We’re committed to using the best and most innovative technology to invest in the future of your drinking water.
That’s why we’re set to try new digital network sensors and water meters which we believe will give us more insight into the hidden world of our water pipes underground.
The meters we’re testing are the next generation of digital water meters which, if successful, will improve our service and give us an even better overview of how our system is working, around the clock.
By giving us the information we need, we will be able to find faults quicker than before – which means we can fix leaks before they cause disruption to the community.
FAQ's
The trial is happening in north Kent in the villages of Longfield and New Barn. About 2,000 customers in these areas will have their current meter replaced by new digital meters. We are also fitting a series of new sensors on our own network in the area too.
We know from the information we have that the Longfield and New Barn area has had leaks, something we are keen to stop. The area has a mix of water mains made from different materials, which may deteriorate in different ways over time, resulting in bursts. The area also has the mobile telecoms infrastructure we need for the trial.
We currently collect information from water meters but we only do this twice a year. This means that if you have a leak and you weren’t aware of it, it could have been running for six months before we read your meter. With the trial we will record this data every 15 minutes and collect it hourly.
We will begin swapping out the existing meters for the new digital meters from 7 January. We will only carry out these works between 8am and 4pm on week days and we expect to have completed that part of the programme by March. This metering work is in accordance with our legal powers under the Water Industry Act 1991.
The 12-month trial will begin once all the new meters have been fitted, and will run until February 2020.
From 7 January until March we will fit the new water meters. The 12 month trial itself will begin once all the existing meters have been swapped with the new meters. This is to ensure we have a complete and accurate data set for the whole area.
If we were to consider extending the trial, we will write to customers and offer the opportunity to opt out of the extension. As this is a small trial we need all the meters in the trial area to be connected to make sure it works. For that reason, you cannot opt out at this stage.
As your local water supplier we manage a network of over 14,500 kilometres – or 9,000 miles - of water pipes which deliver top quality drinking water to customers’ homes.
We’re proud each year we’ve successfully improved the services we deliver to customers, and this includes reducing the amount of water lost through leaks - a top customer priority.
For many years we’ve hit all our leakage improvement targets, but we want to do more, and we’ve set our own ambitious targets for even further reductions over the next five years.
Identifying and pinpointing smaller, less visible underground leakage is a challenge we’re responding to with the development of Smarter Water Networks using the latest technology.
This will monitor our pipeline network from end to end, detecting changes in water pressure and flows around the clock, so we are able to deploy our engineers earlier, and repair leaks faster.
Since 2010, we have reduced the amount of water lost through leaks by eight per cent and our ambitious plans are to use the latest, most innovative technology to improve this by a further 14% by 2025.
Water pipes are hidden, sometimes metres underground, which makes finding and fixing the leaks we can’t see a real challenge.
The new digital meters across our network will record data every 15 minutes which we will collect hourly. This will enable us to spot leaks far quicker than we do now, both on our water mains and also on customers’ supply pipes, helping us pinpoint the location of the leak so we can fix it far quicker.
As well as driving down the amount of water lost to leaks, it will also reduce the amount of time our customers are without water during repairs.
Other water companies in the UK and across the world are trialling digital meters, which provide customers and companies with more up-to-date meter readings. This gives customers more control over the amount of water they use and can flag hidden leaks on customer pipework.
What makes this trial different is the way we will be interconnecting the information gathered from the meters with our software and our network of pipes. The interconnectivity should identify at an early stage the amount of water leaking from a pipe hidden metres underground. This will flag on our system and signal it needs repairing. We can then fix the leak before it becomes a burst or visible on the surface – this is what makes this particular trial unique.
Yes, similarly to what we do now, when we suspect higher than normal water use, we will give you a call to let you know we’ve spotted unusual activity.
If you can account for the extra water use, that’s not a problem, however if you can’t it may signal that there’s a leak either on your supply pipe or inside your property.
Yes, once all the new digital meters have been fitted and have begun analysing the data, if we spot an anomaly we will contact you and if you wish, carry out free leak investigations. We will contact the bill payer directly if we do spot anything we feel is unusual.
The trial uses established wireless communication technologies using radio waves and 5G to transmit data. The radio waves used by digital meters are lower than those produced by mobile phones and Wi-Fi equipment, and well below international guidelines.
Further information can be found on the government’s website(opens in a new tab).
The aim of the pilot is to improve our ability to find and repair leaks more quickly, so through the pilot we will not be making changes to the information available through our My Account service.
As the trial progresses we will be looking at possibilities for improving the information available through this service. When we reach this point we will write again providing an opportunity to sign up to any additional services.
In the meantime, if you would like to sign up to our My Account portal you can do so here(opens in a new tab).
In the New Barn and Longfield area we will be fitting digital meters to all properties that have a meter, including internal meters. We will contact those customers with an internal meter to arrange an appointment to fit the meter.
The trial will only fit a new digital water meter to a property with an existing meter.
We are investing nearly £750,000 on the trial as part of our commitment to reducing the amount of water lost to leaks and the number and duration of supply interruptions.
You do not have to do anything and you will not notice any changes to your water supply or bill.
Customers cannot opt out of the trial. This is because as it’s only a small trial we need all the meters in the trial area to be connected to the network so we can assess whether the trial works and identifies enough of a benefit to consider whether this will work in other areas.
You can call our Customer Technical Centre on 0333 000 1122(opens in a new tab). Lines are open Monday to Friday between 8am - 7pm, and Saturdays between 8am and 1pm.
