Smart metering is typically associated with electricity. However, the natural gas and water market sectors need a smart metering system too. Water’s global demand is constantly rising and the shrinking supplies of fresh water make preventing the massive losses in the water sector worth spending money on. According to the World Bank worldwide costs from unmetered water total $14 billion annually.
These losses are driving investments in technology to properly meter water, detect leaks, identify degrading systems and otherwise make water delivery more efficient. That investment can range from region-wide smart water projects, such as IBM’s investments in projects in Malta, Australia, Japan and the United States, to small-scale water meter deployments for municipal and regional water utilities across Europe and North America.
Recently, meter maker Itron announced a smart water meter project with Sydney Water, the water utility that serves 4.6 million customers in Australia’s largest city. It’s one of the world’s largest smart water meter deployments to date, but if analysts’ projections are any guide, it won’t be the last.
There are plenty of ways to deploy technology in the water sector besides smart meters. Leak detection is one growing field, with large companies IBM and startups like Israel’s TaKaDu applying hardware, software and analytics to the task.
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