Converging social will, environmental stewardship, and financial responsibility – or the Triple Bottom Line – requires that smart water metering technology providers adapt and deliver 21st Century sustainable solutions.
We have seen successful smart water metering deployments where a vendor deploys a fixed network and ensures that hundreds of thousands of smart water meters communicate according to engineering specifications. The utility then quantifies field labor cost reductions, and identifies various opportunities to realize operational efficiencies. In the case of a progressive utility, additional success metrics relative to leak detection and a reduction in non-revenue water loss is also applied. Thus, tangible short-term and long-term benefits were realized.
While such success factors remain true, the water management landscape is increasingly becoming scrutinized within a broader landscape. This landscape includes municipal government entities leading regional conservation initiatives, and commercial and industrial customers routinely applying environmentally responsible solutions that reduce costs. Residential customers, now more than ever, are able to link modifications in water consumption behavior to reducing their carbon footprint. Solution delivery must now integrate environmental, economic, and social benefits. The end customer and external stakeholders will only become more empowered.
That’s why Visibility Marketing Inc., working with Itron supports utilities’ consumer engagement programs. For example, in the Midwest, we’re working with the Cleveland Water Department. It has a service territory that spans a major metropolitan area with more than one million people and over 400,000 customers. This includes various municipalities and complex customer segments that transcend age, race, and income levels. The utility required strategic customer engagement planning during pre-deployment and during the early stages of the network deployment. Socio-economic challenges, future demographic projections, and a greater push for water conservation will continue to underscore the need for smarter approaches to customer engagement.
For water utilities, the strain on water resources only continues to grow. In the Midwest, the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior) contain approximately 20 percent of the world’s fresh water supply. There is growing collaboration among Great Lakes states and the Canadian province of Ontario to control sprawl. Sprawl leads to increased water consumption, additional energy usage, and a larger carbon footprint caused by vehicle emissions. Scientists also link sprawl to a reduction in water levels among all five of the Great Lakes. If this is an issue within the Great Lakes region, then this invariably is an issue in growing Sun Belt cities with limited access to fresh water resources. People are beginning to view fresh water as a protected asset as opposed to a right taken for granted. This growing public awareness is a “game changer” for water utilities and smart water metering solution providers as they plan large-scale deployments.
Water management, energy management, and intelligent transportation are inextricably linked. They cannot be separated from economic development approaches that are supported by social will and political movements. It stands to reason that typical water utility customers are also key stakeholders within an urban sustainability plan that is social, economic, and environmental. Selecting a customer engagement partner for future smart meter deployments will yield residual benefits and enable organic growth with a client.
The growing use of meter data analytics will provide water utilities with granular customer segmentation data that will be valuable as part of any regional sustainability initiative. Developing leading edge water management tools will require advanced customer engagement strategies and practices. Smart meters are already part of a Smart Water ecosystem requiring behavioral modification among water utilities and their respective customers. Visibility Marketing Inc. and Itron have already begun to deliver combined solutions that are positioned to evolve within the changing Smart Water Management arena.
Smart solutions are what distinguish technology and service providers. Smart solutions may solve non-revenue water problems, but the true test lies within the ability to solve a macro problem as well. Mobile phone applications and smart computing devices have empowered customers across multiple industries. Smart meter awareness and education is only the beginning. However, it is the smart water solution provider and Customer Engagement partnership that determine whether subsequent service offerings are smart enough to address challenges of the present and future.