Smart metering services for the water industry

Smart water meters need to be an intrinsic part of every utility company’s AMP 7 and AMP 8 aims. It’s vital for customer experience and satisfaction scores that an automatic metering infrastructure actually delivers quantifiable water savings. At SUEZ, we have the track record and installed user base of smart water metering systems to prove it.

SUEZ has over 6.4m smart meter installations worldwide including:

• MALTA Water Services Corporation with c.282,000 meters deployed
• Ostrava – Czech Republic: 32,000 smart water meters
• Mont de Marsan - France: 28,000 smart water meters
• FRANCE SUEZ Operations with c.2,000,000 meters deployed

In the UK, the smart meter rollout is under way and SUEZ is ideally placed to service utility companies with an AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) and a full smart meter installation service.

Water metering is achieved using high quality meters that are designed to last for at least 15 years in-ground and generate reliable DAAS (data as a service) throughout that timespan.

SUEZ has partnered with leading smart water meter manufacturing, installation and infrastructure companies to deliver the one of the UK’s most reliable solutions.

Our chosen network partners have an excellent record of delivering regular and reliable infrastructure - something that is vitally important if leaks are to be controlled AMP 7 and AMP 8 targets are to be achieved.

Smart water meters are supplied by Diehl, Itron, Honeywell-Elster and Sensus; they’re chosen for their reliability and longevity. All WIZE meters are capable of lasting at least 15 years in situ, including battery life, delivering reliable data throughout.

Having optimal antenna sites at hubs is vital to ensure data packets are reliable and error-free and a quick deployment is possible. SUEZ has partnered with Cornerstone (who also work with Vodafone and Telefonica) who operate around 20,000 cellular sites, where hubs are sited.

SUEZ has partnered with Magdalene (part of the Morrison Group) a company with an extensive knowledge and experience of the utility sector and are UK leaders in creating and maintaining telecommunications infrastructure.

An AMI solution needs to be reliable and accurate; SUEZ is a founder member of the WIZE Alliance, a bi-directional data transmission system using 169 MHz VHF frequencies and specifically designed with the water industry requirements in mind.

Rather than using existing data transmission systems or cellular data, Wize is designed for a smart meter network architecture and can penetrate underground to where meters are sited, without excessive power demands. Smart water meters are battery-operated and need to offer a maintenance-free service life of at least 15 years. The Wize radio system works at very low power levels, helping to preserve battery life and retain data integrity.

Wize is a low-power wide-area network technology designed for smart meter infrastructures with the added advantage of being able to update meter firmware wirelessly. The Wize network is also more fault-tolerant than competing systems.

WIZE technology is inside all the leading manufacturers’ smart water meters SUEZ specify, like Diehl, Itron, Honeywell-Elster and Sensus. They’re all built to Wize specifications and all capable of a minimum of 15 years’ service.

A minimum of equipment is required to deploy our meters into an automated metering infrastructure; most parameters are pre-configured to ensure fast installs with minimum disruption for users.

The 165 MHz band used by Wize was formerly used for pagers and is now solely allocated to smart metering. The low-power, slow transmission nature of the Wize network ensures the frequency band will never get too congested.

Installing a smart water meter has many benefits for consumers as well as utility companies.

One advantage is the possibility of instantly pinpointing leaks: increased overnight usage will flag up and allow further investigations to be made as soon as the next day, thereby stemming leaks as soon as they start.

Smart metering provides much more than invoicing, leakage and tampering information. Data analytics supports water utilities and local authorities’ water saving policies.

Consumers will also benefit by being shown how and where they are using the most water and the technology will also identify leaks quicker. AMI with advanced data analytics and AI algorithm allows to build an accurate view of domestic users habits. Analysis can show different types of water consumption from the atypical, such as garden watering, to the regular – showers. Showers and baths represent the dominant usage of drinking water for domestic users (together with a significant energy consumption).

Shower head efficiency and customer habits can have huge impact on water consumption.

Wize meters can identify leaks as low as 1L/h irrespectively of the data granularity of choice. Furthermore, Wize meters profile the flow bands to provide you with the bigger picture.

Use profiles are monitored at night and all potential issues are reported to network owners by 6am the following morning allowing quick deployment of crews and resources, ensuring major leaks are stemmed rapidly.

Other types of alerts can also be set up: we monitor and can alert you to calibration alerts, wear and tear, backflow, freezing, blockage, and breakage to help you manage your network.

We have partnered with leading companies to create a class-leading AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) in the UK. And with over 5.6m smart meter installations already carried out, we have the track record to prove it.

From water meter manufacturers to highly-experienced installers, plus infrastructure and network specialists, we have created a highly reliable and resilient system for smart metering services.

Diehl is the main partner of SUEZ for the supply of smart meters but we also have partnerships with Itron, Honeywell-Elster and Sensus to ensure continuity of supply.

All our manufacturing partners are Wize-accredited ensuring compatibility throughout the network to ensure reliability and resilience.

As a founding partner in the Wize network, SUEZ is highly experienced at utilising this advanced bi-directional technology which will deliver data well within your KPIs – we can normally achieve 98% of properties covered and a high percentage of data packets delivered.

Other networks use generic technologies similar to those used on smart refrigerators, leading to interference and noise.

Wize is a low-power network specifically designed to get error-free data from meters to antennae on local hubs. These are operated by our partner Cornerstone who also operate masts on behalf of Vodafone and Telefonica.

The hubs gather the data and send it on to our data centres for processing.

SUEZ has partnered with Magdalene (a subsidiary of the Morrison Group) who direct and organise all installations of domestic installations as well as repeaters and antennae.

The Morrison Group have extensive knowledge and experience of the UK utilities market.

The automatic metering structure of the ON’Connect platform used by SUEZ enables remote reading of an AMI network and seamless integration with customer management and billing systems.

In conjunction with AQUADVANCED water networks software which optimises network efficiency and integrates consumption data, we have the tools and the know-how to offer a complete, proved AMI system.

With our partners, we have been able to deliver reliable smart metering networks with high network coverage and supply chain resilience.

Since the 1990s, SUEZ has been supporting the environmental and digital transition of large and small Czech cities. Quickly identified as beneficial, smart metering has been gradually introduced to many cities.

 

In the third largest city in the Czech Republic, Ostrava, the water utility wanted to reduce the amount of non-revenue water, modernise their water management systems and offer new digital services to their customers. SUEZ installed the meters, ON’connect™ software and utilised the Wize, the 169MHz, a long-range radio transmission bandwidth. The solution enables hourly/daily water consumption data to be collected and monitored which facilitated abnormal consumption and leaks to be identified at any time.

 

A robust and reliable smart metering installation; OVAK, the utility, found the water service improved, as well as customer management. The amount of water lost due to leaks, fraud or meter malfunction reduced, resulting in more accurate billing. New customer services became available through a web portal that provides customers to their daily water consumption as well as leakage or overconsumption alerts, which are also received by text message. Following the 2,000 meter trial in 2017, SUEZ rolled out 10,000 meters in 2019 (and transmitters and concentrators). This has progressed to 28,000 smart meters in 2023.  

 

SUEZ is conducting trials at several UK water utilities, including Anglian Water, Severn Trent Water, Scottish Water and Northern Ireland Water.