Data and Analytics

7 questions you should ask your suppliers With AMP8 procurement discussions intensifying, making the right supplier decisions is crucial. How can you be certain your smart water metering partnerships will pay off in the future? Here are some critical questions to ask your potential suppliers in your procurement processes. Get the whitepaper Get the whitepaper What’s the cost-per-successful read? Upfront costs can be an unhelpful measure for smart water metering provider comparison. That’s because lower upfront costs can lead to higher in-life costs, either from remedial actions to source the meter reads or shorter than anticipated battery lives. Whole-life cost is a better measure for comparison – but sometimes it also presents challenges. In some cases, suppliers’ whole-life costs are estimates based on test conditions, rather than lived experience in a real-world setting. Both upfront costs and whole-life costs can overlook an important factor – meter read success rate. While Solution A could be half the price of Solution B, if it only captures half the readings, then it’s not a bargain. The best way to compare providers on cost? Cost-per-successful read. This comparison tells you exactly what you’ll be paying for the true value of your asset – accurate, reliable data. It also provides strong insight into the quality of the supplier’s connectivity infrastructure and data transmissions. Some suppliers are now open to contracting on a cost-per-successful read basis, so make sure to ask them about their guarantees. ‍ What data accuracy can you guarantee? The latest research from Frontier Economics and Artesia Consulting confirms that the lower your data accuracy, the lower the returns you can expect from your smart water metering investments. Water companies with high meter coverage (95%), getting hourly reads shared every day with a 90% read accuracy can generate benefits of £4,137 million over a 30-year period. These benefits include: More efficient leakage delivery Lower consumption costs Avoided capacity costs Lower carbon emissions Reduced meter reading costs Improved infrastructure management Improved forecasting data By contrast, water companies with low meter coverage (30%), with daily reads shared every month at a low read accuracy (50%) can generate benefits of just £2,058 million over the same period. This is because reliable, timely, accurate data is essential for effective customer engagement. Without rich data, you can’t segment communications to curb water use or tackle leaks. You also limit your options for future network applications and innovations. Ask your suppliers for their data accuracy statistics. ‍ How can you guarantee the longevity of your infrastructure? To prolong the lifespan of your metering devices, your network needs to perform at its best for the long haul. This means your network needs to be built to stand the test of time. For example, check with your supplier about connecting your devices to public buildings or utilities like lamp posts. If they plan to use this approach, ask if they have any guarantees from local councils that these public assets won’t be moved or changed over the coming years. Any alterations will impact your communications infrastructure – and your investments. Find out from your suppliers what safeguards they have in place to protect your infrastructure. How resilient is your supply chain? According to the experts at Baringa, the number of smart water meter installations in the UK will jump from 2.5 million over five years (AMP7) to 2.5 million every year in AMP9. To cope with the surge in demand, it’s important to work with suppliers who have strong global supply chain relationships. They should have strong partnerships with all the main meter manufacturers – and they should be collaborating to optimise processes and guarantee asset delivery. Your suppliers should also have access to a skilled installer workforce with a proven track record of large-scale delivery. They need ample UK experience – and a solid understanding of the different installation challenges in urban and rural locations. ‍ What connectivity technologies do you support? Smart water metering technology is evolving and maturing. With the technological landscape in flux, UK water companies are, understandably, worried about selecting the right solution. Water companies are all striving towards a future where consumers can easily monitor their water usage and make changes to reduce their consumption. However, the paths to achieving this goal technologically will vary from company to company. The solution you choose during this buying cycle might need adapting in the future to match your evolving smart metering requirements. In AMP8, it’s key to select a provider who can support you for the long haul, adjusting your solution as your needs change. When will our smart water metering investments pay back? Installing smart meters is resource-intensive and costly. With this in mind, water companies should think about the ‘lifetime’ of their network, and what guarantees suppliers can make to ensure its longevity. For example, investing in a higher upfront priced meter with a 15-year battery life can save money in the long run compared to a meter requiring earlier installation due to its shorter battery lifespan. To make sure you’re making the best decisions for your business, ask your suppliers about the long-term viability of their technology and the benefits it can bring you over the next 15-20 years. We also recommend double