According to new a research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of water utility AMI endpoints in Europe and North America is set to more than double during the period 2022–2028.

At the end of 2022, the combined installed base of AMI endpoints in Europe and North America amounted to 55.8 million units. This number is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.0 percent to reach 116.4 million in 2028. The total number of communicating utility water meters – including both AMI and AMR – will at the same time grow from 155.1 million units in 2022 to 206.0 million units in 2028.

AMR includes metering points that require readings through drive-by or walk-by operations while AMI involves a fixed network communications infrastructure and supports true IoT connectivity.

“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the growth of remote water meter reading technologies has been impeded by supply-chain disruptions, resulting in the postponement of several projects. With ongoing improvements in supply-chains coupled with significant commitment from numerous utilities to implement smart metering technologies, the outlook for the overall smart water metering market looks promising”, said Mattias Carlsson, IoT Analyst Berg Insight.

In terms of AMI connectivity, LoRaWAN and 3GPP-based LPWA technologies such as NB-IoT and LTE-M continue to be the fastest growing technology types for new water AMI deployments in Europe and North America.

In Europe, Spain has emerged as the leading European adopter of 3GPP-based LPWA communications for water AMI with several major utilities in the country now launching large-scale rollouts based on NB-IoT. The interest in 3GPP-based LPWA is also particularly strong in markets such as the UK, Italy and the Baltics while demand for LoRaWAN has so far been more widespread across the entire European region.

In North America, LTE-M currently constitutes the single fastest growing technology for new water AMI deployments while LoRaWAN has just started showing some growth after several years in the market.

“Proprietary and EN 13757-based RF communications technologies currently have a strong footprint in both the European and North American markets. These technologies are anticipated to remain pivotal connectivity options for water AMI projects in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, emerging alternatives such as LoRaWAN and cellular communications are rapidly growing and are poised to capture a larger share of AMI shipments in the years ahead”, continued Mr. Carlsson.

At the end of 2022, the companies that had accumulated the largest installed bases of water AMI endpoints in Europe included Diehl Metering, Itron, Birdz (Veolia), Sensus (Xylem) and Kamstrup. The top five in North America were Sensus, Badger Meter, Itron, Aclara (Hubbell) and Neptune Technology Group. Top 10 vendors in either of the two regions moreover included the Minol-ZENNER Group, Honeywell, the Arad Group, Mueller Systems, Landis+Gyr, Apator and Maddalena. The SUEZ subsidiary SUEZ Smart Solutions also constitutes a key player in the European water AMI market by having been instrumental to the development and deployment of Wize technology.

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• Using Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions, WaterSignal transfers water data independent of a power source
• WaterSignal, an innovator in the water conservation space, leverages Telit Cinterion’s technology to ensure always-on connectivity for its water monitoring system

Telit Cinterion, a global enabler of the intelligent edge, today announced that it is working with WaterSignal to ensure always-on connectivity to its real-time water monitoring and leak detection systems.

As water scarcity continues to increase worldwide, baseline water benchmarking and evaluation have become critical, requiring operation teams for domestic meters, irrigation systems and cooling towers to have reliable access to on-demand data. Through WaterSignal’s remote water monitoring capabilities – supported by cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions – teams gain deeper insights into their towers and systems’ efficiencies while eliminating the need to perform repetitive, manual day-to-day meter readings.

WaterSignal’s real-time water monitoring and leak detection system enables make-up and blow-down meter monitoring for cooling towers, helping teams search for leaks proactively, mitigate water loss and damage and justify evaporation credits with local municipalities. The unique technology is non-invasive, unlike others, WaterSignal’s solutions attach to any existing water meter without a disruptive installation, significantly reducing costs while eliminating the need for additional city approval.

In light of ongoing and worsening power outages, WaterSignal needed to transfer water data independent of a power source. The company also needed a trusted and dependable technology partner for cellular IoT connectivity and network services. Because of these requirements, WaterSignal turned to Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions for their units.

Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA supports various devices, from point-of-sale terminals and smart meters to industrial sensors and asset management. Its modules include Power Saving Mode (PSM) and extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX), ideal for increasing IoT application power saving and battery life when backed by networks. The cellular LPWA module family form factor also allows developers to employ a “design once, use anywhere” strategy, helping them decrease costs, truncate development time and deploy the most optimal technologies for the application’s environment. In addition to providing superior performance for the module, the radio frequency front-end (RFFE) engineering delivers reliable connections, even for IoT devices in hard-to-reach locations typical of a water monitoring setting.

“Telit Cinterion is a leading IoT provider and was selected because of its excellent reputation for quality modules, which later expanded to its IoT connectivity network services,” said Mike Drake, Vice President of Engineering, WaterSignal.

“WaterSignal can ensure connectivity for customers via cellular data rather than Wi-Fi. It does not require a connection to power. This capability provides a more stable connection. It allows the WaterSignal device to communicate, even in deep vaults or locations far away from buildings with Wi-Fi.”

“When monitoring critical resources, like water, a reliable connection is pivotal to maintaining visibility and extracting actionable insights,” said Neset Yalcinkaya, SVP Sales Americas, Telit Cinterion. “WaterSignal’s technology is invaluable for operation teams, and we are pleased that Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions are central to providing that essential connection, particularly the ability to use cellular instead of Wi-Fi to transfer water data independently of a power source during an outage.”

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KAIFA¹ and UnaBiz², announce strategic partnership to accelerate the global deployment of smart water metering solutions empowered by Sigfox 0G technology, including collaboration to bring Sigfox 0G and LoRa dual-mode hybrid solution to market.

Henry Chan, Global Sales Director of KAIFA says, “KAIFA is proud to join forces with UnaBiz in this transformative endeavor. By leveraging UnaBiz’s renowned expertise in bespoke IoT solutions, and the tremendous potential for energy-efficiency enabled by the Sigfox 0G technology, we aim to bring to the market high-quality advanced water metering solutions that are not only accurate and reliable but also cost-competitive, scalable and environmentally friendly to the water metering sector.”

Loic Barrancourt, Chief Commercial Officer of UnaBiz Group says, “We are excited to partner with KAIFA, a leader in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solution to not only drive efficiency but also promote sustainability, making a positive impact on communities worldwide. KAIFA’s quality excellence and UnaBiz’s design capabilities are key ingredients to bringing an integrated fit-for-purpose solution to end customers to enable Massive IoT. We look forward to working closely with KAIFA to bring on a new era of efficiency and sustainability in the realm of water resource management.”

The dynamic duo has already achieved success in various parts of the globe even before the official partnership announcement. Most recently, Iguá Saneamento, Brazilian water and sewerage services supplier, has partnered with KAIFA and WND Brazil to roll out 120,000 smart water meters powered by Sigfox 0G technology.

Jose Almeida – Deputy Chief Executive Officer of WND Brazil said:

“Sigfox 0G technology’s energy-efficient design aligns with Iguá Saneamento’s commitment to sustainability. Reduced power consumption and extended device lifecycles ultimately contribute to a greener and more eco-conscious future. We are certain the collaboration between UnaBiz and KAIFA will pave the way for smarter, more sustainable solutions in water resource management across the globe.”

UnaBiz and KAIFA‘s combined global footprint will allow the partners to address the unique needs of diverse markets. The pair will focus on specific regions like Europe, the Middle East, and Central and South America to accelerate and magnify its prevailing success.

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WaterMeter Corp, in collaboration with WND Mexico and UnaBiz, is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to revolutionise water management in Mexico.

This strategic alliance aims to deploy 1 million water meters with Sigfox 0G technology throughout Mexico over the next 10 years, offering innovative solutions for accurate, efficient, and sustainable measurement of water, gas and electricity for the benefit of communities and the environment.

Empowering Water Management with Sigfox 0G Technology

WaterMeter Corp has forged a high-impact alliance with WND Mexico and UnaBiz to introduce 1 million water measurement solutions based on Sigfox 0G technology in Mexico. Leveraging WND’s 0G Network, this collaboration will facilitate the efficient monitoring and management of water resources.

WND Mexico: Facilitating Connectivity Without Borders

As the operator of the 0G Network in Mexico, WND Mexico is committed to providing extensive coverage crucial to the successful deployment of water metering solutions powered by Sigfox 0G technology across the country. This alliance reinforces WND Mexico’s dedication to supporting innovative IoT solutions.

UnaBiz: Pioneers in the Future of Water Management

As the owner of Sigfox 0G technology, UnaBiz guarantees the continuity and longevity of the network and services in Mexico for the next 15 years. With a strong track record of connecting more than 2 million gas and water meters worldwide through the global 0G network, UnaBiz brings unparalleled experience to this transformative collaboration.

