• Using Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions, WaterSignal transfers water data independent of a power source
• WaterSignal, an innovator in the water conservation space, leverages Telit Cinterion’s technology to ensure always-on connectivity for its water monitoring system

Telit Cinterion, a global enabler of the intelligent edge, today announced that it is working with WaterSignal to ensure always-on connectivity to its real-time water monitoring and leak detection systems.

As water scarcity continues to increase worldwide, baseline water benchmarking and evaluation have become critical, requiring operation teams for domestic meters, irrigation systems and cooling towers to have reliable access to on-demand data. Through WaterSignal’s remote water monitoring capabilities – supported by cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions – teams gain deeper insights into their towers and systems’ efficiencies while eliminating the need to perform repetitive, manual day-to-day meter readings.

WaterSignal’s real-time water monitoring and leak detection system enables make-up and blow-down meter monitoring for cooling towers, helping teams search for leaks proactively, mitigate water loss and damage and justify evaporation credits with local municipalities. The unique technology is non-invasive, unlike others, WaterSignal’s solutions attach to any existing water meter without a disruptive installation, significantly reducing costs while eliminating the need for additional city approval.

In light of ongoing and worsening power outages, WaterSignal needed to transfer water data independent of a power source. The company also needed a trusted and dependable technology partner for cellular IoT connectivity and network services. Because of these requirements, WaterSignal turned to Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions for their units.

Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA supports various devices, from point-of-sale terminals and smart meters to industrial sensors and asset management. Its modules include Power Saving Mode (PSM) and extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX), ideal for increasing IoT application power saving and battery life when backed by networks. The cellular LPWA module family form factor also allows developers to employ a “design once, use anywhere” strategy, helping them decrease costs, truncate development time and deploy the most optimal technologies for the application’s environment. In addition to providing superior performance for the module, the radio frequency front-end (RFFE) engineering delivers reliable connections, even for IoT devices in hard-to-reach locations typical of a water monitoring setting.

“Telit Cinterion is a leading IoT provider and was selected because of its excellent reputation for quality modules, which later expanded to its IoT connectivity network services,” said Mike Drake, Vice President of Engineering, WaterSignal.

“WaterSignal can ensure connectivity for customers via cellular data rather than Wi-Fi. It does not require a connection to power. This capability provides a more stable connection. It allows the WaterSignal device to communicate, even in deep vaults or locations far away from buildings with Wi-Fi.”

“When monitoring critical resources, like water, a reliable connection is pivotal to maintaining visibility and extracting actionable insights,” said Neset Yalcinkaya, SVP Sales Americas, Telit Cinterion. “WaterSignal’s technology is invaluable for operation teams, and we are pleased that Telit Cinterion’s cellular LPWA modules and IoT connectivity solutions are central to providing that essential connection, particularly the ability to use cellular instead of Wi-Fi to transfer water data independently of a power source during an outage.”

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WaterMeter Corp, in collaboration with WND Mexico and UnaBiz, is pleased to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to revolutionise water management in Mexico.

This strategic alliance aims to deploy 1 million water meters with Sigfox 0G technology throughout Mexico over the next 10 years, offering innovative solutions for accurate, efficient, and sustainable measurement of water, gas and electricity for the benefit of communities and the environment.

Empowering Water Management with Sigfox 0G Technology

WaterMeter Corp has forged a high-impact alliance with WND Mexico and UnaBiz to introduce 1 million water measurement solutions based on Sigfox 0G technology in Mexico. Leveraging WND’s 0G Network, this collaboration will facilitate the efficient monitoring and management of water resources.

WND Mexico: Facilitating Connectivity Without Borders

As the operator of the 0G Network in Mexico, WND Mexico is committed to providing extensive coverage crucial to the successful deployment of water metering solutions powered by Sigfox 0G technology across the country. This alliance reinforces WND Mexico’s dedication to supporting innovative IoT solutions.

UnaBiz: Pioneers in the Future of Water Management

As the owner of Sigfox 0G technology, UnaBiz guarantees the continuity and longevity of the network and services in Mexico for the next 15 years. With a strong track record of connecting more than 2 million gas and water meters worldwide through the global 0G network, UnaBiz brings unparalleled experience to this transformative collaboration.

WaterMeter Corp

Committed to Sustainability and Efficiency, WaterMeter Corp, an expert in water measurement solutions, confidently embraces Sigfox 0G technology because of its ability to communicate equipment in a dispersed or sectorised way without the need to install concentrator antennas, repeaters or gateways on public poles. This decision underscores its commitment to providing cost-effective and sustainable water metering solutions for municipalities in Mexico.

A Shared Vision for Sustainable Water Management

This alliance between WaterMeter Corp, WND Mexico, and UnaBiz is based on a shared long-term business vision. Recognising the critical importance of security, stability, and continuity in the utility market, the trio aims to redefine water measurement in Mexico and beyond.

The fundamental objective is to multiply success stories based on projects with successful investment returns; UnaBiz, WND and WaterMeter Corp are willing to revolutionise the administration and management of water, gas, and electricity with cutting-edge technology.

Currently, the 0G network covers more than 60% of the national population with the commitment to deploy in a few days. After the success of the first stage applied to horizontal and vertical condominiums nationwide, the second step has been called: “essence the IoT technology for everyone, everywhere”.

Marco Mendoza, CEO of WaterMeter Corp:
“Our customers expect water metering solutions that meet their basic needs: accounting for 100% of water, gas or electricity effectively (day, week or month), with cost-effective and operationally practical solutions, and that fit their implementation budgets. This is precisely why we are committed to the Sigfox 0G technology, which allows us to read meters remotely cost-effectively, predictably, and extremely energy-efficiently. Together with WND Mexico and UnaBiz, we will connect millions of water meters in Mexico.”

Daniel Philippe Guevara, CEO of WND Mexico:
“We are excited to partner with WaterMeter Corp (certified in IoT Network for utilities with Sigfox 0G technology) and UnaBiz to pave the way to a smarter and more sustainable Mexico. As the operator of Mexico’s 0G Network, WND Mexico is fully dedicated to providing solid coverage essential for deploying IoT solutions powered by Sigfox 0G technology, including water metering. We share a long-term vision with WaterMeter Corp, recognising the importance of safety, stability, and continuity in the utility market. We hope to transform the smart water metering landscape with 1 million connected water meters over the next 10 years.”

Henri Bong, CEO and Co-founder of UnaBiz:
“At UnaBiz, we are committed to leveraging our experience as owners of Sigfox 0G technology to ensure the continuity and durability of the network and services in Mexico for the next 15 years. With a proven track record of connecting more than 2.6 million meters around the world through the Sigfox 0G network, we are confident that, together with WaterMeter Corp, we will deliver water metering solutions that will help Mexican municipalities address the challenges of water scarcity, non-technical losses, and water leaks.”

“With a long-term business vision, our goal is to modernise the water management system in Mexico, promote water conservation and ensure the country’s sustainable and efficient use of water resources.”

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Highlights:

• This partnership will strengthen Veolia Water Technologies’ business data collection infrastructure and Hubgrade digital solutions platform.
• Hubgrade benefits from the synergy between the digital and technological expertise of Orange Business Services and that of Veolia Water Technologies in terms of water cycle management.
• The strengthening of digital solutions will translate to new monitoring and analysis features to optimize the technical, economic and environmental performance of our customers’ water treatment facilities.

Veolia Water Technologies has signed an agreement with Orange Business Services to support the growth of Hubgrade, its smart digital platform, and develop innovative digital services for its customers worldwide.

Veolia Water Technologies’ Hubgrade digital platform enables its customers to remotely view, anticipate and optimize water treatment plants and equipment. This platform allows municipalities and industries to optimize the performance of their sites while sustainably preserving water resources.

A wide range of expertise to support Veolia Water Technologies’ business data

With expertise across the entire digital value chain, Orange Business Services supports the project with more than 25 types of expertise around digital, artificial intelligence, IoT, data analytics, and cloud, as well as cybersecurity with Orange Cyberdefense. In addition, Orange has extensive knowledge in business data collection solutions from its experience with the industrial sector.

Co-innovation to accelerate the development of products and services

With the mindset of continuously improving all of its digital services, Veolia Water Technologies turned to Orange Business Services, able to support them at the heart of their business needs, addressing the challenges of modernization and differentiation.

Veolia Water Technologies and Orange Business Services have jointly defined several co-innovation projects around the development of a universal multi-protocol and multi-connectivity IoT gateway, as well as the exploration of services around “Machine Learning at the Edge.”

