Water companies in England and Wales have recently submitted their business plans to Ofwat for what is known as asset management period 8 (AMP8). Unsurprisingly, all feature ambitious programmes for large smart water meter rollouts to be implemented between 2025 and 2030.
Ofwat is currently in the process of reviewing the plans and making a decision, which will be communicated in December 2024. Ofwat had previously challenged water companies to be bold and ambitious in their endeavors to improve sustainability and deliver value for money to their customers – and the implementation at scale of smart water meters could contribute to both objectives.
By providing almost real-time data on water consumption, smart water meters support efficient resource management, help identify usage patterns, and facilitate leak detection – helping companies prevent water waste and operate more sustainably. For customers, smart water meters offer the added benefit of enhanced billing accuracy, as well as providing insights into their consumption habits.
But for all the benefits they deliver, smart water meters also come with some challenges – such as the need for water companies to process the data they generate quickly and efficiently.
If approved, the AMP8 plans will lead to over 8 million smart water meters being deployed across England and Wales in the next five years, at a cost of approximately £2 billion. This will deliver benefits to water companies and customers alike, but will also raise the question of whether water companies are ready to handle and process the unprecedented amount of data these devices will generate.
As water companies adopt smart technologies at scale, ‘data deluge’ – a phrase referring to the inability to process vast quantities of data – is a common issue. Firstly, the sheer volume of data generated requires substantial storage capacity and a resilient IT infrastructure, which can be costly to implement and maintain.
Another common issue is data integration. Since water companies often rely on legacy platforms and purpose-built solutions for metering and billing, it can be very complex to integrate new data sources into these systems.
Of course, gathering data is just the first step – the main challenge comes from analysing and interpreting that data to generate insights into consumers’ usage patterns and bill them accurately. For this reason, water companies will need to invest in tools that facilitate big data analytics, to ensure that data from smart water meters is processed efficiently.
Finally, protecting huge amounts of sensitive customer data from cyber threats, and ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations, is another aspect that water companies will need to consider.
A software as a service (SaaS), cloud-native platform like Ignition from ENSEK can offer significant benefits to water companies as smart water meters are rolled out at scale.
First of all, SaaS cloud-native solutions provide scalable, secure and cost-effective data storage – allowing water companies to safely store and access vast amounts of information without the need for physical infrastructure. This eliminates the set up and maintenance costs associated with the need for traditional data storage solutions, as well as improving security and data compliance.
The scalability of Ignition also ensures that as data volume grows, the platform will be able to handle it while maintaining the same level of resilience and reliability. In fact, Ignition uses the core principles of microservice architecture, meaning services are loosely coupled and modular to ensure resilience as well as scalability.
Our cloud-native platform also offers advanced data analytics capabilities, enabling water companies to process and analyse data from smart water meters in real-time. This provides actionable insights into customers’ usage patterns, so that they can not only bill them accurately, but also optimise resource allocation, forecast demand more effectively, and spot system inefficiencies.
Another key feature of our SaaS platform is that customers benefit from regular updates and maintenance, as well as new features that can help them deliver the services needed as the water sector evolves.
This ensures water companies always have access to the latest resources to remain efficient and compliant, without the need for costly and time-consuming in-house “patches”. The possibility to have an up-to-date platform at all times is critical to make sure companies can keep up with the current level of industry transformation.
Last but not least, SaaS cloud-based platforms are inherently more secure than custom-built or legacy solutions. This is because the security features offered by the cloud provider are generally superior to those that water companies would be able to implement in-house. Moreover, cloud providers ensure constant monitoring of the hosted platform to keep data protected and spot potential threats before they can compromise data integrity.
The combination of scalability, resilience, advanced analytics, adaptability and security offered by a SaaS cloud-native platform like Ignition makes it an ideal choice for water companies eager to digitalise. As millions of smart water meters enter Britain’s households and businesses, the transition from legacy solutions to SaaS, cloud-based ones will help the water sector operate more efficiently and sustainably – delivering the value for money that both Ofwat and consumers are urging.
For more information on the benefits of Ignition for water companies, get in touch to book a free discovery call.