Revolutionizing Water Management with Smart Meters

Let’s be honest, folks. H2O is the very essence of life but sustainability discussions often overlook the importance of water.

In India, both homes and industries guzzle water with zero afterthought, leaving our metros high and dry every summer. Bangalore’s summer really turned up the heat this year.

Flooding and water scarcity are two faces of the same man-made devil: water stress. During and immediately after a crisis, there are always appeals for change, with efforts made here and there and interviews by authorities. However, what seems to be missing is a concerted, planned effort to address water stress effectively.

In our view, the key hurdle blocking efforts to plan is a lack of data. There is no accurate and comprehensive monitoring of water usage.

How Indian Industries Manage Water, A Closer Look

Indian industrial units rely heavily on water for daily operations. They currently use 13% of the country’s fresh water, as per data from the Ministry of Water Resources and the World Bank. This usage is expected to increase 3x in the coming two decades, surpassing agricultural and residential needs.

Currently, they face challenges with ineffective water management, including over-extraction, lack of usage visibility, pollution, and insufficient wastewater treatment. Until recently, Indian industries could use groundwater without oversight, often failing to report their water extraction and usage accurately. This was due to two main reasons:

1. Groundwater is inexpensive and easily accessible.
2. The lack of capacity in water auditing or accuracy of recordings.
3. There is lack of compliance and sloppy billing.

Since 2019, some regulations have been announced to monitor water usage. Despite a lack of regulatory consensus between the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) and National Green Tribunal (NGT), the trendline is clear — water regulations will get stricter and data-driven. The NGT, for example, enforced stringent environmental assessment guidelines as a prerequisite for commercial licenses. It also mandated water meters for NOC approval for groundwater extraction. Additionally, companies must now meet sustainability and compliance requirements of the new Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) regulations or larger institutional investors.

This calls for proactive action and a rethink of existing processes. We have identified three potential solutions:

1. Reducing usage
2. Effective process management
3. Recycling

In this article, we will focus on the first step: new applications to address the root cause of water scarcity — usage itself.

Electronic Water Metering, An Evolution

Traditionally, Indian enterprises have used mechanical meters that look like this (see figure 1 below).

Figure 1: Water meters through the years

These meters struggle with inaccuracy, frequent breakdowns, tampering and manual data recording. However, the shift towards Industry 4.0 is prompting a re-look at their use.

Just like other instrumentation and manufacturing hardware, water meters are getting smarter. Now, there’s a new class of networked devices.

These new age meters include electromagnetic and ultrasonic options.

Although the underlying technology for water meters was developed and commercialized in the mid-20th century, continuous advancements have enhanced data tracking and dashboard-based monitoring. These new meters can now address a critical customer pain point: continuous monitoring and increased digitization and analytics.

In addition to their advanced physical features, the modern meters offer IoT-based connectivity, giving users dashboard access to track water usage in real time. Other features include leakage detection, automated billing, and tamper-proofing. These make the modern water meters indispensable for effective water management.

Figure 2: Difference between mechanical, electromagnetic and ultrasonic water meters

A Look at Water Regulations

Active regulatory action has emerged at both national and state levels as authorities recognize the need to monitor industrial water usage. Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana are at the forefront of these efforts.

A few policy changes:

1. The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Bill (2024): This bill allows the central government to set guidelines to appoint heads of the State Pollution Control Boards. It also provides the government a centralized control over grants and recanting of consent. There are penalties for tampering with metering/monitoring devices along with restrictions on discharging toxins into water bodies.
2. Digital Water Flow Meter specifications: As per CGWA, only ultrasonic or electromagnetic meters may be installed in industrial setups. These meters may be AMR or AMI in nature.
3. CWGA Guidelines: Companies using over 100 Kl must conduct annual water audits and install telemetry-capable meters (ultrasonic or electromagnetic). They must reduce water usage over three audits.

Market Sizing Snapshot

India’s manufacturing market is poised to reach $1 trillion by 2026, according to a Colliers report. Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu will drive this growth, with their GDP contribution increasing from 17% to 21% in the next 5 years. The 2 drivers for this growth are expanding manufacturing capacity and optimizing processes via digitization. But as the number of manufacturing units increase, there will also be a greater need for water metering technology.

Estimates suggest the water meter market in India will reach $1.5–3 billion over the next 5 years, driven by replacement demand due to changing regulations and new demand as industrial units modernize. This range is based on the number of meters needed for India’s listed and large unlisted manufacturers. Additionally, India’s 20 million borewells across agricultural, residential, and commercial sectors will also require metering technology over time.

Global Outcomes

New-age metering technology is thriving in the West, with giants like Badger Meter, Xylem, Roper, and Itron leading the way. These companies have grown by selling ultrasonic meters to industries, utilities, and residential markets. Even in mature markets like the USA and Europe, these metering companies have seen significant growth, with software making up around 15% of their revenue (see figure 3 below).

This highlights the ongoing replacement demand. Badger Meter estimates the American market at $25 billion, with 43% from software solutions (see figure 3 below).

Figure 3

Why We’re Excited About Water Metering Tech

Factories are moving towards an integrated hardware-software platform instead of standalone units, making water meter technology essential. As we advance on the S-curve of Industry 4.0 in India, cutting-edge water metering is crucial. It’s a small but indispensable part of this transformation.