WaterMeter Corp

Committed to Sustainability and Efficiency, WaterMeter Corp, an expert in water measurement solutions, confidently embraces Sigfox 0G technology because of its ability to communicate equipment in a dispersed or sectorised way without the need to install concentrator antennas, repeaters or gateways on public poles. This decision underscores its commitment to providing cost-effective and sustainable water metering solutions for municipalities in Mexico.

A Shared Vision for Sustainable Water Management

This alliance between WaterMeter Corp, WND Mexico, and UnaBiz is based on a shared long-term business vision. Recognising the critical importance of security, stability, and continuity in the utility market, the trio aims to redefine water measurement in Mexico and beyond.

The fundamental objective is to multiply success stories based on projects with successful investment returns; UnaBiz, WND and WaterMeter Corp are willing to revolutionise the administration and management of water, gas, and electricity with cutting-edge technology.

Currently, the 0G network covers more than 60% of the national population with the commitment to deploy in a few days. After the success of the first stage applied to horizontal and vertical condominiums nationwide, the second step has been called: “essence the IoT technology for everyone, everywhere”.

Marco Mendoza, CEO of WaterMeter Corp:
“Our customers expect water metering solutions that meet their basic needs: accounting for 100% of water, gas or electricity effectively (day, week or month), with cost-effective and operationally practical solutions, and that fit their implementation budgets. This is precisely why we are committed to the Sigfox 0G technology, which allows us to read meters remotely cost-effectively, predictably, and extremely energy-efficiently. Together with WND Mexico and UnaBiz, we will connect millions of water meters in Mexico.”

Daniel Philippe Guevara, CEO of WND Mexico:
“We are excited to partner with WaterMeter Corp (certified in IoT Network for utilities with Sigfox 0G technology) and UnaBiz to pave the way to a smarter and more sustainable Mexico. As the operator of Mexico’s 0G Network, WND Mexico is fully dedicated to providing solid coverage essential for deploying IoT solutions powered by Sigfox 0G technology, including water metering. We share a long-term vision with WaterMeter Corp, recognising the importance of safety, stability, and continuity in the utility market. We hope to transform the smart water metering landscape with 1 million connected water meters over the next 10 years.”

Henri Bong, CEO and Co-founder of UnaBiz:
“At UnaBiz, we are committed to leveraging our experience as owners of Sigfox 0G technology to ensure the continuity and durability of the network and services in Mexico for the next 15 years. With a proven track record of connecting more than 2.6 million meters around the world through the Sigfox 0G network, we are confident that, together with WaterMeter Corp, we will deliver water metering solutions that will help Mexican municipalities address the challenges of water scarcity, non-technical losses, and water leaks.”

“With a long-term business vision, our goal is to modernise the water management system in Mexico, promote water conservation and ensure the country’s sustainable and efficient use of water resources.”

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Newly Launched AMI Essentials Features Intelis wSource NB-IoT Water Meter and Temetra NB-IoT Digital Platform for Water AMI.

Itron, Inc., which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, announced the launch of AMI Essentials in Australia and New Zealand to accelerate the digital transformation of water utilities.

The end-to-end solution includes the new Itron Intelis wSource NB-IoT water meter and Temetra NB-IoT digital platform for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). As utilities in the region face growing water stress and aging utility infrastructure, AMI provides the foundation to mitigate the impact of these challenges. AMI Essentials eases the adoption of AMI with an end-to-end solution that brings together devices and a data platform with integrated analytics in an easy-to-deploy package that is tailored to the market. The solution establishes a strong foundation to seamlessly deploy value-added use cases to address water losses, improve operations and enhance consumer engagement.

AMI Essentials for water is a flexible and open standards-based, end-to-end solution that provides a fully integrated software suite for data collection, meter data management and device management. Utilities can easily collect, track and manage data from multiple metering devices. The solution features Itron’s Temetra MDM platform to collect and manage data, enabling use cases, such as meter reading, work order management, asset management and water usage analytics. The end-to-end solution includes options for connectivity and other services to optimize planning, deployment and operations, and assess connectivity risks. This helps improve service quality and reliability.

Additional key benefits of the solution, include:

• Easy migration from manual meter reading to AMI. Maximizes the business case, reduces pain points around AMI deployment, implementation and operations. One single platform for all meter data.
• Reduces risk of technology dependency. Open standards reduce the risk of standardizing on one technology platform and provide interoperability with multiple communication service providers as well as integration within the IT infrastructure.
• Standard packaged solutions. Simplify adoption for smaller utilities and cities, including standard scope of services and use cases.
• Maximum robustness. Durable meter components and battery designed to enable a 15-year lifetime even in harsh conditions.

Don Reeves, senior vice president of Outcomes at Itron, said:

“Across Australia and New Zealand, diverse and extremely challenging environmental conditions make it necessary to ensure that aging infrastructure maintains a long lifespan. Itron AMI Essentials for water will help utilities mitigate the impacts of climate disruption and address asset management and leakage challenges.”

“Itron has a long history of supporting utilities in Australia and New Zealand, and we look forward to expanding our offerings with this end-to-end solution. Itron’s local support and knowledge coupled with our global expertise in water markets, AMI deployments and cellular communications will greatly benefit utilities in the region. We are excited to bring this comprehensive solution to help water utilities achieve their digital transformation goals.”

Solution Details

Intelis NB-IoT Water Meter

Now available with Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) connectivity, the Intelis wSource water meter is engineered to maintain the highest level of accuracy over its entire lifetime, connect easily to several data collection systems and generate extensive data from the water network. It is the only water meter available today that is MID-certified up to R1000 accuracy, a new standard in precision for measuring water consumption at low-flows and increasing accuracy in customer billing. With low-to-no maintenance solid-state ultrasonic technology, the Intelis wSource meter maintains accuracy in harsh conditions and delivers long-lasting performance in the field lowering costs with fewer repairs and replacements. This allows water utilities to quickly detect leaks and provide more accurate billing to customers, resulting in improved customer satisfaction as well as revenue protection with more accurate billing.

The Intelis wSource NB-IoT water meter features data connectivity options designed to ensure all meter data is made available to water operation centers. Intelis wSource NB IoT features AMR backup to protect data if the cellular network fails.

Temetra NB-IoT digital platform and Temetra Analysis

Itron’s Temetra NB-IoT data collection and data management system provides a best-in-class platform for critical meter data management business processes. It currently supports over 30 customers and more than 2 million endpoints in Australia and New Zealand, and over 45 million worldwide. Temetra provides a platform for metering data unification, validation and dispatching to customer domain systems and addresses key processes such as long data storage, network monitoring and asset inventory and troubleshooting. It also provides out-of-the-box alarm management, including critical alarm management and operational analytics like abnormal consumption detection.

Temetra Analysis delivers measurable results that address non-revenue water (NRW) losses in the water distribution system. It improves operational visibility, minimizes leaks, maximizes return on investment on meter replacements, streamlines pressure management, reduces labor costs, optimizes network operations and proactively improves the customer experience. These outcomes help utilities identify, prioritize and take action to reduce NRW for both real and apparent water losses in the distribution network.

Availability

AMI Essentials for water, including the Itron Intelis wSource NB-IoT water meter and Temetra NB-IoT digital platform, are now available for testing in Australia and New Zealand. To learn more, see the product brochure.

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Itron, Inc., which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, announced that PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, is leveraging SP Group’s existing Itron industrial IoT network canopy for smart water metering.

The smart water metering rollout will connect some 300,000 Itron residential and C&I smart water meters to the existing network to achieve its water conservation goals.

The deployment, which is managed by Singapore’s national electricity and gas network operator, SP Group, is an important part of PUB’s Smart Water Meter Program, which aims to transform the organization into a smart utility. The first phase of the Smart Water Meter Program will be rolled out in Bukit Batok, Hougang, Jurong West, Tampines and Tuas, as well as in the new housing estates of Tampines North and Tengah.

With smart water meters, meter readings can be done remotely on a daily basis, eliminating the labor-intensive manual meter reading process which is currently read every two months. Households and businesses can track their daily water usage on their MySmartWaterMeter account, hence giving them greater visibility and control over their water usage to conserve resources. Users can also receive timely notifications on high usage and suspected leaks in their household or premises. This will enable households and non-domestic customers to better understand their water usage pattern, be empowered to adjust their water habits, and ultimately, save on utility bills. The rollout of smart meters at scale will be a major boost to water conservation efforts.

“We are excited to see SP Group’s existing Itron network canopy be used for the Smart Water Meter Program in Singapore. This deployment truly demonstrates the power and potential of a high-performance, multi-application industrial IoT network,” said John Marcolini, senior vice president of Networked Solutions at Itron.

“As part of this project, we look forward to helping PUB meet its water conservation goals and furthering Itron’s vision to create a more resourceful world.”

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Water is probably the most important and overly used global natural resource. According to a report from the World Resource Institute, about one-quarter of the world’s population, spread across 17 countries, faces extremely high level of water stress and by 2040, it is most likely that 1 in 4 children will be living in areas of extremely high water stress. Water conservation has become one of the direst needs today and the biggest challenge for utilities in the water sector.

