Smart Water Meters Slow to Roll Out

The New York Times Green Inc. Blog has an interesting post about the challenges facing smart water meters, which could help water utilities detect leaks, better manage their supplies, and provide their customers with real-time water use data to encourage conservation.

I have previously written about the potential benefits of smart water meters and the opportunity to implement them in conjunction with smart power meters, which are currently being installed by electricity providers across the country. In addition to helping utilities identify leaks and better gauge water demand, smart water meters can help consumers use less water by providing them with a real-time graphical display of how much water certain activities really use.

But as the New York Times points out, despite the growing scarcity of water and a recognition amongst water managers that smart meters can help them better manage their supplies, there are a number of hurdles that must be overcome before a massive roll out of smart water meters can take hold:

“There’s a belief today that water is becoming a critical issue for the nation,” said Guerry Waters, vice president for industry strategy at Oracle Utilities. “It’s a growing issue we’re going to have to deal with, not unlike the issues driving the electric industry.”

But Oracle’s own survey indicates the challenges of both rolling out smart water meters and making a business of them.

Only 14 percent of the utilities said they were implementing smart meter projects.

For electric utilities, which are increasingly rolling out smart meters for monitoring electric usage, the hurdles are often not as high, because the companies are often privately owned. Most water districts, in contrast, are public agencies, which means they may be hard-pressed to finance a capital-intensive project like installing smart meters.

In fact, capital costs were the top concern of the water managers who Oracle surveyed. At the same time, 62 percent of them said smart meters could help them detect leaks and promote conservation among customers.

So, it all seems to boil down to the money. Yet many of the same utilities that could reduce water demand by installing smart meters are willing to raise the cash to develop costly new water supplies (PDF) that will result in massive new energy demands and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Because of the opportunity to save energy by saving water, water utilities could look at their counterparts in the electric power sector to help out with financing. Water supply and treatment is one of the largest energy demands for many municipalities. With smart water meters, utilities could better manage water supplies to help shave the top off peak energy demands. A paradigm in which real-time water use information is communicated to consumers and utilities alike would allow water agencies to charge their customers based on time of use, which could provide disincentives to use water during peak water and energy demand. Since smart meters are already being rolled out in many communities, it would be a shame if we miss the opportunity to install similar infrastructure for water.