Italy’s Abbanoa advances Sardinian smart water meter campaign

Italian water distributor Abbanoa has announced deployment of Itron smart water meters as part of a replacement campaign on the island of Sardinia.

A contract has been signed between smart tech company Itron and the Italian water utility, the only operator of Sardinia’s water services, and involves the supply of Itron’s ultrasonic water meters.

Specifically, Itron will be providing its Intelis wSource smart water meters to improve the utility’s data collection and better manage water use and delivery on the island, which is the second largest in the Mediterranean.

Itron’s smart metering technology will give Abbanoa access to detailed and precise data on a frequent basis.

Built-in alarms will aim to enable the utility to quickly detect leaks in its water network and reduce non-revenue water losses.

Among its key features, Abbanoa will utilise are:

• Remote meter reading collection, allowing Abbanoa to quickly identify water patterns. In turn, this can lower their customers water consumption by spotting and pre-emptively remediating leaks to lower bills.
• Data collection; the ultrasonic water meters have no moving parts and are designed to be long-lasting. The meters aim to prevent unplanned maintenance costs while providing accurate water data. This will also enable insight into the health of their water network. This helps to reduce real and apparent water losses.

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“It is essential not to take water for granted, but rather to protect and manage it in the best possible way. This is especially true as a water distributor enabling ever-increasing services to our end-users,” said Maurizio Zannol, who is responsible for the measures sector at Abbanoa.

“With remote meter reading, in a single day, it will be possible to take as many as 2,500 consumption readings versus 200 with a traditional door-to-door system.

“As many of our customers have inaccessible meters or have meters located inside private homes, Itron’s smart meters will allow us to simplify the data collection process with remote readings. We look forward to deploying Itron’s ultrasonic smart meters with high-precision two-way communication and accessing key information such as leak detection and reverse flow.”

Justin Patrick, senior vice president of Device Solutions at Itron added: “The [ultrasonic water] meter is built to maintain the highest level of accuracy in some of the most challenging conditions, which will help deliver long-lasting results in the Sardinia island climate.”

The Itron Intelis wSource is, according to Itron, the only water meter available today that is MID-certified for R1000 accuracy, a new standard in precision for measuring water consumption at low flows and increased accuracy in customer billing.