Vincent Caillaud, CEO, Veolia Water Technologies, said:

“This collaboration with Orange Business Services allows us to offer our customers an intuitive and innovative window into their facilities. More importantly, it allows us — thanks to our experts and to specific algorithms — to multiply the monitoring and analysis features and to optimize the technical, economic and environmental performance of their equipment.”

“Having a partner with recognized multi-service skills and extensive research capabilities means that governance is more agile and responsive. It facilitates the management and implementation of the demanding, innovative and ambitious roadmap that we have set for ourselves in the service of our clients.”

“We are delighted to work with an innovative company like Veolia Water Technologies, leveraging digital services to support the environment and create a positive impact. This project is unique in terms of its size and technological complexity, and our teams were able to cover the entire scope from business data collection to digital solutions to support Veolia Water Technologies solve their needs. We are committed to a process of co-innovation and co-construction with Veolia Water Technologies to develop efficient and secure platforms secured by Orange Cyberdefense to support responsible growth,” added Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, CEO, Orange Business Services.

The post Veolia Water Technologies Strengthens Its Digital Solutions for Water Management with Orange Business Services appeared first on IoT Business News.

Panaji Municipal Corporation (PWD-PHED) to feature a LoRaWAN® network for water use management.

Semtech Corporation, announced that Cranberry Analytics, a water management company based in India, has chosen to integrate Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® standard into its ultrasonic meters for smart water metering.

India’s Panaji Municipal Corporation awarded its smart water metering contract to Cranberry Analytics for use of its smart meters due to its reliable manual data capture and communication via LoRa modules.

Shishir Thakur, co-founder and CTO, Cranberry Analytics, said:

“Semtech’s LoRa provides cost-effective sensors and strong signal propagation capabilities which are necessary in an urban setting for deep in-building or underground connectivity. Considering all these factors, it became a clear decision that LoRa and LoRaWAN would be the best choice for reliable water metering.”

Cranberry Analytics’ smart water meters allow system administrators to collect meter readings and water consumption data on a daily basis, allowing for effective planning of water distribution as well as real-time anomaly detection and leakage analysis and mitigating water waste. According to Cranberry Analytics, in the project’s initial phase, 3,094 consumer’s mechanical water meters will be replaced by ultrasonic meters utilizing LoRa and LoRaWAN.

“LoRaWAN integration into the Cranberry Analytics water meters will allow for long range data transmission while reducing costs and keeping customer’s data secure. The system’s communication capabilities will allow meters to be diagnosed and updated without physical intervention,” said Marc Pégulu, vice president of IoT product marketing and strategy for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “Overall, the collaboration with Cranberry Analytics is continuing to highlight Semtech’s commitment toward creating a sustainable and smarter planet through LoRa devices and LoRaWAN.”

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IoT-based water conservation software leader, Banyan Water, today released its 2021 Water Analysis Trends and Emerging Risk (W.A.T.E.R.) Report on the heels of announcing it has saved 4 billion gallons of water for enterprises.

Banyan’s report analyzes 2020 data from its portfolio of properties, identifying major enterprise-level water risks jeopardizing large-scale conservation amidst historic droughts. The report also identifies the millions of dollars in hidden costs properties face due to water mismanagement coupled with rising regional water rates.

“Severe droughts threatening water reserves are not just an issue. We’re combating a full crisis,” said Gillan Taddune, CEO of Banyan.

“Corporations can no longer put water management on the back burner. Insights from our report underscores the importance of Banyan’s data-first water management system that eliminates costly risks for U.S. enterprises.”

The report explores market data on water usage and climate in the U.S. to reveal:

• Water leaks critically impact enterprise-level risk: Banyan identified—and stopped—more than 505 leaks, preventing more than 5.1 million gallons of water waste.

• Regional rainfall amounts vary, posing challenges: Fluctuations in average daily rainfall resulted in unpredictable water supply and demand, complicating property management and increasing the risk of loss.

• Rising regional water rates drive property expenses: Banyan reported an increase in yearly water rates across several regions of the U.S.—as much as a 7.6 percent increase in rates year-over-year—and highlighted significant rate increases in Houston.

• Unpredictable water flow rates lead to unforeseen costs: Existing buildings and local infrastructure are not standardized across the United States, making it difficult to anticipate water-related expenses throughout a property’s lifetime.

The post Water risk report: Data shows potential cataclysmic impact on planet appeared first on IoT Business News.

New IoT management platform frees water companies from being locked in to purchasing equipment from just one supplier.

• New Vodafone Internet of Things (IoT) offering enables water companies to integrate a wide range of devices and sensors into a single platform.
• New capability frees water companies from being locked in to purchasing equipment from just one supplier.
• Solution will make it easier for water companies to reduce wastage and improve efficiency by bringing applications such as smart metering and leak detection together on a single platform.
• The new capability is delivered through Vodafone’s IoT.nxt platform and follows completion of a project to expand NB-IoT (Narrow Band-IoT) coverage.

Vodafone has launched a new IoT-based technology to help water companies improve monitoring and detection systems, increase efficiency, reduce wastage, and meet regulatory requirements.

One of the major challenges for the water industry is the need to prolong the life of legacy monitoring systems installed over the last 30 years, while becoming more efficient and meeting new targets.

After years of market consolidation, data is often trapped on separate systems that do not talk to each other and often have incompatible technical standards. This has resulted in the water industry facing significant overheads and operational inefficiencies due to the increasing cost of managing disparate technologies that are too expensive and disruptive to replace with modern equivalents.

The new Vodafone solution offers a single data management platform that integrates old and new sensors in one system to dramatically increase operational efficiency. The solution is device and technology agnostic, so it can bring together any device in a network. This means water companies aren’t locked into suppliers and can choose the devices that best meet their needs and those of their customers.

Vodafone gives water companies every element of an Internet of Things (IoT) solution, including devices, connectivity, data management and ongoing service.

• Devices: Vodafone will procure new devices and sensors, including smart meters and data loggers, as well as integrate existing devices into a single management platform.
• Connectivity: Vodafone’s NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) coverage now reaches 98% of the UK geography.
• Data management: There is a single platform that allows the user to manage all devices, both new and legacy, and integrate all data sets. Data from all devices is securely acquired, orchestrated, stored, analysed and visualised.
• Service: Ongoing advice and collaboration is provided to ensure customers get the greatest value from their IoT deployment, and the quickest possible return on their investment.

The technology is simple to deploy and manage, allowing water companies to increase the level of surveillance and telemetry on networks to meet important regulatory and environmental standards, while ensuring greater efficiency and reduced wastage.

Anne Sheehan, Business Director, Vodafone UK, said:

“There is growing demand on the UK water companies to increase efficiency and reduce wastage. We’ve worked closely with the water industry to identify a common problem and develop a simple solution.”

“The platform has been designed with simplicity in mind – you do not have to be a connectivity expert to benefit from IoT. We are making it as easy as possible to ensure water companies can benefit from cutting-edge technology and connectivity to meet important regulatory and environmental standards.”

Damian Crawford, Head of Smart Networks and Leakage at Stantec, an engineering services company, said:
“Vodafone’s smart water proposition is a game-changer for the water industry. While there is ample variety of water network telemetry equipment on the market, Vodafone can be unique in providing the water industry with one full end-to-end secure solution that is device agnostic, removing supplier lock-in and maximising existing assets.”

“Vodafone’s innovative solution has set a benchmark for the UK water industry, with the aim to deliver excellent service for water companies and their customers.”

The new solution for the water industry follows the completion of a project to double the amount of NB-IoT sites. For those areas that are not covered by the NB- IoT network today, Vodafone will work with customers to upgrade and add infrastructure on a case-by-case basis. NB-IoT is designed for use cases which require devices with long-life batteries and in locations that might be difficult for traditional mobile connectivity to reach, such as underground water pipes.

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Smart water metering is taking off in the water sector.

In total revenue terms, the smart share of AMI and AMR has almost doubled—from 28.2% in 2012 to 46.7% in 2020. This adoption has largely been driven by water shortages and the importance of leakage detection and water preservation, customer billing and service requirements, detection of pipe faults and asset management.

As economies recover from the pandemic, stakeholders are investing in digitalisation, and the global smart water meters market is expected to record significant growth of 7.7% between 2020 and 2026. A report by Global Industry Analysts forecasts that investments in smart water metering to jump from $2.9 billion in 2020 to $4.6 billion by 2026. The market will be led by the United States, Canada, China, Japan, and Germany.

