WATER METERING Smart Water Networks and the Evolution of the Water Industry By Eric Woods Briefly put: As water scarcity increases and the demand on water across all sectors grows, new ways of managing water need to be considered and implemented in order to ensure adequate supply and sustainability. The water industry is at a unique phase in a history that can be traced back to the founding of the very first cities. The modern water industry was created by the requirements of cities in the 19 th and early 20 th centuries for adequate water supplies and wastewater management. In the 21 st century, the industry faces the challenge of maintaining or replacing that aging infrastructure, developing new systems to meet the immense growth in urbanization in Asia and Africa, and meeting the growing demand from consumers and businesses. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), water demand is expected to rise globally by 55% between 2000 and 2050. By 2050, up to 3.9 billion people, 40% of the world’s population, may be living in water-stressed areas. To help meet these challenges, the industry is drawing on a range of technologies that is driving a transformation to a data-centric industry with new levels of insight into the workings of the entire system – from production to distribution to consumption. This transformation is one that other industries have already faced, notably the energy industry with its transition to smart grid technologies. The water industry can learn from these other industries, but it has its own unique set of challenges, requirements, and innovations as it moves into the era of smart water networks. Drivers for Change The move to smart water networks is being driven by a combination of infrastructural, economic, and environmental factors and the availability of new technologies to address these issues: • Water scarcity: Rising demand for water from agriculture, industry, and growing urban populations is putting unprecedented pressure on water resources around the world. In some areas, these problems are exacerbated by an increased frequency of drought conditions and changes in climate patterns. Demand will only increase over the coming decades. One estimate is that global water requirements will grow from 4,500 billion cubic meters in 2010 to 6,900 billion cubic meters by 2030, which would represent demand levels 40% greater than current accessible and reliable supplies. • Aging infrastructure: An aging water infrastructure is the biggest challenge that many water utilities in North America and Europe face. Many of these networks were constructed in the first half of the 20 th century (and some in the 19 th century) and now need replacement. The United States alone is estimated to require trillions of dollars for its drinking water infrastructure over the coming decades. Smart network technologies can reduce the losses from aging infrastructure in help utilities better target their maintenance and replacement work to reduce, defer, or avoid the need for capital expenditure on new pipelines. • Leakage and conservation: Water utilities can lose up to 40% of the water in their networks through leaks in the system. Reducing leakage conserves water resources and also the financial and energy investment made in those resources. Leak detection is one of the most active areas of smart networking. Smart metering and network monitoring, combined with analytics software, are helping to reduce the impact of leaks and identify areas in need of repair before a burst occurs. “Water demand is expected to rise globally by 55% between 2000 and 2050” 28 • Non-revenue water (NRW): NRW is water that a utility has treated and distributed but that fails to be billed. In addition to water lost through network leakage, NRW can result from a lack of metering, faulty meters, or deliberate theft. In addition to providing accurate information on consumption and billing, smart water technologies can also help identify meter tampering and detect faulty or failed meters. Given the tough financial constraints on water utilities, it becomes increasingly important that customers are billed correctly. Water meters are the most important step toward improved revenue collection, but utilities are also looking to data analytics to increase the efficiency of their billing processes. A World Bank study in 2006 valued the cost of global NRW at $14 billion per year. • Utility operations savings: The need to reduce the cost of manual meter reading has been the main driver for the deployment of AMR systems. Utilities are now looking to smart meter data and other intelligent network monitoring tools to reduce the costs associated with maintenance and repairs through the better targeting of resources. Information on actual leakages allows maintenance work to be scheduled more efficiently, and work crews can be dispatched with up-to-date and accurate information on the task. • The water-energy nexus: The water industry is one of the largest users of electricity on a global basis. Great amounts of energy, usually electric, are needed to move water around a particular system as pumps shift treated water through mains to customer premises. In many cities, the water company represents the single largest consumer of electricity; therefore, the operational efficiencies achieved by smart water networks can also help reduce energy consumption. In addition to increasing the energy efficiency of operations, a smart network can better align electricity use with optimal pricing periods and enable closer integration with demand response programs. METERING INTERNATIONAL ISSUE - 1 | 2014