Singapore Smarting Up its Water Management
Singapore’s Public Utilities Board (PUB) will soon start rolling out the first phase of its Smart Water Meter Programme that will see the installation of 300,000 smart meters in new and existing residential, commercial, and industrial premises by 2023.
Smart water meters provide two main benefits for water utilities. First, smart water meters reduce water losses in the system — non-revenue water — which is the difference between what is pumped, treated, and supplied to the distribution system compared to what reaches customers: in many cities around the world, non-revenue water can be up to 20% or more of the total. Second, smart water meters can be used to enhance demand management strategies, where demand management involves modifying people’s practices, culture, and attitudes towards water resources before plans are made to further increase supply.
Singapore smarting up
Currently, there are 1.6 million water meters at domestic and non-domestic premises across Singapore. These meters are read manually every two months with customers billed every month, with their water consumption estimated every alternate month.
With the smart meters, water consumption will be automatically read several times a day and transmitted remotely back to PUB daily, helping the utility detect leaks early within the network and in customers’ premises. Through a mobile portal, customers will be able to access their daily water usage data and receive high usage notifications and leak alerts, empowering customers to better manage the precious resource.
Proven technology
The technology is proven with PUB having already conducted two pilot trials in 2016 and 2018 with a total of 800 households saving on average 5% due to early leak detection and adoption of water-saving habits. The positive effect of the water meters is similar to another study conducted by the National University of Singapore’s Institute of Water Policy in 2016, which found that across 1,000 households simple messaging on water conservation and feedback on how much water they consumed compared to their neighbors lead to an average reduction of 4.9 liters of water per capita per day.
Phased rollout
The first step in rolling out the smart meters is PUB calling the tender for the installation of around 300,000 smart water meters in Q1 2020, with the first batch of smart meters being installed by early 2021. PUB will then review how this process went, build up its expertise, and incorporate any new technology that may be available by then before completing the rest of the roll-out across the country.
The take-out
Smart water meters are key to reducing water losses and empowering water users to take the bull by the horn and save water.
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