DID YOU KNOW?
Water leakages cost the global industry $39 billion a year in lost revenue.

The drivers of smart meter investment include:

• Addressing water scarcity
• Detecting leakages
• Eliminating non-revenue water
• Updating aging infrastructure
• Dealing with rapid urbanisation
• The enactment of supporting legislation
• Water conservation
• Improving operational savings
• Ensuring accurate water bills
• Developing smart cities

AMR for Water Suppliers

Utility Week recently interviewed Mark Cooper, head of smart metering at Thames Water, the UK’s largest water and wastewater services company. Thames Water services most of Greater London and beyond. Over the past six years, the company has increased its smart water meter penetration from around 34% to 49%, and recently reached the milestone of half a million devices. The overriding goal of smart metering is to take less water from the environment and secure water supplies for future generations.

The benefits of AMRs

The significant difference between a traditional meter and an AMR water meter is the means and frequency of data collection. The real-time nature of AMR data allows for a wide range of benefits as it enables customers and businesses to work to the minute to transform costs and consumption.

Cost-effectiveness

The thought of overhauling an entire metering system can be overwhelming and prohibitive to many providers. An important benefit of AMRs is that they can be retrofitted onto existing meters. This makes it a much simpler transition to a smart solution.

Saving precious resources

Information from AMRs can be invaluable in encouraging households and businesses to use less water and spread demand at peak times. Giving customers an additional view of their usage encourages them to monitor their usage more closely. When it comes to water, for example, a continuous flow could indicate a leak that needs to be attended to. Even having a closer eye on day-to-day consumption helps consumers understand their usage patterns better and make changes to reduce consumption as a result. This is especially important for places experiencing water stress.

For water utilities companies, linking smart meter data with acoustic logger data and other devices helps better target leakage across networks. This helps customers and helps water utilities reduce the amount of water they take from the environment. The information gleaned from AMRs can be compiled and analysed to help companies understand where water is going, how much is consumed and what is being wasted.

Saving human resources

Manually reading meters is time-consuming, and can also be dangerous when meters are in hard-to-access locations. Having the process automated saves a significant amount of time and helps to keep employees safe.

Customer engagement

Smart metering enables better customer engagements and relationships. By providing customers with more information about their consumption, you empower them to take control of their energy use. They can also be ensured of the accuracy of their water readings and billing.

With these benefits in mind, it’s no surprise that utility companies around the world are adopting AMR technology as an easy-to-implement solution to reduce operational expenditure as well as water consumption. Partnering with an experienced AMR provider like Smarter Technologies Group makes the transition all the more seamless, a smarter experience for all stakeholders.

The post A Smart Upgrade: How Connected Technology is Transforming the Water Utilities Industry appeared first on IoT Business News.

Goal Is to Save More than 10 Billion Liters of Water In Residential and Commercial Buildings by 2024.

Kerlink, a specialist in solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), and WEGoT, a provider of wireless, real-time water-management systems, today announced they are partnering to expand and accelerate adoption of WEGoT’s solutions to help address serious water shortages in India.

With a population of more than 1.3 billion, almost one-fifth of the world’s population, India faces ongoing challenges providing adequate water for residential and industrial consumption. NITI Aayog, a public-policy think tank of the Indian government, forecasts the country’s water supply will meet only half of demand by 2030.

Designed for facilities ranging from hotels, hospitals and factories to high-rise residential buildings, WEGoT’s Aqua IoT-based solution monitors water-supply systems by tracking detailed consumption data via its highly accurate, ultrasonic sensors that measure water flow, pressure, and quality, and transmit the data to property managers’ dashboards and smartphones in real time. The system consistently has enabled users, such as large residential communities, to reduce their water consumption by 40-50 percent, bringing a 40 percent reduction in water-related costs. Property owners typically achieve an RoI within 12 months of installing the system. In addition to monitoring consumption, the WEGoT Aqua solution also sends water-leak alerts to users’ mobile apps, which can be used to stop the supply of water to the source of the leak.

Kerlink and WEGoT will combine the Indian startup’s ultrasonic water meters and cloud application in LoRaWAN® networks with Kerlink’s carrier-grade outdoor Wirnet iStations and industrial-grade Wirnet iFemtocell indoor gateways, which receive sensor-generated data and transfer it to building and facility managers. It also gives businesses, such as water-delivery companies and water- and sewage-treatment plants, a real-time picture of operations, and informs preventative-maintenance decisions.

WEGoT, which was launched in 2015, calculates that its systems in more than 30,000 homes and 40 million square feet of commercial space have saved more than 3 billion liters of water. With a goal of saving another 10 billion-plus liters in the next three years, WEGoT and Kerlink plan to deploy the system in a million more homes and more than 5,000 commercial and industrial facilities by 2024.

“Kerlink is a strong and responsive partner in our plan to expand and accelerate deployments of WEGoT’s Aqua solution, because their equipment is being used in diverse Indian LoRaWAN networks and has proven to be robust and reliable under any conditions,” said Vijay Krishna, WEGoT’s vice president, networks. “Because of that experience, the company understands how to do business in India, which helps make our system rollouts for customers simple and quick.”

Girish Dadheech, vice president of Kerlink India, said: 

“WEGoT’s Aqua solution is an innovative, necessary tool for reducing water consumption – and waste – supported by a customer-friendly business model that provides users with details of their use, and encourages them to take their own steps to manage consumption and support sustainable living practices. The market for this timely solution delivered in LoRaWAN customized private networks is large.”

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Octave all-in-one solution enables company to launch in less than five months a ground-breaking water quality analyzer for accurate, real-time information.

Sierra Wireless today announced that Aquamonitrix® is using Sierra Wireless Octave, the all-in one edge-to-cloud solution for connecting industrial assets to the cloud, to enable its ground-breaking water quality analyzer to provide accurate, real-time information on nitrate and nitrite levels in fresh and effluent water.

Octave Provides Real-Time Continuous Information, Speeds Time-to-Market, and Reduces Costs

Working in conjunction with Sierra Wireless and Sierra Wireless’ partner Linkwave Technologies, Aquamonitrix Ltd – backed by the resources of its parent company T.E. Laboratories (TelLab) – has been able to use Octave to develop a new remote monitoring IoT application that enables water managers to react immediately to nitrate-related pollution events, helping them to avoid fines, environmental damage, and reputation loss. The application also allows for near-continuous monitoring, so that episodic pollution events need no longer go undetected. Users can gather sufficient data to better model and understand nitrate/nitrite sources and treatment dynamics, enabling them to arrive at evidence-based, optimized solutions.

Alan Staunton, New Product Development Lead, Aquamonitrix, said:

“Octave’s innovative technology helps us capture critical data on water quality every few seconds. By getting up-to-date information on water quality, management can make data-driven decisions and ensure regulatory compliance.”

“Moreover, Octave’s efficient power consumption allows longer deployment periods, diminishing maintenance needs, and provides an integrated monitoring solution that is cost-effective.”

By using Octave, engineers at Aquamonitrix did not have to build any IoT infrastructure from scratch and were able to launch the remote monitoring IoT application in less than five months at a predictable cost.

“Being a complete solution, Octave provides not just the edge devices that extract data from the Aquamonitrix sensors, but also cellular connectivity and cloud actions that securely transmit sensor data over low power cellular networks to Aquamonitrix cloud applications,” said Olivier Pauzet, Vice President Product & IoT Solutions, Sierra Wireless.

“Octave enables secured connections from edge devices to any cloud provider or cloud-based application such as Azure Power BI. It also allows companies to simplify their development and de-risk their deployment so that they can focus on their data and creating innovative IoT applications,” said Andrew Newton, CEO, Linkwave Technologies.

Remote Monitoring IoT Application Delivers the Benefits of Real-Time Data Transmission to Users

Aquamonitrix makes access to real-time information on nitrate and nitrite in water systems practical and affordable. Unlike existing real-time analyzers, the Aquamonitrix solution incorporates a separation step that allows it to analyze ‘dirty’ or cloudy real-world samples, without any loss of accuracy or performance. Moreover, because the sensor sits outside the water, it does not succumb to biofouling and is compact, lite-weight and portable. Its total lifetime costs are also low since no specialized technical skills are required to set it up, operate it or service it.

