Smart Water Metering

For urban areas challenged by water management issues, smart water metering can help to more effectively monitor consumption, reduce leaks, forecast demand and plan for future usage. When combined with other smart water management technology, smart water metering can significantly transform the way that municipalities conserve and manage scarce water resources.

Traditional water meters, which measure the amount of water consumed in a building, must be read manually and therefore tend to be read on a monthly or bimonthly basis. This not only results in inaccurate billing but in a significant delay in the analysis of consumption patterns. Smart water metering uses digital devices that not only record volume of water consumed but the date and time that consumption occurs. Smart metering technology can be read remotely, enabling far more frequent reads and providing water utilities with near real-time data on consumption patterns.

By continually analyzing consumption data and other information produced by smart water metering and other smart city water sensors, water utilities can:

• Ensure an uninterrupted supply of clean water for city residents and businesses by monitoring consumption, managing resources and predicting future demand more accurately.
• Reducing the cost of managing water supplies by optimizing pumping operations to reduce energy consumption, performing predictive maintenance to extend the life of water utility infrastructure, minimizing water loss due to leaks and theft, and eliminating the labor costs of manual meter reading.
• Protecting water quality by monitoring criteria such as levels of pathogens and bacteria and issuing alerts based on early detection of problems.
• Alleviating stress on distribution networks through more informed planning.
• Preventing water shortages and managing flooding events more effectively.

How smart water metering and smart water systems work

Smart water metering and smart water grid technology rely on digital sensors to closely monitor consumption, pressure, temperature, flow, quality and other factors like the potential for flooding. The technologies involved in smart water systems include:

• Smart water meters that monitor consumption in residential and commercial settings and transmit data back to the city through some kind of network connection.
• Smart water sensors placed throughout the water distribution network, including water infrastructure and supply locations, as well as in areas of major consumption such as multi-tenant housing structures, commercial and agricultural irrigation systems, recreational facilities like public pools and water parks, large office buildings, healthcare facilities and government offices.
• Network connections that can reliably and quickly transmit data from sensors and meters to the cloud.
• Powerful data analytics platforms that transform raw streaming data into practical intelligence that city officials can use to better monitor, manage and plan for water resources.

Connecting smart water metering technology and smart water grids

To reap the benefits of smart water metering and other smart water technologies, cities need a high-performance, high-bandwidth network that can handle and transmit the vast amounts of data produced by smart water technology and other smart city initiatives.

Spectrum Enterprise provides the foundation of connectivity that is currently powering smart city projects in cities throughout the U.S. With an investment of $25 billion in additional capacity planned before 2021, Spectrum Enterprise is ready to serve as a trusted network infrastructure partner for cities adopting smart technologies.

To connect smart water metering technology and smart water sensors with city analytics platforms, Spectrum Enterprise provides:

• A two-way, fully interactive digital network that spans more than 840,000 miles of fiber infrastructure.
• 100 Gbps symmetrical connection speeds for cities and large institutions at enterprises.
• Gigabit connections for homes and businesses.
• Cellular connectivity through one of the nation’s largest LTE cellular networks.
• WiFi connectivity, with more than 350,000 WiFi hotspots throughout the country that will soon offer wireless connection speeds of up to 1 Gbps.

Learn more about Spectrum Smart Cities at www.spectrumsmartcities.com.