Intelligent water metering

The future of Water Demand Management at consumer level

For some years the electricity metering industry has been developing smart meters for various applications. Water metering technology has always lagged behind, but recent breakthroughs now allow two-way communication with meters.

The Current Scenario

Across the world there is a growing awareness that water is a finite resource. While the population increases every year, the quantity of water available remains pretty much the same. All that can be done on the supply management side is to increase storage facilities and improve reticulation systems to handle the water more efficiently. However, there is also a realisation that a large amount of the water supplied, at great expense, to the end user, literally goes down the drain without being used for its intended purpose.

Water Demand Management has become the mantra for water authorities across the globe as governments come to terms with levels of Unaccounted for Water (UFW) that can easily exceed 60%. While it is possible to reduce the UFW levels by fixing up main reticulation systems, there is still a lot of wastage at consumer level. In most communities there seems to be little concern for water conservation. It's not unusual to visit residential areas at all levels on the economic ladder and see water leaking from taps.

www.efteq.com

Wastage at consumer level is exacerbated by the fact that revenue collection rates for conventional metering systems are often as low as 30%. Added to this is the problem of water theft, either through illegal connections to the main supply or by simply by-passing an installed meter.

There are two popular approaches for trying to manage consumption at the consumer level. The first is to limit the amount of water that the consumer can access on a daily basis. This is commonly used in low income areas where there is a need to provide a life-sustaining quantity of water, but with little chance of getting any payment from the consumer. In some countries, there is an increasing demand from communities for an uninterrupted supply to be given to all consumers and authorities are investigating ways of providing a constant, but restricted flow.

The second approach is to manage the supply to the consumer in such a way that the authority can ensure that the consumers pay for the water they use. This can be done on either a pre-pay or post-pay basis. The purchase of water credit (for pre-pay) or the settlement of outstanding debt (for post-paid) needs to be as convenient and pain-free as possible. To date, most prepayment meter systems have relied on the physical presence of the customer at a vending point and some form of interaction with the meter. However, meters that require payment to ensure their continued operation also need to be regularly monitored to ensure that the meters are not tampered with.

Any attempt by manufacturers to add "smart" functionality to water meters has been hampered by the meter's finite source of power. An electricity meter can use as much power as it needs to perform all it's functions but water meters usually have to provide their own power source, traditionally in the form of an on-board battery. This has forced the manufacturers at the forefront of meter development to push the envelope in optimising power consumption and extending battery life.

The Future of Water Metering

The challenge for the water metering industry is to produce a metering system that is flexible enough to accommodate the requirements of both water supplier and water consumer. Requirements range from a basic water management device that releases a pre-set amount of water on a daily or monthly basis, to a fully flexible payment solution. The payment solution needs to ensure 100% revenue collection and reduced administration costs by eliminating the billing cycle. At the same time, the collection of revenue - either pre- or post-paid -requires the meter control system to be fraud-proof and self managing, while the meter itself needs to maintain accuracy over an extended period of operation.

In addition, the meter that forms the heart of the system needs to contend with a hostile operating environment, especially on the African continent. A climate that includes prolonged UV exposure and torrential rain poses many problems. On top of this, many water authorities are only able to pump water of variable quality and with frequent disruptions to supply. The meter needs to operate in such a way that it can handle this while maintaining its accuracy.

For the supply authority, there are a number of key features that make a metering system attractive:

• A range of payment and functioning modes available within a single meter footprint
• Ease and flexibility in moving customers between modes as a result of changing circumstances
• The ability and ease to upgrade functionality of the installed meter base without removing the meter
• A robust and secure meter management system to ensure 100% collection
• Full flexibility in programming the system, and the ability to accommodate unique local requirements such as multiple step tariffs and free water allowances
• Automatic Meter Reading capability to provide consumption data, plus fault and tamper reporting
• Two way communication with individual meters to change operating parameters on the meter
• The option to provide relief measures to customers who are unable to pay for water, either permanently or temporarliy
• A low maintenance system that allows for the rapid replacement of any faulty meters in the field

While from a customer perspective it is important to be able to offer:

• A meter that is simple and easy to use
• The facility to manage their own consumption
• A number of options for purchasing credit or settling outstanding debt
• Access to the full range of rebates and allowances offered by their water authority

These would be in addition to the "non-negotiables" such as reliability, technical support and ongoing development

A number of meter manufacturers are now competing to provide a solution that addresses all the shortcomings of the existing meters, as well as providing a number of innovations that make the intelligent meter as attractive to all role-players as the tried-and-tested smart electricity meter.

To address the needs of water supply authorities, Efteq produces intelligent water meters at its factory in South Africa. Meters are manufactured to SANS 1529-1 and 1529-2: 2003 standards in an ISO 9001:2002 accredited facility. Both Efteq and Lesira-Teq supply, install and support the intelligent metering systems. Lesira-Teq concentrates on the South African market while Efteq is also responsible for the product in the rest of Africa and world wide. Please contact us to find out more about intelligent water metering.

Contacts:

www.efteq.com
E: customer@efteq.com

www.lesira.com
E: info@lesira.co.za