checking the details of suppliers’ maintenance guarantees to protect your investments. Exclusions related to network quality, installation temperatures and water immersion can prevent water companies from fully benefiting from the meter before the warranty expires. While total cost of ownership is important, we understand that water companies also want to maximise their investments and see immediate results once the meters are deployed. Talk to your suppliers and find out if their technology allows you to start reaping the benefits right away. For example, can they help you speed up the value you can get from your assets? Ready-made services or solutions like advanced analytics support or customer engagement apps can help you accelerate behavioural change. Finally, we recognise that not all water companies have the same opportunities to install meters easily. Some companies can swiftly roll out meters in entire areas and reap the benefits quickly. For those relying on replacing existing meters and encouraging opt-ins, the story is different. Metering in these cases is less about driving high penetration and more about modern meter replacement. In these circumstances, it’s tempting to opt for lower-priced options. However, mandatory metering will eventually cover all customers in the UK. The meters you install now will have a large role to play in a mass metering future, so it’s best to make sure those meters deliver you maximum value, without needing replacements or remedial action soon. What financing plans are on offer? Many water companies are facing tough budgeting decisions – balancing major infrastructure spending with reasonable customer tariffs. Under these conditions, lots of UK water companies see their AMP8 smart water metering investments as a forced choice between low upfront costs and low whole-life costs. But this isn’t the case. Flexible financing is available, helping you spread the cost of your smart water metering investments over the lifetime of your assets. That means that you can benefit from a higher-quality solution for longer, without crippling CAPEX costs or unwelcome bill increases. The best suppliers should demonstrate commitment to your business by crafting a financing plan tailored to your specific goals and constraints. They should be working with trusted partners, designing innovative, sustainable funding methods that will deliver for your business over AMP8 and beyond. Ask your suppliers for a customised financing solution that matches your business needs. Such solutions can be set-up on a ‘per read’ basis, which we consider the most accurate method for comparison. This approach also lets you focus on your metering benefits, rather than the rollout management. The right partner is the first step to success. Selecting the right partner for your smart water metering projects is an essential step towards success. The best choice is a supplier that promises great value over the lifespan of your assets, guarantees quality and data accuracy, has a proven track record in large-scale installations, and offers maximum flexibility in technology and financing. Ask your suppliers the right questions to unlock the real benefits of smart water metering. Mike Smith is the Executive Director of Smart Utilities at Arqiva. With 20 years’ experience in B2B telecoms, Mike leads Arqiva’s efforts in unlocking the benefits of digitalisation – for UK utility companies and all UK citizens. Mike Smith Executive Director, Utilities, Arqiva

Turning smart water networks into near real-time water quality intelligence Working with Anglian Water, we demonstrated how an existing smart metering network can be transformed into a multi-purpose platform supporting near real-time water quality monitoring. By connecting chlorine sensors directly to Anglian Water's private network, the trial delivered reliable connectivity in challenging underground environments while significantly improving battery performance and monitoring frequency. Get the whitepaper Get the whitepaper Anglian Water serves more than six million customers across one of the UK's driest regions. Maintaining water quality across a geographically dispersed network requires monitoring equipment to operate reliably in reservoirs, underground chambers and other hard-to-reach locations. Many existing water quality sensors rely on cellular communications, which can struggle in underground environments due to poor signal strength, reinforced concrete structures and remote locations. This can lead to reduced monitoring frequency, increased maintenance requirements and delays in receiving critical operational data. As the industry moves towards more proactive and data-driven operations, Anglian Water wanted to explore whether its existing smart metering network could support continuous water quality monitoring without the need for additional communications infrastructure. ‍Solution‍ Arqiva worked with Anglian Water to assess how its private smart metering network could be extended beyond metering and used to support chlorine monitoring sensors. Six reservoir sites were selected for the trial. Chlorine sensors were connected directly to the existing private network, enabling readings to be captured every five minutes and transmitted every fifteen minutes. Rather than deploying new communications infrastructure, the solution leveraged Anglian Water's existing smart water investment, creating a more efficient and scalable approach to monitoring. The results The trial demonstrated that a private smart water network can provide reliable, resilient connectivity for critical operational monitoring. Immediate network connectivity Connectivity was successfully established at every trial location, including sites where alternative communications approaches had previously presented challenges. 