Smart Water Metering Study

A new report called “Testing the Water: Smart Metering for Water Utilities” was recently published by Oracle. The report uses information compiled from a survey of more than 1,200 water consumers and 300 water utility managers in the United States and Canada to analyze people’s perception on smart metering and water use.

With the rush to adopt smart metering technology in the electric power sector, now is the time to piggy-back on existing efforts and apply the same ideas to water. Updating our water infrastructure is a well-known challenge but it will likely prove to be just as, if not more important than building up a smart electricity grid.

Smart water metering has a number of benefits for water managers and consumers alike, which has been briefly noted on this blog. With real-time information on water use and graphical displays, smart water meters can help consumers save water and reduce their utilities bills. They can help water utilities detect leaks, improve the efficiency of meter reading operations and improve meter accuracy. Smart meters can also cut down on energy costs by reducing overall water demand and by providing utilities with better water demand information, which could facilitate a shift to pumping during off peak hours.

Despite these benefits, many utilities have been slow to embrace smart water metering technology. Oracle’s report, Testing the Water: Smart Metering for Water Utilities (PDF) provides some good information on the potential benefits of smart water metering, as well as some reasons why utilities have been slow to adopt the technology.

As for the latter point, one word explains why water utilities haven’t immediately embraced smart meters: money. According to Oracle’s survey of water utilities, 46% cite the lack of cost recovery or measurable return on investment, 42% cite the up-front utility expenses required and 23% cite up-front customer expenses as their top roadblocks to implementing smart metering technologies. Yet 64% of U.S. water utilities and 72% of those in Canada believe it is critical for water utilities to adopt smart meter technologies.

As the technology matures and reaches an economy of scale, there is no doubt that smart metering will become more widespread and cost a whole lot less. Although the current recession is making large capital expenses that much more difficult to utilities to justify, there are a number of government programs and grants that can help make smart water metering more financially feasible. These opportunities are more numerous if the energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions reductions that result from water conservation and optimized system operations are attributed smart water meters.

According to Oracle’s report, the United States could save about 1.3 trillion gallons of water annually by adopting smart water metering technology. Assuming a national average of 1,500 kilowatt hours per million gallons of water delivered, this would equate to a savings of approximately 2 million megawatt hours per year, or enough electricity to power more than 180,000 homes! And that doesn’t include downstream energy savings (the potential savings that would result from reducing the flow to wastewater treatment plants), or the savings from more efficient system operations. Using emissions data from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalency Calculator, the water savings from smart metering technology would result in greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 1.4 million metric tons per year, equivalent to taking about 270,000 cars off the road.

A number of other benefits and useful information which doesn’t need repeating here can be found in Oracle’s report, Testing the Water: Smart Metering for Water Utilities (PDF). So check it out to learn more about perceptions of smart water metering technology and encourage your water utility (or electric utility) to consider creating a smart water grid for the 21st Century.