Arqiva connects one million smart meters to its network

Arqiva works with the UK’s biggest water providers in deploying smart metering programmes to meet regulatory targets and support customer behavioural change.

April 04, 2022, UK, London: Arqiva, the leading UK communications and media services provider, has added the millionth smart water meter to its fixed network. Arqiva works with the UK’s biggest water providers in deploying smart metering programmes to meet regulatory targets and support customer behavioural change. 

Designed to enhance water demand management capabilities, Arqiva’s 400MHz licensed spectrum enables providers to achieve leakage and consumption savings and meet Ofwat’s water leakage targets for the next Asset Management Plan five-year period and beyond. The high-resolution data that smart water meters provide helps communicate consumer consumption behaviour and enables water suppliers to quickly find and fix leaks. The two-way data exchange supported by Arqiva’s private network allows providers to increase consumer engagement and help them to understand their water usage habits.

Analysis from Arqiva and Waterwise has further confirmed the link between smart metering technology and addressing environmental issues. The report found that fitting one million smart water meters in the UK each year for the next 15 years could save one billion litres of water a day by the mid-2030s and could reduce the UK’s current greenhouse gas emissions by up to 0.5%. A further report carried out by Frontier Economics and Artesia, and commissioned by Arqiva, shows that a coordinated rollout of smart metering would deliver £4.4bn in benefits to society against costs of £2.5bn. 

According to the Environment Agency, without action England will face a water supply deficit of over 3.4 billion litres of water a day by 2050, meaning smart metering solutions are increasingly vital. By highlighting household water consumption and detecting leakage, Arqiva’s various at-scale rollout programmes across the country will continue to help change behaviours, reduce usage and drive down CO2 emissions.

This milestone marks an important step towards helping the UK’s water management capabilities in light of the water scarcity warnings laid out by the Environment Agency. Our recent findings clearly identify how smart metering technology can address the country’s water deficit, as well as help the government work towards net-zero emissions by 2050. 

We’ve been working incredibly hard with the UK’s biggest providers - measured by geographic area and number of households covered - for a number of years to ensure they are efficiently managing this vital resource.

John Lillistone, Director of Water at Arqiva