The smart water metering rollout will connect some 300,000 Itron residential and C&I smart water meters to the existing network
Industrial IoT provider Itron, which specializing in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solutions for utilities, announced that Singapore’s national water agency, PUB, is leveraging SP Group’s existing Itron industrial IoT network canopy for smart water metering.
The smart water metering rollout will connect some 300,000 Itron residential and commercial/industrial (C&I) smart water meters to the existing network to achieve its water conservation goals, Itron said.
The deployment, which is managed by Singapore’s national electricity and gas network operator, SP Group, is an important part of PUB’s smart water meter program, which aims to transform the organization into a smart utility. The first phase of the program will be rolled out in Bukit Batok, Hougang, Jurong West, Tampines and Tuas, as well as in the new housing estates of Tampines North and Tengah.
With smart water meters, meter readings can be done remotely on a daily basis, eliminating the labor-intensive manual meter reading process which is currently read every two months, Itron said. Also, households and businesses can track their daily water usage on their MySmartWaterMeter account, hence giving them greater visibility and control over their water usage to conserve resources. Users can also receive timely notifications on high usage and suspected leaks in their household or premises. This will enable households and non-domestic customers to better understand their water usage pattern.
“We are excited to see SP Group’s existing Itron network canopy be used for the smart water meter program in Singapore. This deployment truly demonstrates the power and potential of a high-performance, multi-application industrial IoT network,” said John Marcolini, senior vice president of networked solutions at Itron. “As part of this project, we look forward to helping PUB meet its water conservation goals and furthering Itron’s vision to create a more resourceful world.”
In September, Itron announced it was working together with Samsung subsidiary SmartThings to connect Itron’s industrial IoT (IIoT) network solution and SmartThings’ services and solutions.
The collaboration will combine Itron’s distributed intelligence (DI) ecosystem with SmartThings’ Energy service to provide real-time energy readings and consumption patterns to improve energy management and conservation, Itron said, adding that the combined solution will bring together participating consumers’ real-time consumption data from their meter, plus “behind the meter assets” and appliances.
Itron noted that a complete view of consumers’ energy consumption can be obtained through the application, which displays both the whole house real-time consumption information provided by Itron as well as the preexisting app features that show real-time data use of smart appliances.
Itron also said that utilities will be able to engage the base of SmartThings app users to inform them about energy efficiency, demand response and EV charging programs. A total of 230 million people have downloaded the SmartThings app, and Samsung expects that to grow to 500 million users within five years. This combined with Itron’s millions of connect DI devices will allow utilities to enhance their distributed energy management programs, the firm added. Users could also use the SmartThings app to directly enroll in such programs.