Transforma Insights predicts 700 million smart water meters by 2030

Last week Transforma Insights published two reports which examine the ways in which IoT will be used to tackle the challenges of conserving water. The first, ‘Water Smart Meters: 700 million connections by 2030 to solve issues related to water scarcity and loss’ provides a summary of our view on the IoT market for smart water meters. It examines the reasons for the increase in installations along with detailed assessment of the progress of rollouts and the various communication technologies used across major geographies for these meters.

There are multiple ways to overcome challenges related to water losses and conservation, one way of conserving water is through detection of water leak or loss which is commercially defined as ‘Non-Revenue Water’ (NRW). Smart water meters play a key role in water conservation through early and accurate leak detection. These meters are equipped with sensors for leakage detection based on the water flow rate at any given point of time. This in turn helps the local utility track the water consumption per user and detect any losses or changes in the level of consumption. Detecting unexpected drops in pressure within the water grid, allows for identification of leaks before the metering point.

In total there will be 700 million smart water meter connections at the end of 2030, up from 196 million at the end of 2021. Greater China will be the region with the greatest number of devices throughout the forecast, with 31 percent share of total connected devices in 2030. North America will have a 29 percent share by 2030 followed by Europe with a share of 28 percent in 2030.

The arrival of new connectivity technologies will help to accelerate rollouts, as illustrated by the fact that the dominant connectivity technologies will be 5G mMTC (66%), which incorporates NB-IoT and LTE-M, and LPWA non-mMTC (28%) followed by 4G Cellular (6%). By 2030, there will be a significant change in the market from the current scenario that mostly uses RF Mesh as the most common primary communication technology.

Encouraging behavioural change

The other prominent way in which smart meters encourage water conservation is through managing behavioural changes related to water conservation. It is becoming increasingly common to see fines or penalties for wasting water on both consumers and utilities. For instance, California has introduced fines of USD500 per day on its citizens for wasting water. In Italy certain regions have introduced water-rationing measures, ranging from fountains being switched off and nightly restrictions on tap water, ban on using water for gardens and allotments, filling swimming pools and for washing cars.

Smart water meters provide feedback both to the utility provider and the user based on the amount of water consumed. Deploying these meters helps water utilities track water usage and to create and utilise a tariff structure that incorporates an allocation or entitlement to a set amount of water for a fixed service charge, disincentivising excessive water usage. However, it must be noted that the use of variable consumption charges per user creates a monetary benefit for the water utility from increased usage.

The smart grid also plays a major role in water conservation

The second report published by Transforma Insights was ‘Grid Operations: 91 million connected devices by 2030 across electricity, gas and water’ which examines the up-stream monitoring of distribution networks for electricity, gas and water.

One of the most important physical infrastructure connecting the smart water meter and the end water resources (such as lakes, ponds, streams and others) is the smart grid. The smart water grid is significantly useful in maintaining a continuous supply of water even in times of catastrophe such as drought and floods. These grids are equipped with sensors that capture information related to water volume, pressure, temperature, chemicals, leak detection, and supply levels. Additionally, these grids are equipped with automated valve operations that can then respond by shutting valves in the affected areas to prevent flooding, further damage, water loss, or spreading of contaminated water.

Data management software within the grid can then be used to analyse the water flow pattern, enabling predictive modelling and decision making based on better assessment of energy use, water supply, pricing, capex, and labour.

The wider sustainability impact

As well as the two reports highlighted above, Transforma Insights recently published its report ‘Sustainability Enabled by Digital Transformation’ looking at the impact of using IoT and other disruptive technologies on enterprises meeting their sustainability goals. For more on this topic, check out our recent blog post ‘IoT solutions in agriculture, utilities and smart buildings will be key to relieving pressure on increasingly scarce water resources’.

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New Zealand and South Pacific to utilize the LoRaWAN® standard to anticipate and mitigate droughts.

Semtech Corporation, announced a collaboration with New Zealand’s IoT Ventures and global connectivity provider Lacuna Space.

IoT Ventures has used Semtech’s LoRa® devices to develop its Drought Early Warning System, a network of low-cost rainwater tank and rain monitors to analyze water consumption and rain forecasts in remote New Zealand and South Pacific Island communities.

The water monitoring system features ultra-low power, small form-factor sensors, which are solar powered and provide an in-field life of seven to 10 years without intervention, according to IoT Ventures. In addition, the Drought Early Warning System is starting to use Semtech’s Long Range-Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (LR-FHSS) satellite connectivity to seamlessly integrate with a terrestrial network using LoRaWAN, delivering a flexible solution for isolated locations, and can be deployed and managed by local citizens without requiring substantial internet service provider (ISP) infrastructure.

“The remote location of many Pacific Island countries makes it challenging to provide emergency water supplies during droughts, and if an island runs out of water, it may take several weeks for water to be transported,” said Matt Hector-Taylor, co-founder at IoT Ventures.

“By combining low-cost sensors with LoRa and strong connectivity signal capabilities, the joint solution helps provide consistent access to clean drinking water for citizens of some of the most remote islands in the world, supports the United Nations Sustainability goals and reduces crisis response.”

Droughts threaten water supplies, and water waste is already a crucial issue worldwide. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that as much as 50% of the water we use outdoors is lost due to wind, evaporation and runoff caused by inefficient irrigation methods and systems. By implementing a smart water monitoring infrastructure comprised of sensors and gateways using LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN standard, governments and utility providers proactively and efficiently collect data to streamline operations to manage costs and appropriately allocate resources.

LoRa-enabled solutions are key to realizing the true value of the IoT and specifically, reduce water waste and quickly identify and optimize a community’s water distribution network. Solutions utilizing LoRa empower utility providers worldwide with smart, sustainable and efficient management capabilities.

“As climate change affects water availability worldwide, Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN standard help governments anticipate and mitigate water supply issues,” said Marc Pégulu, vice president of IoT product marketing and strategy for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “The Drought Early Warning System from IoT Ventures and Lacuna Space will provide communities scalable, highly-accurate resource management capabilities.”

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Panaji Municipal Corporation (PWD-PHED) to feature a LoRaWAN® network for water use management.

Semtech Corporation, announced that Cranberry Analytics, a water management company based in India, has chosen to integrate Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® standard into its ultrasonic meters for smart water metering.

India’s Panaji Municipal Corporation awarded its smart water metering contract to Cranberry Analytics for use of its smart meters due to its reliable manual data capture and communication via LoRa modules.

Shishir Thakur, co-founder and CTO, Cranberry Analytics, said:

“Semtech’s LoRa provides cost-effective sensors and strong signal propagation capabilities which are necessary in an urban setting for deep in-building or underground connectivity. Considering all these factors, it became a clear decision that LoRa and LoRaWAN would be the best choice for reliable water metering.”

Cranberry Analytics’ smart water meters allow system administrators to collect meter readings and water consumption data on a daily basis, allowing for effective planning of water distribution as well as real-time anomaly detection and leakage analysis and mitigating water waste. According to Cranberry Analytics, in the project’s initial phase, 3,094 consumer’s mechanical water meters will be replaced by ultrasonic meters utilizing LoRa and LoRaWAN.

“LoRaWAN integration into the Cranberry Analytics water meters will allow for long range data transmission while reducing costs and keeping customer’s data secure. The system’s communication capabilities will allow meters to be diagnosed and updated without physical intervention,” said Marc Pégulu, vice president of IoT product marketing and strategy for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “Overall, the collaboration with Cranberry Analytics is continuing to highlight Semtech’s commitment toward creating a sustainable and smarter planet through LoRa devices and LoRaWAN.”

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Hassle-free cellular IoT solution opens door to cost-effective water monitoring.

In-Situ¹, today announced that it has partnered with EMnify² to make its products smarter, longer-lasting, and easier to deploy.

EMnify’s cellular IoT technologies are at the core of In-Situ’s game-changing VuLink solution — a custom-made, robust cellular telemetry device that works out-of-the-box at virtually any customer site. That’s an enormous step forward for the environmental monitoring industry: at present, at least 90% of data collection devices lack any kind of Internet connectivity, requiring laborious in-person site visits so that data can be collected manually.

Using EMnify’s LTE-M and NB-IoT cellular connectivity and global IoT SIM, In-Situ has been able to rapidly roll out VuLink in 50 countries across 5 continents, combining robust cellular connectivity with hassle-free deployment to dramatically reduce the cost of data collection, and enable real-time data monitoring across far greater distances. EMnify’s LTE-M capabilities also deliver up to a sixfold increase in battery life relative to legacy 2G technologies, with devices able to operate for years on a single compact D-cell battery, dramatically reducing the need for costly maintenance.