Aquamonitrix has so far been deployed in applications that include catchment management, raw water abstraction monitoring, wastewater treatment optimization, and effluent monitoring.

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Sabesp, one of the largest water and sewage service providers in the world, today announces that it has successfully completed the implementation of 100,000 smart water meters with Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

The project, which is one of the largest in Latin America, introduces water consumption telemeasurement in Sabesp’s 100,000 largest consumers in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo.

The Metrolink consortium is delivering the project and comprises of companies Laager and Vita Ambiental, which won the contract after a competitive bidding process Sabesp started at the end of 2018.

WND’s Sigfox 0G network was the communication technology selected by Sabesp for more than 92,000 of the total connected water meters. WND is the exclusive operator of Sigfox technology in Brazil. Sigfox technology enables the transport of data wirelessly, at low cost, over long distances, with minimum energy consumption. The devices will be in operation for at least five years without changing or recharging the battery.

Telemetering – the remote reading of meters – automates the process of measuring water consumption. The task was performed manually once a month and can now be performed multiple times a day. In addition to measurement, the system also generates alarms and important statistics about the operation of the entire water network. All of these new features bring reliability, transparency and savings to consumers and unprecedented operational efficiency for Sabesp.

Ricardo Batista, Sabesp’s Division Manager and responsible for the project, comments:

“The project marked the large-scale adoption of the IoT concept by Sabesp. The new technology enables our customers to monitor water consumption daily, as well as leak detection, saving money and preserving the environment, in addition to better management of resources by our company. We hope to be able to expand the project in the coming years.”

According to Felipe Duque Estrada, CEO of Laager, the success of the project is largely due to the partnership with Sigfox and WND Brazil: “The adoption of 0G network technologies from Sigfox ensured the economic and technological viability of the project.”

José Almeida, Deputy CEO of WND Brazil, adds: “Thanks to Sabesp’s pioneering approach, Laager’s expertise and our work together, we have delivered one of the largest IoT projects in the Americas. The results achieved demonstrate, without any doubt, that our technology and business model are the best choices for IoT projects today.”

Carlos Beato, VP Americas at Sigfox concludes: “We are incredibly proud of SABESP’s achievement and visionary take on smart water metering. The benefits of such a solution go far beyond remote reading. It truly transforms the customer experience and Quality of Service.”

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Recently analyst group Transforma Insights predicted global LPWA connections will grow from 220 million in 2019 to 4 billion in 2030. Transforma estimates that almost two-thirds of these devices will use 5G mMTC (massive Machine-Type Communications), otherwise known as NB-IoT and LTE connectivity, operated on licensed spectrums by multinational telecoms.

The highest adoption rates are expected in China, Europe, and North America, with gas, water, and electrical metering representing the lion’s share of deployments.

Adoption Challenges

Transforma founding partner, Matt Hatton, in his 2020 book, The Internet of Things Myth, called predictions of 50 billion devices by 2020 ridiculous, calling attention to existing challenges:

1. “Connectivity is the most important underpinning technology area for IoT… there is no standard for connecting distributed IoT devices.”

2. “Technology immaturity and fragmentation continued to create problems…enterprise adopters need a ‘systems-first’ approach to deploying IoT while giving ample consideration to the commercial and operational changes implicit in adopting new technology.”

He was right, but the data and operational benefits these deployments provide are so obvious the market is working hard to find solutions.

Global Connectivity is Strategic

There are different LPWA technologies—each unique. No doubt, the future holds an interesting mix of LPWA networks. Still, smart meter deployments with decade-plus lifecycles are significant, strategic investments. Our customers, risk-averse corporations, find NB-IoT best meets strategic concerns.

What are the key issues:

• Risk —Smart meters are built around a single LPWA technology. NB-IoT, a 3GPP standard, backed by telecoms with diversified business models, are the likeliest to survive this hyper-competitive landscape. Who wants to be the company that invested in a defunct offering?

• Global economies of scale —The Java programming language’s mantra in the ’90s was “write once, run anywhere”. With NB-IoT, we could say, “build once, deploy everywhere”. A smart meter designed in Sweden, built-in China, can be shipped anywhere in the world and connected in minutes. Speaking of China, ABI Research estimates, NB-IoT modules, mostly built in China, the building blocks of smart devices, will drop in price to $1.98 by 2024.

• Openness, pricing, and roaming —Australia, like most markets, has several NB-IoT networks with flexible, downward trending, transparent, subscription-based pricing. Roaming progress between carriers has been too slow, but does anyone doubt telecoms won’t address roaming?

Choosing an LPWA for smart metering means asking the following questions:

1. Does it meet the solution’s technical needs?
2. Does it support business strategy?
3. How confident are we the network will be there in 15 years?

Respected analyst Gartner highlighted these issues recently, saying in their June 2020 report Hype Cycle for IoT Standards and Protocols, “Investing in NB-IoT is a low-risk strategy…prioritize 3GPP variants, such as NB-IoT, if available.”

Enter Lightweight M2M

NB-IoT’s three-headed argument of common-sense, convenience and choice is difficult to ignore, but smart meter solutions benefit from another global standard. The Open Mobile Alliance’s (OMA) Lightweight M2M 1.1 device management standard.

OMA SpecWorks board members composed of ARM, AT&T, Ericsson, IoTerop, Itron, T-Mobile, and Qualcomm have worked tirelessly honing LwM2M 1.1’s specifications. It is now the most complete, open, standardized device management framework for massive IoT deployments.

Remember, we are talking about massive numbers of remote, constrained objects. What happens when a device behaves atypically? Can it be rebooted? Isolated? Can the security credentials be replaced? What about providing critical firmware updates? This types of functionality, requiring exacting forethought and optimization, are critical to building battery-operated smart meter solutions with lifespans of ten plus years.

Transforma’s Matt Hatton suggests IoT, due to all these challenges, requires a “systems-first” approach. For a growing number of organizations, LwM2M 1.1 is a strategic choice with undeniable logic:

• Efficiency —The core services, including data transport, security, connectivity, and device management, are complete and optimized for energy-efficiency.

• Completeness —The LwM2M contributor ecosystem comprises telecoms with rich operational experience, network infrastructure companies, and the third group with deep embedded engineering knowledge. LwM2M does everything from secure device commissioning to over-the-air updates to decommissioning with just a few mouse clicks.

• Openness —Adherence to the LwM2M standard ensures organizations have an integrated change management strategy. Deployment lifespans make interoperability a strategic necessity. What happens when a component is no longer available? Or a supplier is sold? Adaptability ensures economic sustainability.

The market is taking notice.

In a recent IoTerop webinar on Smart Water Meter adoption in Australia using NB-IoT, David Roe of smart meter solution provider EDMI said, “LwM2M 1.1 is critical to our go-to-market strategy…LwM2M 1.1 provides the perfect, implementable, open solution to build NB-IoT solutions rapidly.”

Gartner stated in the previously mentioned report, “LwM2M simplifies and unifies application and product development…NB-IoT is an ideal use case for Lightweight M2M.”

Combining LwM2M 1.1 and NB-IoT offers businesses a sustainable smart meter strategy.

To learn more

Get IoTerop’s most recent webinar, Smart Water Meter adoption in Australia using NB-IoT to see how global standards support smart meter adoption.

The post How Global Standards Drive Smart Water Meter Adoption? appeared first on IoT Business News.

Smart-Metering System Gives Consumers Payment Flexibility and Could Encourage Development of Water-Supply Networks in the Country

Partnering to deliver running water to homes in developing countries, Kerlink and CityTaps, a French company with a mission to increase access to running water in third-world countries, have installed a pilot project to help Kenyans receive, monitor and pay for water use.

The pilot project is financed by a program of the French treasury directorate general (Trésor DG) called FASEP. Designed primarily for French SMEs that aspire to expand internationally, FASEP awards grants to finance feasibility studies or pilot projects for green and innovative technologies. The grants allow companies to demonstrate the effectiveness of their methods and establish a base in their partner countries.

The network combines Kerlink’s Wirnet iBTS outdoor gateways and CityTaps’ CTSuite of smart prepaid water meters and software of existing mobile payment systems. The LoRaWAN® IoT-based network enables users to measure and manage their water consumption and make scheduled payments to the water-supply utility, MAWASCO, in the Watamu region of Kenya. In addition to eliminating overdue bills, CityTaps’ grant will help reduce water loss and leakage in Watamu.

