Abstract
I Introduction
The water meter sector is beginning to change, following in the path of the
advanced metering revolution taking place in the energy sector, but at some
distance behind it. In the US water utilities started to deploy AMR several
years ago but it has not reached parity with the energy utilities. The
emphasis is now changing for both sectors, to AMI. In a time of rising water
prices there is a need to control costs but another important consideration
enters the equation for water, scarcity of the resource. In recent years there
have been a number of critical droughts in countries scattered over the globe.
In some countries which rely on hydropower this has lead to a shortage of
electricty, as was the case in Brazil several years ago. In other countries it
has affected both industry and the population. In Taiwan in 2008 water was
rationed to industry in order to provide drinking water for the population. In
China scarcity of water is a national priority at the highest level. In the
Middle East, Spain, the southern states of America water scarcity is a
recurrent problem. Smart water meters are being deployed to manage the
resource and this is a growth area. Irrigation meters are also increasingly
prominent.
Another issue which the ABS reports addresses for the first time is the
penetration and increasing usage of sub-metering. Property owners have always
charged their tenants for water, but mostly they include it in the rent or
allocate costs by RUBs (ratio utility billing), apportioning the charge
according to floor area, numbers of occupants or some such variable.
Sub-meters encourage tenants to use less water and they guarantee fair
charges. Sub-meters have been around for some years but their usage is growing
and we predict more growth. Sub-meters are used not only to measure total
consumption but to monitor individual usage points, such as taps and boilers
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