“As we moved to support LTE-M and NB-IoT with VuLink, EMnify was very committed and had clear plans that aligned with our launch timeline. Frankly, other providers we had talked to did not,” said Matt Trumbo, Director of Product Development at In-Situ. “Thanks to EMnify’s robust LTE-M service, our product rollout has been wildly successful.”

With EMnify’s API-enabled onboarding, In-Situ’s customers can deploy remote water monitoring by simply scanning a QR code and powering up their device — a breakthrough innovation in a sector that has historically been held back by the complexity of SIM and connectivity setup procedures. “Our customers don’t want to deal with SIM or connectivity setup of any sort. And our partnership with EMnify made this experience possible,” Trumbo explained.

In-Situ also saved hundreds of employee hours by using EMnify’s API and Data Streamer technologies to pull usage information from devices and integrate data into its billing partner’s system. “Frankly, we never would have scaled our business as we are without these automations,” Trumbo said.

“At EMnify, we’re committed to enabling the next generation of IoT devices by creating cellular connectivity technologies that just work, with frictionless deployment, low energy usage, and low per-device connectivity costs,” said Christian Rodatus, EMnify COO.

“We’re thrilled to be enabling In-Situ as they bring industry-leading IoT monitoring solutions into some of the world’s most challenging and remote environments.”

The post In-Situ Partners with EMnify to Enable Remote Environmental Monitoring appeared first on IoT Business News.

Custom created for the Australian market, EDMI’s ultrasonic DN20 meters are compliant with LwM2M and NB-IoT standards.

EDMI, a global leader in the provision of smart metering solutions, has partnered with IoTerop, a leading IoT device management software company, to offer Lightweight Machine to Machine (LwM2M) and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) capabilities in its newly released DN20 ultrasonic water meters.

The DN20 meter will provide near real-time data so that consumers can track their water consumption and make informed decisions about their water usage. Dual D batteries in the meters enable 20+ years of battery life, and extensive in-house ALT (accelerated life testing) was done to ensure a long life on the field.

Having served the Australian market since 1978, EDMI has deployed more than 5 million electricity and gas meters in Australia alone. EDMI recently recognized the need for a highly-customized water metering device that was built on open standards and delivered at a price point that maximizes the business benefits of deploying smart water meters. The DN20 also features a STM32 chipset, allowing for a very high performance, real-time capabilities, digital signal processing, and low‑power and low‑voltage operation. It also comes with an exclusive one-touch commissioning, allowing for rapid field deployments.

“EDMI is proud to offer our clients cutting-edge DN20 NB-IoT ultrasonic smart water meters,” said David Roe, Product Lead for Smart Water at EDMI Australasia. “Thanks to IoTerop’s IOWA, our meters are LwM2M and NB-IoT compliant. Our use of IOWA allowed for a much shorter time to market, and IOWA’s thorough documentation, simple API, and excellent support were key components of the DN20’s successful launch,” he said.

“Due to the size and environmental factors, the Australian landscape offers unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to water metering,” said Hatem Oueslati, CEO of IoTerop.

“We are passionate about offering organizations the ability to quickly create interoperable products that can communicate on open networks in order to advance smart metering efforts around the world. Our technologies not only allow for rapid deployment, but contribute significantly to keeping products on the field longer thanks to extended battery life, firmware updates over the air (FOTA), and top-notch security.”

EDMI plans to deploy 150,000 smart meters across Australia and New Zealand over the next 12 months as part of a much larger roll-out that will deliver more control to networks and more choice to consumers.

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According to new a research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of water utility AMI endpoints in Europe and North America is set to double during the period 2021–2027.

At the end of 2021, the combined installed base of AMI endpoints in Europe and North America amounted to 49.6 million units. This number is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.3 percent to reach 104.9 million in 2027. The total number of communicating utility water meters – including both AMI and AMR – will at the same time grow from 145.7 million units in 2021 to 197.3 million units in 2027.

AMR includes metering points that require readings through drive-by or walk-by operations while AMI involves a fixed network communications infrastructure and supports true IoT connectivity.

Levi Ostling, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight, said:

“Although the Covid-19 pandemic has had a very negative impact on the smart water metering market in the last two years, it has nevertheless had an unexpected positive long-term effect by significantly amplifying the underlying demand for remote meter reading technologies.”

In terms of AMI connectivity, LoRaWAN and 3GPP-based LPWA technologies such as NB-IoT and LTE-M continue to be the fastest growing technology types for new water AMI deployments in Europe and North America.

In Europe, Spain has emerged as the leading European adopter of 3GPP-based LPWA communications for water AMI with several major utilities in the country now launching large-scale rollouts based on NB-IoT.

Interest for 3GPP-based LPWA is also particularly strong in markets such as the UK and the Baltics while demand for LoRaWAN has so far been more widespread across the entire European region. In North America, LTE-M currently constitutes the single fastest growing technology for new water AMI deployments while LoRaWAN has just started showing some growth after several years in the market.

“Proprietary and EN 13757-based RF communications technologies however still dominate the European and North American markets in terms of installed base and are expected to continue to serve as important connectivity options for water AMI projects in the coming years”, continued Mr. Ostling.

At the end of 2021, the companies that had accumulated the largest installed bases of water AMI endpoints in Europe included Diehl Metering, Itron, Birdz (Veolia), Sensus (Xylem) and Kamstrup. The top five in North America were Sensus, Badger Meter, Itron, Aclara (Hubbell) and Neptune Technology Group. Top 10 vendors in either of the two regions moreover included the Minol-ZENNER Group, Honeywell, the Arad Group, Mueller Systems, Landis+Gyr, Apator and Maddalena. The SUEZ subsidiary SUEZ Smart Solutions also constitutes a key player in the European water AMI market by having been instrumental to the development and deployment of Wize technology.

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The contract for 35,000 W350 ultrasonic and NB-IoT water meters, integrated with network leak detection sensors, enables South East Water to gain valuable insights into its network assets.

Landis+Gyr Pty Ltd., has signed a multi-year contract with South East Water to provide 35,000 smart water meters integrated with the utility’s network leak detection sensor, Sotto®.

This enables the innovative Melbourne-based utility to operate its assets more efficiently while helping its customers to sustainably monitor and manage their water use daily.

South East Water, an early adopter and market leader of digital technology, has been trialing smart water meters across metropolitan Melbourne to detect both network and customer leaks early before they turn into bursts. As announced in our release in September, there are already 5,000 of Landis+Gyr’s W350 ultrasonic and NB-IoT meters, integrated with leak detection sensors, installed across South East Water’s network as part of its digital utility program.

The preliminary results have been promising in locating leaks unknown to the network operators and customers. The smart water meters have also prevented customer disruption, and led to a more efficient, reliable service that can lead to lower customer bills.

Andrew Forster-Knight, South East Water General Manager, Digital Utilities, said:

“The additional 35,000 Landis+Gyr’s meters integrated with sensors will provide better insights into how faults can be managed efficiently and will help validate key assumptions around how we can improve network operations and maintenance. They will also provide great benefits to our customers, who will have access to their usage data and be alerted to any internal leaks in near real-time.”

Landis+Gyr’s W350 ultrasonic and NB-IoT water meter integrated with network leak detection sensor, provide high accuracy throughout the meter life and near real-time data to help utilities optimize their network assets efficiently – while ensuring reliable service to customers.

Combined with embedded NB-IoT communications, known for its low power consumption with wide coverage and reliability in underground locations and high-rise buildings, W350 increases the overall value of the business case for utilities.

“Landis+Gyr is excited to be selected as South East Water’s technology partner to accelerate the adoption of connected devices in their digital utility program. We look forward to collaborating closer in utilizing valuable insights from our smart devices to shape the future of sustainable water management in this region,” said Rodney Chaplin, General Manager of ANZ, Landis+Gyr.

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IoT-based water conservation software leader, Banyan Water, today released its 2021 Water Analysis Trends and Emerging Risk (W.A.T.E.R.) Report on the heels of announcing it has saved 4 billion gallons of water for enterprises.

Banyan’s report analyzes 2020 data from its portfolio of properties, identifying major enterprise-level water risks jeopardizing large-scale conservation amidst historic droughts. The report also identifies the millions of dollars in hidden costs properties face due to water mismanagement coupled with rising regional water rates.

“Severe droughts threatening water reserves are not just an issue. We’re combating a full crisis,” said Gillan Taddune, CEO of Banyan.

“Corporations can no longer put water management on the back burner. Insights from our report underscores the importance of Banyan’s data-first water management system that eliminates costly risks for U.S. enterprises.”

The report explores market data on water usage and climate in the U.S. to reveal:

• Water leaks critically impact enterprise-level risk: Banyan identified—and stopped—more than 505 leaks, preventing more than 5.1 million gallons of water waste.

• Regional rainfall amounts vary, posing challenges: Fluctuations in average daily rainfall resulted in unpredictable water supply and demand, complicating property management and increasing the risk of loss.

