Three quarters of businesses have inadequate water meters

Three quarters of business water customers are not adequately metered, with 10% having no meter.

Only 25% of businesses have internal meters, which have the highest level of reporting accuracy, while 65% of business meters are external.

Since the business retail market opened in 2017, lack of quality data has been cited as a stumbling block to better service and the market performing in line with expectations. High numbers of long unread meters, unlocatable or faulty meters meant that data was hard to accrue.

The statistics from CMOS, the central market operating system run by MOSL and used by all retailers and wholesalers, showed that in June 2023 of the 1.3 million water supply points in the market, the majority could not record with high accuracy.

For the next price review from 2025, wholesalers will have a performance commitment specifically covering business water demand.

Consumption measured by an external meter will be harder to allocate to the correct performance commitment. Meter reads from such locations will show the total water consumed on the site, which may include leakage or wastage within the building.

Regulator Ofwat said companies will be expected to demonstrate what steps have been taken to deliver water efficiency with retailers or other third parties.

At PR19, this was not incentivised and demand management for business customers was largely left to retailers with tight margins to implement.

Chair of the sector’s Strategic Panel, Trisha McAulay recently told Utility Week that funding needs to flow between wholesalers who are incentivised and retailers who are positioned to implement necessary changes for customers.

This will also be the first price control encouraging companies to prioritise smart metering over older dumb meters. Ofwat said all water companies will be expected to consider smart solutions as the standard installation type.

Stretching back 15 years, government has considered merits of smart metering for water to be done concurrently with energy meter rollout programmes.

This did not take off at the time but as water efficiency concerns and the impacts of climate change become ever more visible, the need to conserve supplies now and for future generations has  once again risen in priorities.

Longer term targets to lower household consumption have been set at 110 litres per person daily by 2050, from the current 145 litres.