GB’s Essex & Suffolk Water advances smart meter rollout

Essex & Suffolk Water is to deploy up to one million smart water meters across its Essex and Suffolk supply regions by 2035.

The rollout has been awarded to technology provider Connexin, as part of an up to 15-year end-to-end ‘meter as a service’ solution contract.

Connexin will install 164,000 Itron water meters by the end of 2025, 612,000 meters by 2030 and up to one million meters in total by 2035.

The company also will provide a LoRaWAN wireless communications network for the up to one million households and businesses, which will enable communications with Temetra’s head end system (HES) to provide remote access to hourly water meter readings.

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“Our rollout of smart metering will support [our targets to reduce both consumption and leakage] and provide valuable insight in shaping how the industry can better understand where water is used, and make sure we’re looking after it for the future,” says Gary Adams, Head of the Smart Transformation Programme at Essex & Suffolk Water.

Adding that the company knows approximately 18% of its domestic customers have a leak at their property, he continues: “Through this smart connectivity, we will be able to detect customer side leakage more precisely and quicker than before supporting our customers in keeping their bills as low as possible.

“The hourly data will also allow us to work with our customers to demonstrate how much water they are using and provide guidance on how to reduce it to help improve people’s lives and safeguard our environment.”

This award to Connexin is claimed the largest of its kind in the UK water utility sector.

It also is the third major smart water meter win for the company, following previous awards from Yorkshire Water for an initial 30,000 meters and Severn Trent Water for 150,000 meters.

The contract is for an initial five years with the option to extend for a further 10 years.

As all of Britain’s water companies are looking to smart meters and are at different stages of deployment, more such announcements can be expected.