How water companies plan to ramp up smart meters

Widespread use of smart meters looks set to arrive in the water sector from 2025 as companies prioritise round-the-clock meter readings and the data they provide. Utility Week examines the water firms’ WRMPs to see how the industry plans to deliver on its smart meter ambition.

Ofwat, following guidance from government, has told water companies that smart metering should be core to their plans in the coming decades.

Helping everyone use less water is central to water resource management plans (WRMPs) with an emphasis on how data from smart metering can aid.

While each company has individual ambitions, the sector shares a common goal of offsetting the future water deficit of 4,000 megalitres/day, which has been forecast by 2050. The need to protect waterways by reducing abstraction as well as population growth and climate change contribute to the need to conserve supplies. And that is where smart meters are tipped to make a big difference.

Affinity plans to install 400,000 smart meters for household customers and businesses in the five years to 2030. Beyond then, ambition will ramp up to another 1.1 million smart meters to home and business consumers. Following consultation on its plans, the company increased demand management ambition to reflect the nationally set 2050 goal of 110 litres per capita consumption (PCC). The company currently has more than 70% metering penetration with older style meters. For business consumers, Affinity will work with retailers on audits and enabling customers to carry out self-audits.

Anglian’s plans for full smart meter coverage by 2030. Continuing the work begun in the previous WRMP, Anglian estimates demand savings of 18.1 megalitres per day by 2030, as a result of its blanket smart meter rollout. Incentivisation will be the heart of its efforts to change consumer behaviour, with rewards offered to customers or communities for reaching water saving milestones. These could range from a free coffee to water saving technology at individual level or contributions to community facilities.

By 2035, Northumbrian plans for all metered properties to have a smart meter and it will not install anymore automated meters. However the area is not classified as water stressed so uptake of metering remains optional.

Portsmouth has proposed to deliver compulsory smart metering over 10 years starting in 2025 to reach 94.7% coverage, which is as close to complete coverage the company said would be logistically achievable given the pipe configurations of some properties. It said water use should fall 12% after metering and will explore tariff options to further improve consumption savings. Its plan includes working with retailers to support non-household users and achieve universal smart metering.

SES Water revised its plan following customer and stakeholder engagement that supported a faster rollout for smart metering to both domestic and business customers. The seven-year rollout will be key to the company’s next step in leakage reduction as well as managing demand. SES said it will develop tariffs for PR24, which it anticipates will further lower demand as these are taken up by customers.

This is the first WRMP that Severn Trent’s region will be classified as water stressed, therefore the company is moving towards compulsory metering, which it said customers support. It anticipates a 15% fall in consumption at every property where a meter is installed as well as identifying leaks more rapidly. Through Ofwat’s Green Recovery funding awarded last year, Severn Trent is running a trial across Coventry and Warwickshire with 157,000 meters through a combination of new installations and replacements. By 2035 the company expects to install 1.1 million new meters and proactively upgrade 1.4 existing non-smart meters. It is accelerating its smart metering plans with work already underway to install 250,000 smart meters by 2026.

South West’s plan is to rollout smart metering to 90% of its customer-base as well as installing smart water butts where appropriate as part of its smart network. By 2035 it will invest £210 million to reduce usage as it works to cut overall abstractions by 140 megalitres each day.

South East, which was the only company this year to introduce a new temporary usage ban in July, will run trials from 2025 and a full smart metering rollout planned from 2027 with the aim of 90% penetration of household consumers. Meanwhile it will work with non-household customers and retailers to lower usage, again with smart meters, and also water efficiency audits. It wants to drive usage down to 118 litres daily, and overall business consumption by 9% by 2040.

South Staffs reported a mood shift within its customer research for the 2024 plan compared to work undertaken for the 2019 WRMP. Customers had not supported universal smart metering five years ago, however this time the company received majority support for the approach. The company and Cambridge Water, which it also operates, aim to rollout metering over the next 10 years alongside innovative tariffs. The company said there would be a considerable impact on the level of savings it can achieve if the water efficiency label is not introduced in 2025. The label has been long-heralded as a best value and effective way to help people consider water use in the home and when choosing appliances. The Department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) ran a consultation on introducing a label, but the results of that are yet to be published.

Thames said halving leakage and rolling out demand management strategies – including one million addition smart meters by 2030 – would meet around 80% of its forecast deficit in the future. After consultation, Thames raised its ambition on demand management and forecast it could achieve 123 litres PCC. It forecast that smart meter upgrades will cut around 2.9 megalitres daily by 2035, meanwhile the firm will continue working with non-household customers to lower usage by 23.4 megalitres per day by the end of AMP8 (2030) and a further 15 megalitres/day by 2035.

Along with Northumbrian, United Utilities is not in a water stressed area so cannot compel its billpayers to get a meter. Therefore only around 47% of homes and 91% of businesses in UU’s catchment are currently metered. It intends to upgrade the non-household meters to smart technology by 2030 and engage with retailers to help customers manage usage.

Yorkshire’s total demand reduction ambition is to cut supply by approximately 160 megalitres daily between 2025 and 2050. The largest proportion (95Ml/d) reduction will be by continuing to drive down leakage levels. Smart metering and water efficiency efforts are forecast to contribute 31 megalitres daily. In its plan, Yorkshire also highlighted the need for government to implement a water efficiency label if the company is to meet the PCC goal of 110 litres.