97%+ connectivity performance Over the course of the trial, the solution achieved more than 97% connectivity with no data loss, demonstrating the network's ability to support dependable operational monitoring. 7x longer battery life By using Arqiva's low-power network, the solution delivered a 700% improvement in battery performance compared with the previous cellular-based approach. This has the potential to reduce maintenance visits, operational costs and environmental impact Near real-time visibility The system enabled data transmission every 15 minutes compared with the previous approach of three transmissions per day, providing faster operational awareness and supporting more proactive decision-making. Customer Impact The trial proved that existing smart metering infrastructure can support multiple use cases beyond meter reading. By combining smart metering and water quality monitoring on a single private network, Anglian Water can unlock greater value from its infrastructure investment while creating a scalable foundation for future sensor deployments and intelligent network applications. Key Outcomes 97%+ connectivity Reliable performance across all trial locations. 7x battery performance improvement Reduced power consumption and maintenance requirements. 15-minute data transmission Faster insight than traditional monitoring approaches. No new network infrastructure required Greater value from existing smart metering investments Looking Ahead This pioneering trial demonstrates how utilities can transform smart metering networks into intelligent operational platforms. By supporting near real-time water quality monitoring alongside metering, utilities can improve visibility, accelerate response times and build more resilient, data-driven water networks for the future. “This trial has demonstrated the potential to extend our smart water network beyond metering, enabling more reliable, higher-frequency water quality monitoring in challenging environments. It represents an important step toward more proactive, data-driven operations.” Andy Smith Smart Water Systems Senior Manager, Anglian Water Managed Sensors Transform your utility operations with intelligent monitoring that drives efficiency, compliance, and future-ready infrastructure. Read more Read more Find out More Find out More

This virtual event explored how machine learning augments traditional rules-based methods for customer-side water leakage detection. Rules work well for standard households (e.g., nighttime flow alerts) but struggle with non-standard usage and non-household properties, where intermittent, low-volume, or continuous processes obscure leaks. Watch on-demand here Watch on-demand here Tackling Leakage through Machine Learning Machine learning learns patterns from data—via supervised and unsupervised approaches—to detect nuanced, meter-specific anomalies, adapt to changing behavior, and reduce noise, making it effective for the “hard 20%” that consumes 80% of effort. The recommended model is complementary: use rules to clear simple cases at scale, then apply ML to exceptions for higher accuracy and targeting. Success depends on data quality, scalable engineering for millions of meters, and a closed feedback loop to validate outcomes, retrain, and maintain performance. While ML has higher compute costs, it unlocks savings through increased leak recovery, regulatory gains, and operational efficiency, with single-tool integration improving prioritization and reporting. Data privacy must be addressed through appropriate system design and governance. Get the whitepaper Get the whitepaper Speakers ‍ Jason King, Business Development Manager, Arqiva Stephanie Edmonson, Senior Product Manager, Arqiva Jack Kilvington, Head of Data Science, Arqiva ‍ Key takeaways 1. Rules Remain Reliable: Rules-based leakage detection remains effective for standard households (e.g., 2–4 a.m. no-flow rules) but struggles with non-standard usage such as industrial sites, high-use properties, and intermittent low-volume leaks. 2. Machine Learning Augments: Machine learning complements rules by learning patterns from data (supervised and unsupervised) to identify subtle and edge-case leaks that rules miss, enabling targeted, higher-value interventions. 3. Hybrid Strategy Wins: A hybrid approach is recommended: use rules to efficiently clear straightforward cases and apply ML to the 20% of meters that consume 80% of operational effort and often drive disproportionate leakage volumes. 4. Data-Driven Deployment: Successful ML deployment requires robust data quality, scalable engineering to handle millions of meters, and a closed feedback loop (verification, retraining, performance monitoring) to maintain real-world accuracy. 5. Cost-Saving Intelligence: While ML adds compute cost versus rules-based methods, it unlocks savings via earlier detection in complex scenarios, supporting regulatory performance and reducing water production, abstraction, and associated emissions. "It doesn’t have to be an either or; rules based with machine learning works really well to scale across the entire estate and handle both the standard cases and the non‑standard ones." Jack Kilvington Head of Data Science, Arqiva Watch the Webinar HERE Watch the Webinar HERE