• Rising regional water rates drive property expenses: Banyan reported an increase in yearly water rates across several regions of the U.S.—as much as a 7.6 percent increase in rates year-over-year—and highlighted significant rate increases in Houston.

• Unpredictable water flow rates lead to unforeseen costs: Existing buildings and local infrastructure are not standardized across the United States, making it difficult to anticipate water-related expenses throughout a property’s lifetime.

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Smart water metering is taking off in the water sector.

In total revenue terms, the smart share of AMI and AMR has almost doubled—from 28.2% in 2012 to 46.7% in 2020. This adoption has largely been driven by water shortages and the importance of leakage detection and water preservation, customer billing and service requirements, detection of pipe faults and asset management.

As economies recover from the pandemic, stakeholders are investing in digitalisation, and the global smart water meters market is expected to record significant growth of 7.7% between 2020 and 2026. A report by Global Industry Analysts forecasts that investments in smart water metering to jump from $2.9 billion in 2020 to $4.6 billion by 2026. The market will be led by the United States, Canada, China, Japan, and Germany.

DID YOU KNOW?
Water leakages cost the global industry $39 billion a year in lost revenue.

The drivers of smart meter investment include:

• Addressing water scarcity
• Detecting leakages
• Eliminating non-revenue water
• Updating aging infrastructure
• Dealing with rapid urbanisation
• The enactment of supporting legislation
• Water conservation
• Improving operational savings
• Ensuring accurate water bills
• Developing smart cities

AMR for Water Suppliers

Utility Week recently interviewed Mark Cooper, head of smart metering at Thames Water, the UK’s largest water and wastewater services company. Thames Water services most of Greater London and beyond. Over the past six years, the company has increased its smart water meter penetration from around 34% to 49%, and recently reached the milestone of half a million devices. The overriding goal of smart metering is to take less water from the environment and secure water supplies for future generations.

The benefits of AMRs

The significant difference between a traditional meter and an AMR water meter is the means and frequency of data collection. The real-time nature of AMR data allows for a wide range of benefits as it enables customers and businesses to work to the minute to transform costs and consumption.

Cost-effectiveness

The thought of overhauling an entire metering system can be overwhelming and prohibitive to many providers. An important benefit of AMRs is that they can be retrofitted onto existing meters. This makes it a much simpler transition to a smart solution.

Saving precious resources

Information from AMRs can be invaluable in encouraging households and businesses to use less water and spread demand at peak times. Giving customers an additional view of their usage encourages them to monitor their usage more closely. When it comes to water, for example, a continuous flow could indicate a leak that needs to be attended to. Even having a closer eye on day-to-day consumption helps consumers understand their usage patterns better and make changes to reduce consumption as a result. This is especially important for places experiencing water stress.

For water utilities companies, linking smart meter data with acoustic logger data and other devices helps better target leakage across networks. This helps customers and helps water utilities reduce the amount of water they take from the environment. The information gleaned from AMRs can be compiled and analysed to help companies understand where water is going, how much is consumed and what is being wasted.

Saving human resources

Manually reading meters is time-consuming, and can also be dangerous when meters are in hard-to-access locations. Having the process automated saves a significant amount of time and helps to keep employees safe.

Customer engagement

Smart metering enables better customer engagements and relationships. By providing customers with more information about their consumption, you empower them to take control of their energy use. They can also be ensured of the accuracy of their water readings and billing.

With these benefits in mind, it’s no surprise that utility companies around the world are adopting AMR technology as an easy-to-implement solution to reduce operational expenditure as well as water consumption. Partnering with an experienced AMR provider like Smarter Technologies Group makes the transition all the more seamless, a smarter experience for all stakeholders.

The post A Smart Upgrade: How Connected Technology is Transforming the Water Utilities Industry appeared first on IoT Business News.

Sabesp, one of the largest water and sewage service providers in the world, today announces that it has successfully completed the implementation of 100,000 smart water meters with Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

The project, which is one of the largest in Latin America, introduces water consumption telemeasurement in Sabesp’s 100,000 largest consumers in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo.

The Metrolink consortium is delivering the project and comprises of companies Laager and Vita Ambiental, which won the contract after a competitive bidding process Sabesp started at the end of 2018.

WND’s Sigfox 0G network was the communication technology selected by Sabesp for more than 92,000 of the total connected water meters. WND is the exclusive operator of Sigfox technology in Brazil. Sigfox technology enables the transport of data wirelessly, at low cost, over long distances, with minimum energy consumption. The devices will be in operation for at least five years without changing or recharging the battery.

Telemetering – the remote reading of meters – automates the process of measuring water consumption. The task was performed manually once a month and can now be performed multiple times a day. In addition to measurement, the system also generates alarms and important statistics about the operation of the entire water network. All of these new features bring reliability, transparency and savings to consumers and unprecedented operational efficiency for Sabesp.

Ricardo Batista, Sabesp’s Division Manager and responsible for the project, comments:

“The project marked the large-scale adoption of the IoT concept by Sabesp. The new technology enables our customers to monitor water consumption daily, as well as leak detection, saving money and preserving the environment, in addition to better management of resources by our company. We hope to be able to expand the project in the coming years.”

According to Felipe Duque Estrada, CEO of Laager, the success of the project is largely due to the partnership with Sigfox and WND Brazil: “The adoption of 0G network technologies from Sigfox ensured the economic and technological viability of the project.”

José Almeida, Deputy CEO of WND Brazil, adds: “Thanks to Sabesp’s pioneering approach, Laager’s expertise and our work together, we have delivered one of the largest IoT projects in the Americas. The results achieved demonstrate, without any doubt, that our technology and business model are the best choices for IoT projects today.”

Carlos Beato, VP Americas at Sigfox concludes: “We are incredibly proud of SABESP’s achievement and visionary take on smart water metering. The benefits of such a solution go far beyond remote reading. It truly transforms the customer experience and Quality of Service.”

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Recently analyst group Transforma Insights predicted global LPWA connections will grow from 220 million in 2019 to 4 billion in 2030. Transforma estimates that almost two-thirds of these devices will use 5G mMTC (massive Machine-Type Communications), otherwise known as NB-IoT and LTE connectivity, operated on licensed spectrums by multinational telecoms.

The highest adoption rates are expected in China, Europe, and North America, with gas, water, and electrical metering representing the lion’s share of deployments.

Adoption Challenges

Transforma founding partner, Matt Hatton, in his 2020 book, The Internet of Things Myth, called predictions of 50 billion devices by 2020 ridiculous, calling attention to existing challenges:

1. “Connectivity is the most important underpinning technology area for IoT… there is no standard for connecting distributed IoT devices.”

2. “Technology immaturity and fragmentation continued to create problems…enterprise adopters need a ‘systems-first’ approach to deploying IoT while giving ample consideration to the commercial and operational changes implicit in adopting new technology.”

He was right, but the data and operational benefits these deployments provide are so obvious the market is working hard to find solutions.

Global Connectivity is Strategic

There are different LPWA technologies—each unique. No doubt, the future holds an interesting mix of LPWA networks. Still, smart meter deployments with decade-plus lifecycles are significant, strategic investments. Our customers, risk-averse corporations, find NB-IoT best meets strategic concerns.

What are the key issues:

• Risk —Smart meters are built around a single LPWA technology. NB-IoT, a 3GPP standard, backed by telecoms with diversified business models, are the likeliest to survive this hyper-competitive landscape. Who wants to be the company that invested in a defunct offering?

• Global economies of scale —The Java programming language’s mantra in the ’90s was “write once, run anywhere”. With NB-IoT, we could say, “build once, deploy everywhere”. A smart meter designed in Sweden, built-in China, can be shipped anywhere in the world and connected in minutes. Speaking of China, ABI Research estimates, NB-IoT modules, mostly built in China, the building blocks of smart devices, will drop in price to $1.98 by 2024.

• Openness, pricing, and roaming —Australia, like most markets, has several NB-IoT networks with flexible, downward trending, transparent, subscription-based pricing. Roaming progress between carriers has been too slow, but does anyone doubt telecoms won’t address roaming?

Choosing an LPWA for smart metering means asking the following questions:

1. Does it meet the solution’s technical needs?
2. Does it support business strategy?
3. How confident are we the network will be there in 15 years?

Respected analyst Gartner highlighted these issues recently, saying in their June 2020 report Hype Cycle for IoT Standards and Protocols, “Investing in NB-IoT is a low-risk strategy…prioritize 3GPP variants, such as NB-IoT, if available.”

Enter Lightweight M2M

NB-IoT’s three-headed argument of common-sense, convenience and choice is difficult to ignore, but smart meter solutions benefit from another global standard. The Open Mobile Alliance’s (OMA) Lightweight M2M 1.1 device management standard.