“In Kenya, 41 percent of the population does not have access to running water,” said Grégoire Landel, CEO and founder of CityTaps. “This grant will pay for the installation of CityTaps’ CTSuite in many homes in Watamu with the support from Kerlink. Kerlink is a strong partner for this project because it has extensive experience deploying IoT networks around the world, including in Africa”.

“An important feature of this project will enable people with irregular incomes who cannot afford monthly bills to have access to affordable, quality water by staying connected to the water company’s network and making payments when they can,” Landel continued.

“It will allow customers to pre-pay for their water consumption by crediting a water account at any time, with any mobile phone and for any amount. This helps water utilities to recover arrears and avoid losses, which encourages financiers to invest in the extension of water networks.”

“Together, Kerlink and CityTaps are contributing to the health and quality of life in Kenya’s Watamu region, demonstrating again how LoRaWAN® IoT networks can considerably improve conditions for people around the world,” said Romain Weryk, Kerlink’s key account manager. “Powered by Kerlink’s Wirnet iBTS outdoor gateways, CityTaps’ tailored solution delivers radio communication between the water meters and the software platform, bringing smart metering to this developing country region.”

Kerlink earlier this year announced its involvement in a UN pilot program for reservoir monitoring in Uganda and Iraq, which also incorporates Kerlink’s carrier-grade LoRaWAN® gateway technology.

CityTaps received the FASEP grant to support its vision to bring running water to every home in Kenya, in pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG6, which supports access to water and sanitation around the world.

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The two companies will work on the development of IoT (Internet of Things) technology aimed at companies in the water sector and will collaborate on the commercialisation of a solution that allows the digitalisation of the operation and maintenance processes of this resource.

Telefónica, a global leader in the provision of IoT solutions, and Idrica, a company specialised in new technologies for the management of the integral water cycle, which originated from the digital transformation of the Global Omnium group, have signed a global partnership agreement to provide services to companies in the water sector.

The agreement includes the development of solutions with the Internet of Things technologies NB-IoT, LTE-M and the future 5G Massive IoT that will allow the connection of billions of machines and devices to the Internet. The agreement signed also includes the commercialisation of GoAigua, an Idrica solution that fosters the complete digital transformation of the operation and maintenance processes of companies in the sector.

The solution allows companies to monitor real-time information on all their infrastructures and processes in one single place, facilitate decision-making, automate recurring tasks, and help strengthen communication channels and value-added services for customers.

It is also a modular, scalable solution that can be adapted to the degree of technological maturity of each company, allowing them to have a transversal vision of the integral water cycle (collection, distribution, sanitation, reuse and end customer satisfaction). Thanks to the application of advanced algorithms, the solution also boosts efficiency in the areas of drinking water, sanitation, purification, and smart irrigation.

“We believe that this alliance will help us accelerate the internationalisation process of the company and highlights the interoperability of GoAigua with other platforms and technologies,” says Jaime Barba, CEO of Idrica.

Gonzalo Martín-Villa, Global Director of IoT and Big Data at Telefónica Tech, says:

“With this agreement we are reinforcing our commitment to offer more accessible solutions to people, improving communication channels, providing detailed information on their consumption and making responsible use of water resources.”

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The SenseIoT solution leverages new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms to predict and prevent costly water leaks.

Semtech Corporation announced that iioote, a Sweden-based independent systems integrator offering Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and services, is introducing new functionalities to its WebIoT platform and initially the SenseIoT solution for water leakage detection and prevention in homes and businesses.

The solution leverages Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms to detect mold and humidity in at-risk locations throughout a building, predicting and preventing costly damage.

“Industries are responsible for up to 22 percent of the global water consumption total today, and leaks represent a prominent and expensive problem for businesses, as well as property owners,” said Robert Spertina, CEO at iioote.

“iioote’s WebIoT platform with added AI used in the LoRa-based SenseIoT solution extends coverage from smart home to industrial and commercial applications, and utilizes advanced algorithms to effectively combat leaks. As public resources are increasing in scarcity, addressing utility waste offers our customers a strong return on investment (ROI) by improving their efficiency.”

iioote consulted with insurance companies, water and sewage utilities to expand on its previous line of wireless LoRa-based water leakage detection solutions for the home. The enhanced SenseIoT applications monitor for abnormalities in humidity in real time, and quickly deploy in pipes, water meters and pumps for large buildings and industrial stations, as well as basements and bathrooms in the home.

Solutions leverage public or private LoRaWAN-based connectivity and utilize AI and machine learning to add enhanced functionality and damage prevention. While iioote’s legacy solutions provided real-time leak detection and status, the introduction of AI and machine learning to the platform allows for greater trend analysis and prediction of leakage events, further helping prevent costly water damage and enable a swift response before a leak occurs.

“As the industrial vertical consistently looks to improve its usage efficiency and reduce environmental impact, IoT solutions enable greater insight into consumption trends and provide direct operational advantages and business value,” said Marc Pegulu, Vice President of IoT in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “Semtech’s proven LoRa devices are the ideal platform for industrial facilities, buildings and homes, creating consistent and flexible IoT connectivity for a wide range of applications.”

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Following deployment, utility customers typically see savings up to 30,000€ per building per year as a result of reductions in non-revenue water (NRW).

Semtech Corporation announced that Vertical M2M, the leading French Software Editor of CommonSense IoT Platform®, has developed new Smart Water Applications for Utilities based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol.

Vertical M2M’s CommonSense IoT Platform® aims to simplify the management of multiple water metering devices over a unified LoRaWAN network, and offers benefits to the end user, including the creation of more sustainable and efficient utility networks through monitoring and reducing non-revenue water (NRW).

Maurice Zembra, CEO at Vertical M2M, said:

“Connecting water networks to the Cloud for easier access and management is one of the most effective ways for utility providers to reduce waste and cut back on operating cost today.”

“Leveraging connected sensors, valves and meters make this approach possible, and Semtech’s LoRa devices is particularly capable at handling the challenges of the water industry. When LoRa-based devices are used in conjunction with a smart industrial IoT platform, such as Vertical M2M’s CommonSense IoT Platform, end users are able to detect water leaks and monitor pipes in real time, bringing savings up to 30,000€ annually per monitored commercial building or campus.”

NRW is estimated at up to 30 percent of all water produced, representing a major sustainability concern and financial issue for utility providers. Vertical M2M’s CommonSense IoT Platform offers utility customers the ability to quickly and simply onboard LoRa-based water metering applications, including sensors, meters and valve controllers, into its management interface. The platform operates on both public and private LoRaWAN networks, and provides end users with accurate water usage data in real time for efficient billing and trend analysis. Based on a real time open scripting engine, bespoke algorithms will automatically alert operators of any anomalies or water leakage detection to reduce water waste. Following deployment, Vertical M2M’s utility customers typically could save up to 30,000€ yearly per monitored building or campus as a direct result of reduction in NRW.

“Smart IoT management platforms provide customers with accessible and actionable data on which to combat waste and reduce inefficiencies,” said Rémi Demerlé, Director of Vertical Marketing for Utilities in Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “LoRa-based devices are brought to life by network and application servers and management software from leading members of the ecosystem. Vertical M2M’s software tools bring ease of use to customers and create effective metering solutions that offer a quick return on investment (ROI).”

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The promise of connected smart meters has been discussed for years, and many utilities have used mobile reading solutions for years, but only a few are starting to look seriously at the implementation of fixed network connectivity, especially in North America and Europe. Wireless connectivity is more widely seen as a key enabler but the array of technology available is broad and different forms of metering have specific requirements that make them better-suited to particular wireless technologies.

The LoRa Alliance, explains why low power wide area networks (LPWANs) have the attributes that water metering projects demand.

This drive to digitalize water utilities’ distribution networks will result in an installed base of 400 million smart water meters worldwide by 2026, according to ABI Research. This illustrates the sheer scale of the global water metering footprint and sheds some light on the immense volume of data that water meters will collect and transmit. Management of these data will be complex and involve enormous data management and analytics capabilities.

Importantly, none of this is free. Cloud computing resources and the network capacity to link the meter to the management systems will come at a cost, water suppliers need to carefully balance the value generated with the expenses incurred.

This device-based intelligence reduces the need to transmit exabytes of irrelevant information and the requirement to store and analyze these data pointlessly. At the same time, if a water meter is used to identify an urgent issue such as leakage or that a smart valve needs to be shut off for an operational reason, that information and that command need to be prioritized and communicated by robust networks, securely and quickly so action can be taken rapidly.

