Water and sewage service provider SABESP has deployed 100,000 smart water meters on narrowband IoT technology Sigfox in the city of São Paulo in Brazil. The deal was put together by Brazil-based industrial IoT company Laager Tecnologias Sustentáveis and engineering services company Vita Ambiental, along with Sigfox operator WND.
The São Paulo State Sanitation Company (SABESP) is responsible for water and sewage in 375 municipalities in the state of São Paulo. It claims to be the largest sanitation company in the Americas, and the fourth largest in the world in terms of the population it serves.
The project, billed as one of the largest in Latin America, enables remote measurement and management of water consumption in the company’s 100,000 largest consumers in the metropolitan region of São Paulo.
Laager Tecnologias Sustentáveis and Vita Ambiental combined as the Metrolink consortium to bid for the contract, which was initially issued at the end of 2018. Around 92,000 of the water meters being connected will use WND’s Sigfox network in the area; connectivity on the remaining 8,000 meters was not revealed in a press statement from the group.
The new system supports automated remote meter-reads “multiple times a day”. It also generates alarms and statistics about the operation of the entire water network. “These new features bring reliability, transparency and savings to consumers and unprecedented operational efficiency for SABESP,” said a statement.
Ricardo Batista, ivision manager at Sabesp, said: “The new technology enables our customers to monitor water consumption daily, as well as leak detection, saving money and preserving the environment, in addition to better management of resources by our company. We hope to be able to expand the project in the coming years.”
José Almeida, deputy chief executive at WND Brazil, said: “We have delivered one of the largest IoT projects in the Americas. The results achieved demonstrate, without any doubt, that our technology and business model are the best choices for IoT projects today.”
Felipe Duque Estrada, chief executive at Laager, said: “The adoption of Sigfox ensured the economic and technological viability of the project.”
