Thames smart meter customers slash usage

Thames Water customers with smart meters have dramatically cut their consumption, with the majority already using less water than the industry-wide reduction target set for 30 years time.

Of its 925,000 customers with a smart meter, 80% are now using less than the 2050 per capita consumption (PCC) target of 110 litres of water. That is dramatically lower than the current annual consumption average of 148 litres in the Thames region.

Cathryn Ross, strategy and external affairs director at Thames, said smart meters were essential to lowering consumption further.

“That data is showing us that 80% of those properties [with smart meters] are already consuming less than 110 litres per person, per day,” Ross said at a Westminster Forum event. “It’s the 20% that are massive water users, which is where we need to target interventions with nudges for timely actionable behaviour personalised, in the moment and practical.”

Thames Water’s smart metering rollout is on-track to reach 70% of properties by the end of the current asset management period (AMP7) with engaged users already lowering consumption significantly, the company has said.

Ross advocated for a national smart meter rollout programme to ensure the metering targets set out in company business plans was achievable with support from the supply chain.

The company anticipates needing an additional 150 megalitres daily by 2050, so managing demand is key to its planning alongside leakage reduction.

“We lose about 24% of the water that we put into supply through leakage,” Ross said. “There’s absolutely no doubt that that is that is too much.”

One-third of this is through customer side bursts, which can be more quickly identified with accurate metering data; one-third from holes in the company’s pipes, and one-third as “unmeasured consumption”, which again metering would aid to identify.

“We absolutely need to raise our game on leaks in our pipes,” Ross said and explained investment into detection technology was helping find the 95% of those bursts that do not reach the surface. She explained the company had upped the number of technicians tackling leaks to more than 500, finding an repairing a burst every seven and a half minutes.

“We know it’s not enough, and with leakage you have to run to standstill because as we’re getting more extreme weather events that’s impacting the ground.”

Old pipes are more likely to pull apart, crack and leak in a drought or freeze-thaw event. “This will be going into our PR24 plan to do more trunk and distribution mains replacements. So that’s something that we’ll be factoring into to the next charging period.”

Jonathan Chappell senior policy adviser on water at the National Infrastructure Commission echoed the need to maintain progress on repairing leaks as, reputationally, if water companies aren’t seen to be acting public trust and willingness to act around demand management will be lower.

He noted the pressures of climate change will increase the costs of maintaining or improving services.

Leakage should be a priority within the upcoming price review for 2025-30, the NIC said as Chappell urged companies to plan for maintaining reduction progress beyond the “low hanging fruit”.

He praised recent progress on improving the rate of losses to leakage. Over the past five years there has been 11% drop in leakage, with 4% improvement in the past year.