Why Water Is Different from Other Utilities

It should be acknowledged that the heritage and crucial need for water supply is the responsibility of local authorities rather than national ones. Although there are exceptions to this, notably in Africa, water utilities in the United States, Europe, India and China are highly localized businesses. This makes the water industry more fragmented than other utilities.

Water utilities need specific functionalities in meter data management (MDM) platforms, such as the flexibility to scale network coverage more progressively and to integrate into water utility systems in areas such as water quality, leak detection, and pressure, etc. Other requirements are long battery lives, deep coverage, and security at a very affordable cost.

How to Unlock Greater Efficiency

Earlier deployments have seen the adoption of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), using mobile radio equipment to collect data in walk-by or drive-by mode, which is sometimes confused with AMI in some markets. A key difference here is that AMR solutions provide only a basic set of uplinks of meter data and no alarms in near-real-time, so the services, analytics, and quality of data collected are very different from AMI that regularly communicates more meter data and alarms in up-to-date information.

AMI enables utilities to enjoy greater benefits from improved data granularity. For example, data can be collected at ten-minute intervals and transmitted daily. The water utility can improve operations through demand analysis, determining water leaks seeking the reduction of non-revenue water.

This unlocks substantial value because smart metering with AMI can drive an 8 to 10 percent improvement in the operating efficiency of utilities over four years, according to results from a Birdz smart water deployment in Eau du Grand Lyon (France).

For water utilities that haven’t already transitioned to a remote monitoring model, LPWAN connectivity is the obvious choice because of the ease and speed of installation. For those utilities that prefer AMR, FSK modulation or ZigBee or Bluetooth are options but require heavy investment in labor and fleets. The real promise lies in automated systems that can collect, transmit, analyze meter data and enable downlink commands with minimal human interaction.

Inside the different LPWA networks

LPWAN is being selected by water utilities because it combines extremely long-range – measured in miles – with deep underground and indoor penetration plus battery lifetimes of up to two decades. This field is becoming crowded with LPWAN options like narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), Sigfox and LoRaWAN, see Figure 1 below.

For water metering applications, which have relatively low data payloads and seldom require low latency or high quality of service, it’s clear that Sigfox and LoRaWAN offer the range, battery life, coverage capability, deployment ease and cost efficiency the water industry requires. There is much common ground between the technologies, but differences exist which should be considered carefully.

A Wide Developer Ecosystem

Another criterion for selection is the maturity of the technology and ecosystem to offer a greater choice of applications and number of devices.

Public vs. Private LPWANs

Flexibility to choose between public, private or hybrid business models enables water utilities to find the best fit. The numerous deployments and mature experience associated with these networks allow utilities to assess the benefits of public versus private LPWANs from the real-life experiences of other utilities and also to understand the merits between building, buying or sharing, connectivity.

This decision will be dependent on the individual needs of water utilities. If they value the control that having a private network gives them if their installed base covers a manageable area and if they have the upfront capital expenditure capability, building private networks can make sense. However, for some water utilities, the complexity of network configuration, the challenges of product selection and the burden of managing the network will be easier to outsource to a specialist network infrastructure provider on a service model.

Maintain Security for the Long-Term

Another important factor is security. Water meters need to be secure both to protect user information and the water provider from fraudulent activity but also, and perhaps more importantly, so they do not provide a point of security weakness at which cybercriminals can enter the enterprise network. This is an important point, as not all LPWANs have been designed to fit metering’s general design criteria of low power consumption, low implementation complexity, and high scalability along with separate secured keys for the network operator on one hand and the end-user application on the other and with benefits like mutual authentication, integrity protection and confidentiality.

How LoRaWAN is Being Used by Water Utilities

There is one unlicensed LPWAN technology that addresses all of the considerations mentioned here – LoRaWAN. Already in use by several water utilities, solutions are growing, and many examples of successful deployments now exist. One example, in Spain, involves the deployment of 20,000 water meters by the local utility FACSA in the region of Castellon de la Plana. The project was carried out by IoTsens on behalf of FACSA, which manages water control and tracking in more than 70 cities to serve more than four million citizens, saw the connection of different water meters to the IoTsens cloud platform via LoRaWAN and through a server operated by IoTsens.

The implementation began with a proof of concept involving 600 smart water meters and led to the second step of the current full deployment of which consists of 20,000 water meters connected to the IP67 outdoor LoRaWAN Gateway from MultiTech. The IoTsens solution consists of an integral method of tele-reading meters that collects the data remotely and automatically in near-real-time. Also, the system can work with seven different brands of meters using a single communication platform to achieve fast and efficient management of its supply network.

In Australia, NNNco, a public LoRaWAN operator, has started deployment of a network for connecting 170,000 water meters in the Gold Coast region, illustrating how cities are seeing the benefits of a technology that is ready to use for IoT.

Another example, this time in the United Kingdom involves BT providing its LoRaWAN network to regional water provider, Northumbrian Water. BT has installed approximately 150 sensors in the company’s network to gather data on factors such as water flow, pressure, and quality. This technology was selected because of its ability to support long-life, battery-powered devices over long distances for long durations.

Multi-Million-Meter Deployments

Large telecom operators are committing to LoRaWAN for very large projects. Nova Veolia and its subsidiary Birdz, a pioneer in the remote metering of energy consumption for Smart Cities, are working with Orange to help them digitalize Veolia’s water-related services in France. Their goal is to read more than 70 percent of their meters remotely by 2027 in a deal that will see more than three million water meters connected to public LoRaWAN networks covering more than 30,000 municipalities and 95 percent of the population of metropolitan France.

In the United States, per company press releases, Neptune Technology Group is collaborating with local network providers Senet and Comcast on an IoT solution designed to accelerate smart city projects focused on AMI. The solution combines LoRaWAN networks with Neptune’s water meters and sensors.

Future Considerations

Wirelessly connecting smart water meters is unlocking substantial efficiency gains for water providers across the globe and, as water supplies become more constrained in many locations, greater control of excessive use, limitation of leakage and potential mechanisms to charge more flexibly for water will be required. The commitment of water utilities and large connectivity partners to deploy millions of smart water meters for deployments, spread over several years from now, with lifespans of up to 20 years from now illustrates that connectivity choice is a long-term decision that requires water utilities and meter providers to carefully assess meter design in the light of the likely future business requirements and challenges.

Doing so with the next two decades in mind involves focusing on industry-wide trends rather than specific, short-term issues. Universal themes are the need to use meter data to prevent wastage of water, the need to charge flexibly and at a higher frequency for water consumption and the continued need to be competitive on cost.

It’s of critical importance to select connectivity that can be controlled by the water utility for the long term – or at least to select a technology and provider that can demonstrate an understanding of the water industry and the ability to provide over-the-air upgrades to devices’ software and firmware during the lifespan of a meter.

The water industry remains highly fragmented with localized organizations managing the water supply for their customers. However, there has been and will continue to be substantial mergers and acquisition activity in the marketplace so a truly future-ready smart metering solution will need to be ready to integrate with different systems and approaches adopted by other organizations that may in future become part of the same group.

Fundamentally, water utilities need a cost-effective, robust, reliable, perennial, secure, easy to install wireless technology to support their business’s digital transformation that they are sure will support it and their partners for the long-term. LPWAN solutions tick more of the water industry’s boxes more than cellular connectivity or RF proprietary technologies and have the benefit of positioning them with the connectivity they need for the future.

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Swiss company Gutermann AG, a global leader in leak detection solutions for the water industry, today announced the release of Zonescan NB-IoT, the world’s first water leak detecting noise logger based on Narrowband Internet of Things (“NB-IoT”) for permanent monitoring of water distribution mains.

Gutermann will debut the technology December 4, which is the date of the inaugural World Water Loss Day and first day of the 2019 North America Water Loss Conference and Exhibition in Nashville, Tennessee. Successful pilot projects with the Zonescan NB-IoT have been concluded in France, the UK, and Australia. The projects reduced ramp-up time and lowered up-front investment for acoustic loggers used to monitor system wide water loss. In the U.S. alone, the EPA estimates the volume of water lost in distribution systems to be 1.7 trillion gallons at a cost of $2.6 billion.

NB-IoT is a new cellular communication standard optimized for machine-to-machine data communication in smart cities. NB-IoT significantly outperforms conventional 3G and 4G technology used in earlier generations of acoustic loggers, while the new technology consumes five to ten times less power with significantly improved underground coverage. Telecom operators worldwide have announced plans for complete NB-IoT coverage and are in the process of activating their NB-IoT antennas throughout their networks, allowing Gutermann to advance its product offering.