OMA SpecWorks board members composed of ARM, AT&T, Ericsson, IoTerop, Itron, T-Mobile, and Qualcomm have worked tirelessly honing LwM2M 1.1’s specifications. It is now the most complete, open, standardized device management framework for massive IoT deployments.

Remember, we are talking about massive numbers of remote, constrained objects. What happens when a device behaves atypically? Can it be rebooted? Isolated? Can the security credentials be replaced? What about providing critical firmware updates? This types of functionality, requiring exacting forethought and optimization, are critical to building battery-operated smart meter solutions with lifespans of ten plus years.

Transforma’s Matt Hatton suggests IoT, due to all these challenges, requires a “systems-first” approach. For a growing number of organizations, LwM2M 1.1 is a strategic choice with undeniable logic:

• Efficiency —The core services, including data transport, security, connectivity, and device management, are complete and optimized for energy-efficiency.

• Completeness —The LwM2M contributor ecosystem comprises telecoms with rich operational experience, network infrastructure companies, and the third group with deep embedded engineering knowledge. LwM2M does everything from secure device commissioning to over-the-air updates to decommissioning with just a few mouse clicks.

• Openness —Adherence to the LwM2M standard ensures organizations have an integrated change management strategy. Deployment lifespans make interoperability a strategic necessity. What happens when a component is no longer available? Or a supplier is sold? Adaptability ensures economic sustainability.

The market is taking notice.

In a recent IoTerop webinar on Smart Water Meter adoption in Australia using NB-IoT, David Roe of smart meter solution provider EDMI said, “LwM2M 1.1 is critical to our go-to-market strategy…LwM2M 1.1 provides the perfect, implementable, open solution to build NB-IoT solutions rapidly.”

Gartner stated in the previously mentioned report, “LwM2M simplifies and unifies application and product development…NB-IoT is an ideal use case for Lightweight M2M.”

Combining LwM2M 1.1 and NB-IoT offers businesses a sustainable smart meter strategy.

To learn more

Get IoTerop’s most recent webinar, Smart Water Meter adoption in Australia using NB-IoT to see how global standards support smart meter adoption.

The post How Global Standards Drive Smart Water Meter Adoption? appeared first on IoT Business News.

According to new a research report from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the installed base of water utility AMI endpoints in Europe and North America amounted to 46.1 million units in 2019.

The installed base is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.0 percent to reach 106.8 million units in 2025. The total number of communicating utility water meters – including both AMI and AMR – will at the same time grow from 132.4 million units in 2019 to 204.6 million units in 2025. AMR includes metering points that require readings through drive-by or walk-by operations while AMI involves a fixed network communications infrastructure and supports true IoT connectivity.

North America today constitutes the leading market for both AMR and AMI solutions and accounted for more than 70 percent of all installed AMI endpoints in Europe and North America in 2019.

Proprietary radio frequency (RF) technologies have been practically unrivalled for AMI communications in North America while a mix of proprietary RF and EN 13757-based technologies have dominated in Europe. There is now a clear trend towards rapidly increasing adoption of next generation LPWA technologies for AMI communication in both regions.

“After 4–5 years of mainly pilot projects, large-scale water AMI projects utilising LoRaWAN or 3GPP-based LPWA technologies such as LTE-M and NB-IoT have in the last year finally started to emerge across Europe and North America”, said Levi Ostling, IoT Analyst, Berg Insight.

Mr. Ostling continued:

“The trend is most prominent for LoRaWAN in Europe and LTE-M in North America, while NB-IoT is still largely confined to smaller projects across Europe – particularly in Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe.”

Veolia’s recent commitment to roll out 3 million LoRaWAN-connected water meters across France by 2029 is one of the early examples of large-scale adoption of LoRaWAN within water AMI in Europe.

Overall, Berg Insight forecasts that AMI endpoint shipments in the European and North American water sectors will grow from a total of 6.2 million units in 2019 to 14.2 million units in 2025. While most endpoints will be deployed in smaller projects, growth in the next few years will to a large extent also be driven by massive rollouts by cities such as Philadelphia, Louisville, Austin, Fort Worth and Columbia in North America and by utilities such as SUEZ, Veolia, Thames Water and Anglian Water in Europe.

“While markets such as France and Spain have historically been the primary markets for water AMI solutions in Europe, a large share of deployments in the next few years are expected to take place in Italy, the UK and Benelux”, concluded Mr. Ostling.

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Smart-Metering System Gives Consumers Payment Flexibility and Could Encourage Development of Water-Supply Networks in the Country

Partnering to deliver running water to homes in developing countries, Kerlink and CityTaps, a French company with a mission to increase access to running water in third-world countries, have installed a pilot project to help Kenyans receive, monitor and pay for water use.

The pilot project is financed by a program of the French treasury directorate general (Trésor DG) called FASEP. Designed primarily for French SMEs that aspire to expand internationally, FASEP awards grants to finance feasibility studies or pilot projects for green and innovative technologies. The grants allow companies to demonstrate the effectiveness of their methods and establish a base in their partner countries.

The network combines Kerlink’s Wirnet iBTS outdoor gateways and CityTaps’ CTSuite of smart prepaid water meters and software of existing mobile payment systems. The LoRaWAN® IoT-based network enables users to measure and manage their water consumption and make scheduled payments to the water-supply utility, MAWASCO, in the Watamu region of Kenya. In addition to eliminating overdue bills, CityTaps’ grant will help reduce water loss and leakage in Watamu.

“In Kenya, 41 percent of the population does not have access to running water,” said Grégoire Landel, CEO and founder of CityTaps. “This grant will pay for the installation of CityTaps’ CTSuite in many homes in Watamu with the support from Kerlink. Kerlink is a strong partner for this project because it has extensive experience deploying IoT networks around the world, including in Africa”.

“An important feature of this project will enable people with irregular incomes who cannot afford monthly bills to have access to affordable, quality water by staying connected to the water company’s network and making payments when they can,” Landel continued.

“It will allow customers to pre-pay for their water consumption by crediting a water account at any time, with any mobile phone and for any amount. This helps water utilities to recover arrears and avoid losses, which encourages financiers to invest in the extension of water networks.”

“Together, Kerlink and CityTaps are contributing to the health and quality of life in Kenya’s Watamu region, demonstrating again how LoRaWAN® IoT networks can considerably improve conditions for people around the world,” said Romain Weryk, Kerlink’s key account manager. “Powered by Kerlink’s Wirnet iBTS outdoor gateways, CityTaps’ tailored solution delivers radio communication between the water meters and the software platform, bringing smart metering to this developing country region.”

Kerlink earlier this year announced its involvement in a UN pilot program for reservoir monitoring in Uganda and Iraq, which also incorporates Kerlink’s carrier-grade LoRaWAN® gateway technology.

CityTaps received the FASEP grant to support its vision to bring running water to every home in Kenya, in pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG6, which supports access to water and sanitation around the world.

The post Kerlink and French Startup CityTaps Deploying LoRaWAN® Network in Kenya to Help Bring Running Water into Homes appeared first on IoT Business News.

The two companies will work on the development of IoT (Internet of Things) technology aimed at companies in the water sector and will collaborate on the commercialisation of a solution that allows the digitalisation of the operation and maintenance processes of this resource.

Telefónica, a global leader in the provision of IoT solutions, and Idrica, a company specialised in new technologies for the management of the integral water cycle, which originated from the digital transformation of the Global Omnium group, have signed a global partnership agreement to provide services to companies in the water sector.

The agreement includes the development of solutions with the Internet of Things technologies NB-IoT, LTE-M and the future 5G Massive IoT that will allow the connection of billions of machines and devices to the Internet. The agreement signed also includes the commercialisation of GoAigua, an Idrica solution that fosters the complete digital transformation of the operation and maintenance processes of companies in the sector.

The solution allows companies to monitor real-time information on all their infrastructures and processes in one single place, facilitate decision-making, automate recurring tasks, and help strengthen communication channels and value-added services for customers.

It is also a modular, scalable solution that can be adapted to the degree of technological maturity of each company, allowing them to have a transversal vision of the integral water cycle (collection, distribution, sanitation, reuse and end customer satisfaction). Thanks to the application of advanced algorithms, the solution also boosts efficiency in the areas of drinking water, sanitation, purification, and smart irrigation.

“We believe that this alliance will help us accelerate the internationalisation process of the company and highlights the interoperability of GoAigua with other platforms and technologies,” says Jaime Barba, CEO of Idrica.

Gonzalo Martín-Villa, Global Director of IoT and Big Data at Telefónica Tech, says:

“With this agreement we are reinforcing our commitment to offer more accessible solutions to people, improving communication channels, providing detailed information on their consumption and making responsible use of water resources.”

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Following deployment, utility customers typically see savings up to 30,000€ per building per year as a result of reductions in non-revenue water (NRW).

