Elly Yates-Roberts |
The world is currently facing unparalleled challenges in the form of climate change, overpopulation and resource scarcity. At Diehl Metering, we believe we have a duty and responsibility to do something about it.
For more than 25 years we have been designing solutions that address specific challenges in water, heating, cooling and sub-metering, including high-precision smart metering solutions, data-driven network intelligence and internet of things connectivity technologies. During this time, we have developed our IZAR radio technology and internet of things connectivity solutions like mioty for Metering to reliably gather data from a wide range of meters in the field and transmit it to our software platform. This platform acts as a central depository for all water and energy data and offers maximum efficiency for all metering processes. As a result, we provide accurate and reliable measuring capabilities, which are an important way to reduce the consumption of natural resources, including water.
Non-revenue water (NRW) is the difference between the amount of water put into the distribution system and the amount that is billed to consumers. It is not only a waste of precious resources but also causes economic, ecological and humanitarian damage. As water becomes increasingly precious, monitoring NRW via smart meters can provide a useful way to understand what is happening within a water network and prevent further damage.
Smart meters remotely send measurements to utilities providers, allowing them to frequently monitor the level of NRW and understand what is happening in their network, including detecting leaks. Smart meters placed in households, at the entrances to residential districts and near to water plants, enable providers to understand where, when and why a leak has occurred, and assess its severity. All this information empowers providers to make the right decision at the right time to preserve water resources.
Smart analytics software such as IZAR@SMARTWATER gives utilities providers extra visibility into the level of NRW in their network. On top of this, Diehl Metering’s Water Loss Management (WLM) application – which is hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud – is a valuable decision-making tool for monitoring and accelerating NRW reduction. The application processes and analyses integrated data from multiple sources, including meter data management software and billing systems, and transforms it into charts and maps so customers can follow their progress in reducing NRW.
We continue to make improvements to the application. The next major objective is to implement artificial intelligence to make predictions and enable customers to develop even more pertinent strategies to address NRW. IZAR@SMARTWATER and our WLM application are also at the heart of our NRW Reduction Service, which is currently being piloted throughout Europe and Africa. Each situation is unique, so we tailor our solutions to each customer’s individual needs.
Our efforts in reducing NRW align with the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) of the European Union (EU), which aims to reduce energy consumption within the EU by 32.5 per cent by 2030. Achieving this goal will require changes in consumption behaviour, especially when it comes to supplying heating and cooling systems, and hot water. In order to create awareness among consumers and motivate them to be more conscious of their consumption behaviour, the EED demands that smart meters provide consumers with insights about their own energy and hot water consumption throughout the year.
The demand for transparency like this has been shown to effectively reduce energy consumption. According to the Subannual Billing Information for Heating and Water Costs report from Arge Heiwako – a German organisation that promotes the consumption-based recording and billing of utilities – consumers can reduce their annual heating and hot water consumption by seven to 12 per cent, simply by receiving regular information on their consumption.
At Diehl Metering, we can provide consumers with regular insights into their consumption behaviour through IZAR@HOME. The smartphone application enables utilities providers to share insights with consumers about their consumption patterns, empowering them to change their habits, save money and reduce their environmental impact.
We have always worked to continuously improve the performance of energy and water distribution by reducing NRW and energy losses, digitalising networks, boosting operational efficiency through data-driven insights, and continually conforming to regulations like the EED. As a leading provider of smart metering solutions, we offer software solutions that read water, thermal energy and gas meters via the same infrastructure. This data can then be combined with other information sources to create complex application scenarios in a smart city environment, while observing the data protection guidelines of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Annette Geuther is chief sales officer at Diehl Metering
This article was originally published in the Spring 2022 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.