Expert Opinion Valuation Method to Quantify Digital Water Metering Benefits

Abstract

Business cases promoting the introduction of digital water metering (DWM) have, to date, focused on a limited number of benefits, especially water savings, metering costs, occupational health and safety (OHS), and deferral of capital works. An earlier study by the authors catalogued 75 possible benefits and developed a taxonomy based on a literature review, interviews and water industry reports. The objective of the present study was to elicit the opinions of Australian water industry experts on the benefits, then use the opinions to form probability distributions which, in future work, could be used to model the value of DWM benefits. The study findings have implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to accurately and stochastically model the benefits of DWM transformation programmes. Thematic analyses on the open ended responses scaled likelihood and estimated value of benefits into comparable units. We found 82% support for the benefits of DWM with only 6% disagreement and 12% non-commital; the savings value of cost of water benefits were predominately expected to range between 5% and 10% and much higher in some individual situations, while charges/operational costs benefits were predominately expected to range between 45% and 100%; and, moreover, we indicated how a risk-based range of project benefit could potentially be calculated. Opportunities for further investigations were identified.

Building Compelling Business Cases for Digital Water Metering

“…In addition, several interviews were conducted with industry staff. The literature review findings were reviewed by Australian water industry experts for their opinions on the likelihood of achieving similar results (Monks et al 2020a). Using hypothetical scenarios based on DWM benefits, a second survey was conducted in which water customers were asked to score their levels of satisfaction (Monks et al 2020b).…”

“…Regardless, battery life and meter life are product issues seen as barriers to DWM take-up by water utilities (Monks et al 2020a structures for DWM projects that might provide better outcomes for vendor and water utility. At least two projects have featured leasing arrangements: KC Water (Kansas City, Mo., 2007) and Aguas de Alicante (Alicante, Spain, 2011).…”