Semtech Corporation announced that Vertical M2M, the leading French Software Editor of CommonSense IoT Platform®, has developed new Smart Water Applications for Utilities based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol.

Vertical M2M’s CommonSense IoT Platform® aims to simplify the management of multiple water metering devices over a unified LoRaWAN network, and offers benefits to the end user, including the creation of more sustainable and efficient utility networks through monitoring and reducing non-revenue water (NRW).

Maurice Zembra, CEO at Vertical M2M, said:

“Connecting water networks to the Cloud for easier access and management is one of the most effective ways for utility providers to reduce waste and cut back on operating cost today.”

“Leveraging connected sensors, valves and meters make this approach possible, and Semtech’s LoRa devices is particularly capable at handling the challenges of the water industry. When LoRa-based devices are used in conjunction with a smart industrial IoT platform, such as Vertical M2M’s CommonSense IoT Platform, end users are able to detect water leaks and monitor pipes in real time, bringing savings up to 30,000€ annually per monitored commercial building or campus.”

NRW is estimated at up to 30 percent of all water produced, representing a major sustainability concern and financial issue for utility providers. Vertical M2M’s CommonSense IoT Platform offers utility customers the ability to quickly and simply onboard LoRa-based water metering applications, including sensors, meters and valve controllers, into its management interface. The platform operates on both public and private LoRaWAN networks, and provides end users with accurate water usage data in real time for efficient billing and trend analysis. Based on a real time open scripting engine, bespoke algorithms will automatically alert operators of any anomalies or water leakage detection to reduce water waste. Following deployment, Vertical M2M’s utility customers typically could save up to 30,000€ yearly per monitored building or campus as a direct result of reduction in NRW.

“Smart IoT management platforms provide customers with accessible and actionable data on which to combat waste and reduce inefficiencies,” said Rémi Demerlé, Director of Vertical Marketing for Utilities in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “LoRa-based devices are brought to life by network and application servers and management software from leading members of the ecosystem. Vertical M2M’s software tools bring ease of use to customers and create effective metering solutions that offer a quick return on investment (ROI).”

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The promise of connected smart meters has been discussed for years, and many utilities have used mobile reading solutions for years, but only a few are starting to look seriously at the implementation of fixed network connectivity, especially in North America and Europe. Wireless connectivity is more widely seen as a key enabler but the array of technology available is broad and different forms of metering have specific requirements that make them better-suited to particular wireless technologies.

The LoRa Alliance, explains why low power wide area networks (LPWANs) have the attributes that water metering projects demand.

This drive to digitalize water utilities’ distribution networks will result in an installed base of 400 million smart water meters worldwide by 2026, according to ABI Research. This illustrates the sheer scale of the global water metering footprint and sheds some light on the immense volume of data that water meters will collect and transmit. Management of these data will be complex and involve enormous data management and analytics capabilities.

Importantly, none of this is free. Cloud computing resources and the network capacity to link the meter to the management systems will come at a cost, water suppliers need to carefully balance the value generated with the expenses incurred.

This device-based intelligence reduces the need to transmit exabytes of irrelevant information and the requirement to store and analyze these data pointlessly. At the same time, if a water meter is used to identify an urgent issue such as leakage or that a smart valve needs to be shut off for an operational reason, that information and that command need to be prioritized and communicated by robust networks, securely and quickly so action can be taken rapidly.

Why Water Is Different from Other Utilities

It should be acknowledged that the heritage and crucial need for water supply is the responsibility of local authorities rather than national ones. Although there are exceptions to this, notably in Africa, water utilities in the United States, Europe, India and China are highly localized businesses. This makes the water industry more fragmented than other utilities.

Water utilities need specific functionalities in meter data management (MDM) platforms, such as the flexibility to scale network coverage more progressively and to integrate into water utility systems in areas such as water quality, leak detection, and pressure, etc. Other requirements are long battery lives, deep coverage, and security at a very affordable cost.

How to Unlock Greater Efficiency

Earlier deployments have seen the adoption of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), using mobile radio equipment to collect data in walk-by or drive-by mode, which is sometimes confused with AMI in some markets. A key difference here is that AMR solutions provide only a basic set of uplinks of meter data and no alarms in near-real-time, so the services, analytics, and quality of data collected are very different from AMI that regularly communicates more meter data and alarms in up-to-date information.

AMI enables utilities to enjoy greater benefits from improved data granularity. For example, data can be collected at ten-minute intervals and transmitted daily. The water utility can improve operations through demand analysis, determining water leaks seeking the reduction of non-revenue water.

This unlocks substantial value because smart metering with AMI can drive an 8 to 10 percent improvement in the operating efficiency of utilities over four years, according to results from a Birdz smart water deployment in Eau du Grand Lyon (France).

For water utilities that haven’t already transitioned to a remote monitoring model, LPWAN connectivity is the obvious choice because of the ease and speed of installation. For those utilities that prefer AMR, FSK modulation or ZigBee or Bluetooth are options but require heavy investment in labor and fleets. The real promise lies in automated systems that can collect, transmit, analyze meter data and enable downlink commands with minimal human interaction.

Inside the different LPWA networks

LPWAN is being selected by water utilities because it combines extremely long-range – measured in miles – with deep underground and indoor penetration plus battery lifetimes of up to two decades. This field is becoming crowded with LPWAN options like narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), Sigfox and LoRaWAN, see Figure 1 below.

For water metering applications, which have relatively low data payloads and seldom require low latency or high quality of service, it’s clear that Sigfox and LoRaWAN offer the range, battery life, coverage capability, deployment ease and cost efficiency the water industry requires. There is much common ground between the technologies, but differences exist which should be considered carefully.

A Wide Developer Ecosystem

Another criterion for selection is the maturity of the technology and ecosystem to offer a greater choice of applications and number of devices.

Public vs. Private LPWANs

Flexibility to choose between public, private or hybrid business models enables water utilities to find the best fit. The numerous deployments and mature experience associated with these networks allow utilities to assess the benefits of public versus private LPWANs from the real-life experiences of other utilities and also to understand the merits between building, buying or sharing, connectivity.

This decision will be dependent on the individual needs of water utilities. If they value the control that having a private network gives them if their installed base covers a manageable area and if they have the upfront capital expenditure capability, building private networks can make sense. However, for some water utilities, the complexity of network configuration, the challenges of product selection and the burden of managing the network will be easier to outsource to a specialist network infrastructure provider on a service model.

Maintain Security for the Long-Term

Another important factor is security. Water meters need to be secure both to protect user information and the water provider from fraudulent activity but also, and perhaps more importantly, so they do not provide a point of security weakness at which cybercriminals can enter the enterprise network. This is an important point, as not all LPWANs have been designed to fit metering’s general design criteria of low power consumption, low implementation complexity, and high scalability along with separate secured keys for the network operator on one hand and the end-user application on the other and with benefits like mutual authentication, integrity protection and confidentiality.

How LoRaWAN is Being Used by Water Utilities

There is one unlicensed LPWAN technology that addresses all of the considerations mentioned here – LoRaWAN. Already in use by several water utilities, solutions are growing, and many examples of successful deployments now exist. One example, in Spain, involves the deployment of 20,000 water meters by the local utility FACSA in the region of Castellon de la Plana. The project was carried out by IoTsens on behalf of FACSA, which manages water control and tracking in more than 70 cities to serve more than four million citizens, saw the connection of different water meters to the IoTsens cloud platform via LoRaWAN and through a server operated by IoTsens.

The implementation began with a proof of concept involving 600 smart water meters and led to the second step of the current full deployment of which consists of 20,000 water meters connected to the IP67 outdoor LoRaWAN Gateway from MultiTech. The IoTsens solution consists of an integral method of tele-reading meters that collects the data remotely and automatically in near-real-time. Also, the system can work with seven different brands of meters using a single communication platform to achieve fast and efficient management of its supply network.

In Australia, NNNco, a public LoRaWAN operator, has started deployment of a network for connecting 170,000 water meters in the Gold Coast region, illustrating how cities are seeing the benefits of a technology that is ready to use for IoT.

Another example, this time in the United Kingdom involves BT providing its LoRaWAN network to regional water provider, Northumbrian Water. BT has installed approximately 150 sensors in the company’s network to gather data on factors such as water flow, pressure, and quality. This technology was selected because of its ability to support long-life, battery-powered devices over long distances for long durations.

Multi-Million-Meter Deployments

Large telecom operators are committing to LoRaWAN for very large projects. Nova Veolia and its subsidiary Birdz, a pioneer in the remote metering of energy consumption for Smart Cities, are working with Orange to help them digitalize Veolia’s water-related services in France. Their goal is to read more than 70 percent of their meters remotely by 2027 in a deal that will see more than three million water meters connected to public LoRaWAN networks covering more than 30,000 municipalities and 95 percent of the population of metropolitan France.