The Zonescan NB-IoT logger is Gutermann’s first cellular logger. It complements the company’s radio frequency-based Zonescan Alpha system which has established itself as the leading fixed network technology around the world, with adoption in more than 300 cities globally including Miami, Florida, one of the largest water users in the U.S.

Zonescan NB-IoT is a correlating system which means that the cloud-based Zonescan Net software automatically compares the data of all neighboring sensors every day to identify even quiet leaks whose existence are not recognized by individual loggers. A correlation indicator provides information about the area in which the leak has been identified, neatly displayed on a Google Maps enabled user interface. Zonescan Net also lets users see and manage their leak detection infrastructure, perform advanced leak analysis, import and display their GIS data, and change settings such as recording times, alarm thresholds and more.

“We are excited about the launch of this product because we see an enormous potential for it given the connectivity and power properties of the NB-IoT technology,” said Lucas Grolimund, CEO of Gutermann.

“We’re happy to once more lead the way in advanced fixed network leak monitoring solutions. Our hope is that the ZONESCAN NB-IoT logger will make permanent monitoring of networks more accessible to utilities due to its cost, ease of installation and compact design. It should therefore contribute to the rapid growth of technology-enabled smart water networks, helping to consistently reduce and maintain lower water loss levels.”

The post World’s First NB-IoT-based Water Leak Detection Technology appeared first on IoT Business News.

Meter Data Management platform vendors should identify the water utility’s specific requirements for an MDM.

As pressures of climate change and water wastage rise, smart water meters are becoming increasingly critical for global water conservation efforts by utilities to track water usage and identify waste and leakage. This drive for digitalization of water utilities distribution network will result in an installed base of 400 million smart water meters worldwide by 2026, according to a new report from global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research.

Since smart meters produce a massive amount of data, Meter Data Management (MDM) systems are essential to convert meter data into useful and actionable insights.

“As in the energy sector, MDM platforms play a crucial role in the efficient use of a smart meter,” says Harriet Sumnall, Research Analyst at ABI Research.

“It is vital for water utilities to be able to extract the most useful data from the smart water meters, as this is what ensures the meters reduce water wastage from leakages and water classified as non-revenue water.”

However, energy MDM’s are not automatically suited for water utilities as they don’t necessarily address their unique needs. The specific functionalities of scalability and the ease and speed of integration are the hard requirements of the MDM platforms for water utilities choosing which vendor and service will work alongside their Automatic Meter Infrastructure (AMI) systems. Having a complementary MDM platform that works effortlessly alongside the AMI system means that utilities can offer consistent and more accurate billing to their customers, as well as pinpoint where water is going missing.

Regional smart water meter deployments are forecasted to grow significantly. In 2018, the APAC region accounted for 42% of the global total installed base, followed by Europe and North America. In the APAC region, smart water meter deployments will surge as water utilities in China, India, Japan, and South Korea start to move from trials to large scale deployments in early 2020. Europe will emerge as one of the fastest- growing markets with a CAGR of 33% over the next 8 years driven by expanding regional LPWA network coverage. As the number of install bases increase, so will the demand for water-specific MDM platforms, offering much regional growth opportunity for MDM vendors.

Globally, there are several large-scale commercial rollouts of smart water meters planned, from a range of vendors such as Kamstrup, Sensus, Honeywell, Itron, and Holley Technology. Due to the variety of meter vendors, it is essential that MDM vendors ensure that MDM platforms can support multi-vendor smart meter implementation by water utilities. If this is not possible, it will mean that specific vendors are limiting their competitive edge as they are only allowing for themselves to integrate with specific vendors; this is usually found in turnkey solutions from primarily meter vendors offering a platform service to complement their meters.

Energy MDM platforms can become unnecessarily complex due to vendors adding functionalities that are not necessarily required for the water market.

“The traditional energy MDM platform vendors such as Siemens and Oracle need to ensure they are offering what the water utilities require for their specific MDM platform, rather than just modifying the solution they already provide to the energy utilities. The MDM platform from Birdz for example, provides a better effort at specifically addressing the water utilities hard requirements. Their platform is also well suited to collect and analyze meter data in a multi-vendor meter implementation,” Sumnall concludes.

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• A comprehensive solution that combines electronic meters with the most advanced metrological capabilities, IoT connectivity and a device management platform with advanced data analytics capabilities.

• Intelligent remote meter reading systems reduce costs for businesses, boost customer satisfaction and add value to water management processes.

Telefónica and ARAD, the world’s leading group in the sector of intelligent water meters, have signed a global partnership agreement for the commercialisation of a new intelligent solution for measuring water consumption.

It is a comprehensive solution based on NB-IoT and CAT-M1 technologies, which are within the 3GPP standards, specifically designed for Massive IoT that allows for the connection of billions of devices and machines to the Internet.

The agreement will allow water supply companies to provide a solution that combines the best electronic water meters with accurate measurements, thanks to metrological capabilities, IoT connectivity and a device management platform with advanced data analytics capabilities. This will enable companies to save costs on their current operations and investment in new assets.

The solution collects and processes the data generated by the water meters and the advanced analytics provides, among other things, predictive maintenance and remote detection of incidents. It also facilitates the treatment of consumption profiles, predicting demand or customisation of supply to customers. It is also a scalable and secure solution capable of meeting all the sector’s requirements, and is complemented by other IoT solutions developed by Telefónica for their application in all the infrastructures that make up the water distribution chain.

“This agreement will provide both groups with technological cooperation and new business opportunities in the NB-IoT and Massive IoT sectors thanks to the advantages brought by new technologies, such as LPWA, which enable, among others, longer battery life or better signal penetration in complex environments,” said Gabriel Yankovitz, CEO of the ARAD Group.

Vicente Muñoz, Chief IoT Officer of Telefónica, said:

“This is a very important step in the digital transformation of utilities. Not only will it allow them to save costs and increase revenues, but also provide greater satisfaction for customers who are increasingly demanding the digitalisation of this type of services and a more sustainable management.”

In this sense, the solution will help water companies not only to better understand consumption patterns but also to manage more effectively the scarcity and quality of water resources, one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDS).

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Banyan Water, the leading provider of total water management software, today released its comprehensive leak detection analysis for 2018 following a record-breaking water savings milestone.

The company has saved more than 3 billion gallons of water for enterprises since its inception.

Banyan Water’s total water management platform, Banyan Water Central, gathers real-time data from multiple sources to provide a complete overview of a property’s—or an entire portfolio’s—water usage over time.

Banyan Water Central automates reporting and leak detection analysis to provide corporations with critical data needed to make decisions and mitigate risk.

“Data-driven water technology must become the industry standard to combat rising water rates and the growing global water crisis,” said Gillan Taddune, CEO of Banyan Water. “Banyan provides unprecedented visibility into a property’s water usage, an invaluable asset for facility management practices.”

“IoT-enabled water technology not only creates a more sustainable built environment, but greatly reduces operating expenses for portfolio managers.”

With data-driven water technology, facility managers can detect water usage anomalies in real time, identifying and stopping leaks before incurring detrimental water loss. Banyan analyzed its more than 600 detected leaks in 2018, revealing a number of insights:

• Banyan’s real-time leak detection, alerting and auto-shut off technology saved an estimated 197 million gallons of water that would have been wasted otherwise.
• The average leak size equated to about five gallons per minute.
• On average, leaks will go undetected for more than 45 days without software like Banyan Water Central.

The smaller the leak, the smaller the chance it will be detected, prolonging its wasteful effects on your water bill, operational costs and your property’s overall water usage and profitability.

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BT has secured a contract with Northumbrian Water, the providers of reliable and sustainable water, to help deliver a Smart Water project across its North East operating area.

BT is providing the low power network and data which will enable operational insights, allowing the water company to better understand how its water network performs using the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Smart Water project aims to provide Northumbrian Water with a wide range of insights to allow the company to address issues such as water leakage, and enhance levels of water quality for its customers.

The Smart Water project will be deployed over three distinct areas of Sunderland. Around 150 sensors will be installed across the network to capture data on a range of factors, including water flow, pressure and quality. By monitoring the performance of the water network, the project will equip Northumbrian Water with the operational insights needed to continue to provide an excellent customer experience.

