water metering.

But to ensure that these new assets continue to provide the expected level of service to society will need an effective asset management plan.