Smart Metering Technology Supports Sustainability

As communities navigate COVID-19, sustainability is a top priority for many companies. Smart metering provides a cost-effective and efficient solution to distribute power and water resources to modern communities. Many cities and utility companies use smart meters to improve operations, save costs, and provide quality customer service.

What Is a Smart Meter?

Smart meters provide accurate and real-time monitoring of energy resources and water consumption. It’s a critical part of Information and Communication Technologies, enabling municipal authorities and utility companies to conduct regular meter reads, provide real-time consumption data, and detect leakage in the distribution chain.

Traditionally, utility operations were field intensive, where inspectors needed to go out and manually check meters. This often involved accessing hazardous or remote locations. Because of this, data collection was irregular, inaccurate, and time-consuming. It also meant that city authorities, utility companies, and energy suppliers faced hardships in planning feasible infrastructure.

Smart Metering Technology

Things began to change with the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud-based architecture, and wireless technology. Now, smart meter technology can relay the required information in real-time through wireless signals, enabling operators to take preventative action in order to avoid wasting precious resources. Smart water meter installation has already reached 115 million in the United States in 2021. This is a significant improvement compared to 2012 when there were only 42 million actively installed smart meters.

The level of service has significantly improved since they introduced smart metering a decade ago. Now, customers can acquire real-time data, analyze it, and use the data to manage energy, save money, set budgets, and receive updates. By conserving more energy and wasting fewer resources, everyone reduces their carbon footprint.

Benefits of a Smart Meter

Smart water meters are quickly becoming popular among policymakers and executives of utility companies. IHS Markit Ltd, a leading source of critical information, predicts that 50 million smart meters will be shipped for use in 2023, which is four times more than the forecast a few years ago. Here are just a few of the numerous benefits of a smart meter.

Remote Monitoring

Installing a smart water meter lets operators quickly measure data without resorting to manual inspections.

Leak Detection

Utility companies, treatment plans, and city governments can detect leakages in supply pipelines with pinpoint accuracy without accessing hard-to-reach spots.

Improved Service

Service providers can improve customer service with preventative maintenance against defects, leakages, and infrastructure damage.

Water Consumption

Customers can use online applications to monitor energy and water usage in real-time. Such data visualization can help predict consumption, detect leakage, and uncover fraud.

Pump Monitoring

Remote pump monitoring can help operators detect faults and send alerts whenever the system detects an anomaly. The system can operate 24/7 without human intervention.

Better Decisions 

Access to comprehensive remote monitoring data allows decision-makers to make intelligent decisions based on significant figures.

SCADA Technology and Smart Meter Systems

Utility companies are increasingly using smart meter systems to manage billing and revenue. Smart meters are part of a more extensive supervisory control and data acquisition system.

You might think that SCADA primarily involves a smart monitoring device intelligently transmitting data to a central location for active monitoring. In reality, it’s a more sophisticated system that helps manage the entire infrastructure, preventing massive waste.

SCADA helps distribute water evenly to numerous subdivisions in a water distribution network, keeping a consistent flow rate and intervening where necessary. The complete system constitutes storage tanks, pressure sensors, level sensors, and many other components.

It can also control water wastage, clean treatment plants, direct water flow, operate pumps, and run generators based on preference. As a result, engineers can keep an eye on the entire network preserving precious resources.

A SCADA System Partner for Water and Wastewater

High Tide Technologies provides an end-to-end cloud-based solution. Utilizing modern metering and technology solutions, it uses field units, satellite, cellular, Internet, and Ethernet communications. The system is ideal for monitoring gas and oil sectors.

It can actively monitor gas well production, pipeline flow, distribution pressure, and odor injection status. Numerous treatment plants use it to manage wastewater, and engineers can easily manage the entire infrastructure through web-based SCADA monitoring software.

After all, there are few things more precious than water. High Tide Technologies specializes in cost-effective, high-end solutions that help preserve water. Contact us today to learn more about implementing SCADA technology into your business operation.