The data collected by the sensors will be connected to the BT’s LoRaWAN (Low Power, Long Range, Wide Area Network), which is designed to support long-life, battery powered IoT devices over a long distance. This makes it an ideal solution for monitoring performance across Northumbrian Water’s vast water network.

BT’s IoT platform will be used to capture, process and visualise the data received from the sensors. The platform will help to provide Northumbrian Water with the data insights it needs to understand how the water network is functioning, so that it can take proactive steps to reduce water leakage, speed up operational processes and lower its total running and maintenance costs.

Nigel Watson, Group Information Services Director for Northumbrian Water, said:
“We’re delighted to be working with BT on this pilot project in Sunderland, which is just another example of how we apply innovation to our everyday work. It represents a real step forwards towards the Smart Water network of the future transforming the level of insight we have into our network’s operations and driving improvements for customers.”

“The idea first came out of our Innovation Festival and the innovative technology that BT uses made them a great choice of partner for developing and delivering our Smart Water pilot project. We’re keen to understand whether it can be rolled out across our entire North East network to deliver benefits for all of our customers.”

Chris Sims, Managing Director, Strategy, Marketing and Digital at BT, said:

“We are really excited to be deploying our IoT platform and LoRaWAN network to provide the connectivity and insight needed to deliver a truly integrated Smart Water network for Northumbrian Water.”

“It’s a great example of how the Internet of Things can be used to deliver a better experience to customers. And with 5G on the horizon, which will provide benefits such as lower latency, higher speeds and greater reliability, we’re thrilled to work with one of the most innovative water companies in the UK to fully realise the transformational benefits of IoT.”

BT is dedicated to bringing innovative IoT solutions to market using its expertise in devices, connectivity and platforms. The Northumbrian Water Smart Water project is one of a number of recent IoT deployments by BT across the Smart Cities, utilities, transport, logistics and retail sectors.

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Global Smart Water Metering Market is set to grow from its current market value of more than $900 million to over $3 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc.

Implementation of favorable government policies and rollout programs toward the adoption of intelligent systems will boost the smart water metering market. Initiatives focusing on effective water monitoring and conservation will further propel the industry landscape. For instance, the European Union in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund announced a mandatory rollout of smart water meters in Ireland.

Increasing measures toward water security and monitoring of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) will enhance the smart water metering market. Increasing urbanization, ageing distribution mains and rising energy cost will further provide a stimulus to the industry outlook. According to the World Bank, 32 billion cubic meters of treated water is lost through leakages in distribution network worldwide. An additional 16 billion cubic meters is supplied annually but not charged due to poor metering, inappropriate billing and thefts.

U.S. smart water metering market is projected to expand over 6% by 2024. Ongoing water conservation reforms coupled with government funding toward installation of smart grid technologies will positively drive the product adoption. In 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) mutually sponsored the installation of smart grid infrastructure in the nation and provided a federal financial assistance of over USD 8 billion in 99 ventures.

AMI smart water metering market is predicted to grow over 28% by 2024. The use of AMI systems is attributed to quick detection of water leakages, reduction in water wastage and improved water supply. These systems offer advanced capabilities in data analysis and operations.

Rising demand for effective management, monitoring, and utilization of water will fuel the smart water metering market. Global initiatives toward water conservation and measures to address water scarcity will further propel the business landscape. In 2015, the U.S. average water consumption has witnessed significant drop owing to growing water conservation concerns across various states in the country.

Growing measures toward effective mapping of water distribution coupled with regulatory regimes to limit non-revenue water loss will complement the Europe smart water metering market. Increasing administrative emphasis toward the development of high performance advanced systems will further embellish the industry growth.

Ongoing technological advancement to develop effective and precise metering technologies will boost the commercial smart water metering market. Rising concerns relating to reduction of water wastage and water scarcity will further facilitate the product adoption.

Notable players operating in the smart water metering market comprise of Landis+GYR, Badger Meter, Itron, Siemens, Arad Group, Schneider Electric, Sensus Sentec, Neptune, Kamstrup, Elster Group, Diehl Metering and Honeywell International.

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Smart utility IoT (Internet of Things) solutions automate gas and water management, minimizing costs and maximizing efficiency.

Semtech Corporation announced that Suntront Technology, a leading smart meter solution company for heat, gas, water, and energy located in Zhengzhou City, China, has incorporated Semtech’s LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology) into its smart gas and water meters for more advanced coverage and analytics.

Dong Yide, Research and Development Director at Suntront, said:

“Our metering solutions provide the highest quality in water and gas management. Through usage of Semtech’s LoRa Technology, the data is shared through our Cloud-based application which enables end-to-end hands-on management of utilities.”

“Suntront’s customers include many of China’s largest utility companies, and it is very important that we offer best-in-class reliability and efficiency. LoRa Technology offers an unparalleled combination of long range, and low power that handles more messages per gateway than competing hardware. This combination of precision and performance has allowed our products to succeed.”

Suntront’s smart gas and water metering solutions utilize LoRa Technology to remotely measure and adjust the levels of flow through piping by accessing a LoRaWAN network and transmitting data via third-party applications. A simple user management software service connects to Suntront solutions and provides the utility manager all necessary functions, including the ability to view usage trends and to monitor each meter remotely. Utility managers then use the data to program the LoRa-enabled devices to automatically shut off or change valves when certain thresholds are met.

“Suntront provides cities and public utility managers with a highly accurate and easily installed solution for utility management,” said Marc Pegulu, Vice President and General manager of Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “Suntront’s IoT solution works to automate the management process to limit human error. As more cities move to smart utility solutions, LoRa and the IoT will continue to expand and improve efficiencies for a smarter planet.”

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IoTsens’ LoRa-based smart water platform is designed to reduce utility costs and maximize resources.

Semtech Corporation announced that IoTsens, an Internet of Things solutions and services company, has integrated LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology) in its smart water platform.

IoTsens entered a joint venture with FACSA, Spain’s leading integrated water management company, to accurately track and control water management in Castellón, Spain. Established in 1873, FACSA provides services to over four million citizens in 70 cities. In addition to smart water metering, IoTsens provides FACSA with sound, air quality, smart parking, and irrigation solutions among other IoT services for its smart city project.

“Our smart water platform provides Castellón with relevant and valuable information for the daily management and optimization of its resources,” said Ignacio Llopis, CEO of IoTsens.

“Integrating Semtech’s LoRa Technology in our smart water platform was an easy and seamless process. We were able to quickly integrate, deploy and test 600 smart water meters for a proof of concept, paving the way for the current FACSA comprehensive rollout of 30,000 water meters.”

“The LoRa-based sensors, with their long range and low power capabilities, are able to collect and communicate important household data to accurately track and control water management,” said Vivek Mohan, Director of IoT for the Wireless and Sensing Products Group at Semtech.

“The IoTsens’ system also can quickly detect leaks, breakdowns and manipulation of the water supply network in real-time, preventing loss of service and costly repairs. More cities are adopting IoT technology, such as Semtech’s LoRa Technology, to improve efficiencies and make a smarter planet.”

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Partnership delivers a highly scalable network of wireless IoT sensors for water metering applications designed to boost utility provider efficiencies.

Senet today announced that they are partnering with Neptune Technology Group, a pioneer in the development of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) technologies, to implement wireless Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) infrastructure technology for water metering applications throughout North America.

Neptune’s new, LoRa®-enabled L900 series of water endpoints provides a wide range of capabilities for water meter reading and sensor applications that demand low power consumption and long-range connectivity. By combining these metering units with Senet’s highly scalable and reliable LoRa LPWAN, Neptune is equipped with a connectivity solution to help water utility customers and municipalities boost efficiencies and accelerate sustainability efforts at the best possible total cost of ownership.

“Together with Senet, we are providing an innovative solution that facilitates advanced metering infrastructure for water utilities, removing the burden of having to deploy and maintain the network infrastructure themselves,” said Chuck Brunson, Neptune’s Director of Marketing.

“By implementing Neptune’s L900 system under a Senet-managed LoRaWAN network, cities and water utilities can implement Neptune’s value-added measurement, software and communication technologies – supporting their journey as Smart Cities. We are excited to engage in this partnership with Senet.”

“As utilities, municipalities and solution providers look at the total cost of ownership of IoT technologies LoRaWAN has key advantages that make it the preferred choice for a variety of applications, including water metering,” said Bruce Chatterley, CEO & President for Senet. “We are excited to be working with Neptune to solve some of the most demanding connectivity requirements within the Internet of Things and bring real value to utilities throughout North America”.

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