Smart metering: enabler for rapid and effective post meter leakage identification and water loss management

Abstract

Periods of urban water scarcity in cities places pressure on government agencies and water utilities to improve water distribution system efficiency through reducing the amount of water lost in the network as well as deploying a range of demand management techniques to conserve existing supply. Current estimations assume customer post meter leakage accounts for up to 10 % of total water consumption, particularly in the residential sector. Households identified as having post meter leakage using a citywide installation of smart metering technology were subjected to a mix of basic and tailored information regarding water loss. The primary aim of the study was to test the effectiveness of communication interventions and the attributed water savings resulting from the repair of household leaks. The residential leakage communication strategy resulted in a reduction in minimum night flows by a very significant 89 % over the duration of the study, while the control group receiving no communication increased consumption by 52 %. Moreover, questionnaire surveys were conducted to establish the significant factors, including leak type, demographics and household awareness, to name a few, that will influence the development of a fit-for-purpose post-meter leak rectification policy and program. The paper concludes with some key recommendations for future work to develop a predictive model for identifying, classifying and quantifying post meter loss as well as presents least cost planning implications of a leak rectification policy. The study confirmed that smart metering provides water utilities with a powerful tool to rapidly identify and action the significant volumes of post meter leakage occurring in our cities.

Household Smart Water Metering in Spain: Insights from the Experience of Remote Meter Reading in Alicante

“…Most of the advantages concern potential gains derived from more accurate and continuous information and lead, arguably, to greater efficiencies in use and management both for the company and for individual customers. Most of those benefits have been already identified in the literature review (see [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]). From the water utility perspective, new water meters with remote reading in Alicante may enable the detection in almost real time of any leak or breakdown of the system, as well as the exact location of distress in the network, as other studies have already documented [20,22].…”

“…In sum, smart meters are a central element in the digitalization of water networks [30]. However, as Darby [18] points out, the presumed relationship between smart metering and overall demand reduction is still sustained by little empirical evidence.…”

New directions for the protection and evolution of water supply systems - smart water supply

“…Attention is also drawn to the reduction and neutralization of the effects and quick reconstruction of the infrastructure in order to limit the consequences for human security [1].…”

Examples of electromagnetic field (50–100 kHz) emissions from smart meters in Finland

“…Principally, these meters can be divided into two categories when considering electromagnetic radiation emission (Britton et al, 2013;Tell et al, 2013). In Finland, these smart meters most often send information or communicate using either a radio frequency (RF) (800-3000 MHz) aerial signal to masts, for example GRPS (General Packet Radio Service), or a Power-Line Communication (PLC) signal through cables in the 50-100 kHz frequency range.…”