Water and gas remote reading infrastructures to be pooled in France
Image: Suez
Water solutions provider SUEZ and GRDF subsidiary IOWIZMI have signed a 10-year contract to pool their remote reading infrastructures in France.
Under the agreement, SUEZ will use the 169MHz network deployed by GRDF for its 11 million smart gas meters to read its smart water meters in France remotely.
This pooling of existing infrastructure enables large-scale water management, while also optimising the economic and environmental impact of the service.
With it, access should be simplified for local authorities to a multiservice remote reading offer that can be deployed in all areas wishing to preserve their water resources.
Have you read?
Smart water metering growing fast in Europe and North America
Water and energy: Two sides of the same challenge
By enabling precise monitoring of water consumption, remote reading of meters is an essential tool for helping to control water consumption and for leak detection.
SUEZ, through its Digital Solutions subsidiary, has developed ON’connect, a digital smart metering and consumption monitoring solution that is asserted to save up to 16% on water volumes.
The contract was concluded as part of the Wize Alliance – of which SUEZ and GRDF were founding members, along with Sagemcom – which brings together around forty stakeholders promoting the 169MHz network technology as an international open standard for the internet of things.
Wize technology is designed to provide reliable, high performance data transmission, even for hard-to-reach and buried objects and to meet the specific requirements needed for remote reading of meters and optimised resource management.
Such pooling of network infrastructures is not widely practised between utilities but offers an approach that could prove beneficial and cost-effective to both parties.
SUEZ has 7 million smart water meters deployed worldwide.
IOWIZMI operates the 169MHz network in France, covering over three-quarters of the country and about 80% of the population.
