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GB’s Northumbrian Water initiates 900,000 smart meter rollout

GB’s Northumbrian Water initiates 900,000 smart meter rollout

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Northumbrian Water has selected the British digital service provider Connexin for the creation of its smart water network.

Under the contract, Connexin will manage the supply and connectivity of over 900,000 smart meters across Northumbrian Water’s northeast England supply region serving an approximately 2.7 million-person population.

Installation of Connexin’s LoRaWAN network infrastructure should enable communications with the head-end System, sending data from smart water meters via the Connexin AMI network infrastructure to effectively analyse reports from across the network remotely in near real-time.

Connexin will provide connectivity to over 330,000 LoRaWAN-enabled water meters by the end of 2029, forecasting over 900,000 meters over the 15-year contract.

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“We are delighted to start our smart water partnership with Connexin to create a smarter, more connected, sustainable future,” says Gary Adams, Head of Smart Programme at Northumbrian Water.

“The new communications network will enable us to capture real-time data across the region and help us to identify and fix leaks faster than ever before, to reduce waste and safeguard our environment.”

The smart meters will provide hourly readings, which also will be available remotely to customers to will increase visibility on usage.

The contract follows the award in February of an up to one million smart water meter deployment in the south of England in an up to 15-year contract with Northumbrian Water’s sister company, Essex and Suffolk Water.

In that case, Connexin indicated it would be deploying water meters from Itron and although the type for Northumbrian Water hasn’t been indicated, it’s likely to be the same.

Connexin also has a 150,000 smart meter rollout with Severn Trent Water and an initial 30,000 unit rollout with Yorkshire Water underway.

Dan Preece, Vice President of Water & Utilities at Connexin, adds that the company is looking forward to using its expertise to double the volume of smart water meters across both Northumbrian Water’s territories.