In the United States, per company press releases, Neptune Technology Group is collaborating with local network providers Senet and Comcast on an IoT solution designed to accelerate smart city projects focused on AMI. The solution combines LoRaWAN networks with Neptune’s water meters and sensors.

Future Considerations

Wirelessly connecting smart water meters is unlocking substantial efficiency gains for water providers across the globe and, as water supplies become more constrained in many locations, greater control of excessive use, limitation of leakage and potential mechanisms to charge more flexibly for water will be required. The commitment of water utilities and large connectivity partners to deploy millions of smart water meters for deployments, spread over several years from now, with lifespans of up to 20 years from now illustrates that connectivity choice is a long-term decision that requires water utilities and meter providers to carefully assess meter design in the light of the likely future business requirements and challenges.

Doing so with the next two decades in mind involves focusing on industry-wide trends rather than specific, short-term issues. Universal themes are the need to use meter data to prevent wastage of water, the need to charge flexibly and at a higher frequency for water consumption and the continued need to be competitive on cost.

It’s of critical importance to select connectivity that can be controlled by the water utility for the long term – or at least to select a technology and provider that can demonstrate an understanding of the water industry and the ability to provide over-the-air upgrades to devices’ software and firmware during the lifespan of a meter.

The water industry remains highly fragmented with localized organizations managing the water supply for their customers. However, there has been and will continue to be substantial mergers and acquisition activity in the marketplace so a truly future-ready smart metering solution will need to be ready to integrate with different systems and approaches adopted by other organizations that may in future become part of the same group.

Fundamentally, water utilities need a cost-effective, robust, reliable, perennial, secure, easy to install wireless technology to support their business’s digital transformation that they are sure will support it and their partners for the long-term. LPWAN solutions tick more of the water industry’s boxes more than cellular connectivity or RF proprietary technologies and have the benefit of positioning them with the connectivity they need for the future.

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Collaboration Supports Increased Demand for LoRaWAN Technology to Modernize Utility and Local Government Infrastructure.

Senet, Inc. today announced a partnership with MeterSYS®, a trusted innovator of advanced smart city and metering technology solutions for public utilities.

Collaboration between the two companies focuses on deploying LoRaWAN® enabled networks for Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and IoT devices across the United States through the MeterSYS IoT service program SenthiSYS.

Through this partnership, Senet and MeterSYS are providing utilities and local governments with IoT solutions for a broad range of municipal services including water distribution, sewer collection, storm and flood water management, solid waste management, parking controls, fleet management, public safety, energy conservation, and climate monitoring.

Simplifying the purchasing and deployment processes, public agencies can now acquire comprehensive LoRaWAN network planning and installation services, IoT device testing, and the customized and centralized SenthiSYS device data management system (DDMS) directly from MeterSYS.

Andy Honeycutt, President and Chief Consulting Officer at MeterSYS, said:

“Providing end-to-end AMI and smart city IoT solutions through the Senet and MeterSYS partnership provides utilities and municipalities a single source to fully leverage infrastructure investments, boost efficiencies and accelerate sustainability efforts across a variety of public service operations.”

“Senet’s LoRaWAN network and flexible deployment options allow us to support the unique needs of our customers for automated meter reading and a broad range of smart city initiatives.”

Water metering is one of the fastest growing LoRaWAN market segments, with millions of meters being deployed globally today. As municipalities expand their initiatives to deliver city-wide IoT services, they are in a unique position to partner with utility companies to leverage the expansive and dense networks used for metering. Senet is advancing these engagements by offering new and unique operating paradigms that support application-centric LoRaWAN network deployment and revenue sharing opportunities for IoT ecosystem members based on the role they play in contributing to the network build-out.

“We are excited to be partnering with MeterSYS to deliver innovation to public utilities and municipalities, helping to provide cost-savings, the ability to generate new service revenues and improved customer satisfaction,” said Senet CEO Bruce Chatterley. “Forward-thinking cities have come to recognize that to realize the full value of IoT, they must deploy a secure and scalable network that supports multiple solutions and applications. Connecting municipalities with the robust networks deployed for water metering could mean a huge leap forward in the delivery of many connected city services.”

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Meter Data Management platform vendors should identify the water utility’s specific requirements for an MDM.

As pressures of climate change and water wastage rise, smart water meters are becoming increasingly critical for global water conservation efforts by utilities to track water usage and identify waste and leakage. This drive for digitalization of water utilities distribution network will result in an installed base of 400 million smart water meters worldwide by 2026, according to a new report from global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research.

Since smart meters produce a massive amount of data, Meter Data Management (MDM) systems are essential to convert meter data into useful and actionable insights.

“As in the energy sector, MDM platforms play a crucial role in the efficient use of a smart meter,” says Harriet Sumnall, Research Analyst at ABI Research.

“It is vital for water utilities to be able to extract the most useful data from the smart water meters, as this is what ensures the meters reduce water wastage from leakages and water classified as non-revenue water.”

However, energy MDM’s are not automatically suited for water utilities as they don’t necessarily address their unique needs. The specific functionalities of scalability and the ease and speed of integration are the hard requirements of the MDM platforms for water utilities choosing which vendor and service will work alongside their Automatic Meter Infrastructure (AMI) systems. Having a complementary MDM platform that works effortlessly alongside the AMI system means that utilities can offer consistent and more accurate billing to their customers, as well as pinpoint where water is going missing.

Regional smart water meter deployments are forecasted to grow significantly. In 2018, the APAC region accounted for 42% of the global total installed base, followed by Europe and North America. In the APAC region, smart water meter deployments will surge as water utilities in China, India, Japan, and South Korea start to move from trials to large scale deployments in early 2020. Europe will emerge as one of the fastest- growing markets with a CAGR of 33% over the next 8 years driven by expanding regional LPWA network coverage. As the number of install bases increase, so will the demand for water-specific MDM platforms, offering much regional growth opportunity for MDM vendors.

Globally, there are several large-scale commercial rollouts of smart water meters planned, from a range of vendors such as Kamstrup, Sensus, Honeywell, Itron, and Holley Technology. Due to the variety of meter vendors, it is essential that MDM vendors ensure that MDM platforms can support multi-vendor smart meter implementation by water utilities. If this is not possible, it will mean that specific vendors are limiting their competitive edge as they are only allowing for themselves to integrate with specific vendors; this is usually found in turnkey solutions from primarily meter vendors offering a platform service to complement their meters.

Energy MDM platforms can become unnecessarily complex due to vendors adding functionalities that are not necessarily required for the water market.

“The traditional energy MDM platform vendors such as Siemens and Oracle need to ensure they are offering what the water utilities require for their specific MDM platform, rather than just modifying the solution they already provide to the energy utilities. The MDM platform from Birdz for example, provides a better effort at specifically addressing the water utilities hard requirements. Their platform is also well suited to collect and analyze meter data in a multi-vendor meter implementation,” Sumnall concludes.

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• A comprehensive solution that combines electronic meters with the most advanced metrological capabilities, IoT connectivity and a device management platform with advanced data analytics capabilities.

• Intelligent remote meter reading systems reduce costs for businesses, boost customer satisfaction and add value to water management processes.

Telefónica and ARAD, the world’s leading group in the sector of intelligent water meters, have signed a global partnership agreement for the commercialisation of a new intelligent solution for measuring water consumption.

It is a comprehensive solution based on NB-IoT and CAT-M1 technologies, which are within the 3GPP standards, specifically designed for Massive IoT that allows for the connection of billions of devices and machines to the Internet.

The agreement will allow water supply companies to provide a solution that combines the best electronic water meters with accurate measurements, thanks to metrological capabilities, IoT connectivity and a device management platform with advanced data analytics capabilities. This will enable companies to save costs on their current operations and investment in new assets.

The solution collects and processes the data generated by the water meters and the advanced analytics provides, among other things, predictive maintenance and remote detection of incidents. It also facilitates the treatment of consumption profiles, predicting demand or customisation of supply to customers. It is also a scalable and secure solution capable of meeting all the sector’s requirements, and is complemented by other IoT solutions developed by Telefónica for their application in all the infrastructures that make up the water distribution chain.

“This agreement will provide both groups with technological cooperation and new business opportunities in the NB-IoT and Massive IoT sectors thanks to the advantages brought by new technologies, such as LPWA, which enable, among others, longer battery life or better signal penetration in complex environments,” said Gabriel Yankovitz, CEO of the ARAD Group.

Vicente Muñoz, Chief IoT Officer of Telefónica, said:

“This is a very important step in the digital transformation of utilities. Not only will it allow them to save costs and increase revenues, but also provide greater satisfaction for customers who are increasingly demanding the digitalisation of this type of services and a more sustainable management.”

In this sense, the solution will help water companies not only to better understand consumption patterns but also to manage more effectively the scarcity and quality of water resources, one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDS).

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