GB’s Severn Trent trials smart water meters

Severn Trent has launched two trials to gain a better understanding of water usage on its networks and improve leak detection.

The first trial, which got under way earlier in March, will instal over 150,000 Itron smart water meters in Coventry and Warwickshire by 2025.

The £20 million (US$26 million) initiative, part of Severn Trent’s Green Recovery programme following Covid, aims to trial the creation of a smart water data region to improve understanding of water usage and how water can be saved and protected for future use.

The second trial, which will run for one year, will instal a further 1,800 smart water meters by mid-year in the West Bridgford area of Nottingham, again to improve understanding of the water usage.

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Jack Muir, Smart Metering Project Manager at Severn Trent, says that currently a lot of assumptions have to be made about where water is used on the network

“Installing smart meters in an entire area will greatly increase our understanding of the network and show whether increased water usage is due to customers consuming more water, or if there’s a leak.”

Severn Trent has reported that on the hottest day in summer 2021 over 2.2 billion litres of water was used across its region, corresponding to an average 60l of water per person on top of the 145l normally used.

Data will be collected from the smart meters on an hourly basis. The company envisages that data collected will enable the delivery of tailored water efficiency initiatives to customers and assistance in fixing internal plumbing issues as well as the early detection and fixing of leaks on the networks.

The smart meters also should help to identify customers who could save money by switching to a metered bill rather than being billed on the rateable value of their property.

Alongside the installation of smart meters in Coventry, Severn Trent intends to replace old lead supply pipes with new pipes.

Ongoing data gathering from the smart water meters is expected to inform Severn Trent’s plans for 2025 and beyond.

Severn Trent supplies water to 4.6 million households and businesses across the British Midlands.