Yes, you can call 0333 000 0001(opens in a new tab).
As this will be your usual meter read that we will need for billing you, we will keep that as normal.
You can request what your read is at any time. Where we have collected the more frequent reads, we will keep it in line with our usual retention processes (i.e seven years after you have stopped being a customer of ours). We will use the data at the end of the trial for analysis and determine whether we think it helped us reduce leakage.
If at the end of this analysis we no longer need the data we will delete any additional data or just keep anonymous details to use for business planning purposes.
If you are a customer in our smart networks trial area, the digital meter will collect the readings at 15 minutes intervals but will only transmit this back to us on an hourly basis.
They are made in the UK, Germany and Mexico.
During the trial we will be using this data for the following reasons:
- Leakage detection – we should be able to locate whether the leak is in your property or on our network (and where on our network) which will help us fix it quicker. If the leak is in your property we can point you in the right direction to get it fixed. It could help us identify how to better prioritise which leak to fix first in some cases
- Reducing the volume of water lost to leaks – if we find the leak quicker we can fix it quicker and save water
- Testing the battery and telecommunications channels to make sure the devices will last as long as they say they should
- We may talk to you as well to see if extra information about your water use improves water efficiency at all
- We may analyse the data to see if we can offer new services such as tariffs or water use plans to customers in the future
- During the trial we will also use the meter reads we collect to carry on with managing your account and providing your water services in the normal way
This trial is an important way for us to find ways to manage and reduce leakage and reduce the water used per person, in a more efficient and time sensitive way. As such we will be processing the data from this trial as part of the legitimate interests of a water company.
For more information on how we will be collecting the data from your meter and using it as part of this trial, please see the Developing Smarter Water Networks Trial section of our privacy notice (https://southeastwater.co.uk/privacy).
Trial partners include: Sensus – a Xylem brand, providing fixed network digital water meters; Visenti – a Xylem brand, providing software analytics; Arqiva, providing fixed network connectivity; Vodafone, providing NBIoT network connectivity; Diehl and Honeywell, both providing NBIoT digital water meters; Syrinix, providing bursts and pressure transient loggers; ATI, providing water quality sensors; Gutermann, providing noise correlating loggers; and Z-Tech supporting the deployment in the field.
ATi ATi is delighted to be working with South East Water, providing it with a bespoke instrumentation solution that best fits its individual requirements.
This project is a significant step forward and is a fantastic example of how multi-stakeholder collaboration is helping to drive forward the concept of smart water networks.
Diehl As one of the world's largest specialist metering and data solutions providers, manufacturing across Europe, Diehl focus on producing superb quality solutions utilising industry leading (OMS) radio, M-Bus and IoT technologies, which meet the challenges of our customers in an ever changing, demanding environment. Diehl Metering is delighted to be working with South East Water in successfully delivering the largest NBIoT smart water network trial in the UK. We understand the value of working with our customers to tailor solutions for the UK water utilities and their customers.
GUTERMANN GUTERMANN is a global leader and innovator in intelligent water loss and leak detection technology. Particularly with its flagship product ZONESCAN ALPHA; a fully automatic, correlating and pinpointing network monitoring system that helps utilities identify leaks reliably and fix them in a short time
GUTERMANN and South East Water have enjoyed a close relationship for many years, with South East Water using a number of GUTERMANN's AQUASCAN correlators and more recently over a thousand ZONESCAN 820 noise loggers for leakage surveys. GUTERMANN will shortly be launching an industry first, NB-IoT correlating noise logger for water networks. NB-IoT (Narrow-band Internet of Things) will provide improved reception for underground applications, with significantly longer battery life and more reliable connectivity than 2G and 3G. The NB-IoT logger will be implemented for the first time in the UK with South East Water within its trial, monitoring its distribution networks and providing it with automatic correlating leak results this autumn.
Honeywell Honeywell surpasses smart metering with Connected Utility solutions that effectively measure, monitor and respond to utility operations from edge to cloud.
Our water, electricity and gas solutions put valuable, actionable data in the hands of utilities to better serve customers. They enable improved performance, greater reliability and significant cost savings. Honeywell considers South East Water as a key partner in developing the next generation of smart water meters and is working closely with SEW in providing an NBIoT smart metering solution.
Sensus – a Xylem company For the pilot system, South East Water needed to integrate data gathered by multiple sensor and meter technologies via three different communications networks; FlexNet, NB-IoT and 3G/4G cellular. Existing databases for billing systems, resource management software and a customer engagement portal also needed access to the data. To facilitate this, a central management system was specified that was flexible enough to interface seamlessly to the wide variety of systems and powerful enough to handle the vast quantities of data collected. In addition, the system needed to ensure the validity of the data and provide alarm notifications, advanced network analytics and leak detection functionality. After investigating potential solutions available in the market, the View® platform from Visenti, a Xylem brand, was selected and is now successfully operating in the South East Water data centre, providing the management, control and reporting functionality required.
The FlexNet communication network from Sensus, a Xylem brand, is the most widely deployed Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) for smart water networks in the UK, having been specifically optimised to provide reliable connectivity while ensuring the longest possible battery life in the smart meter. As part of the pilot programme, it provides secure and reliable connectivity to 1,800 meters located primarily underground, outside residential properties in the area.
Syrinix Syrinix, provide pressure transient monitoring enabling South East Water to gain valuable insight of the operation of its network. The ability to detect pressure transients, bursts, network anomalies and locate any unstable activity, means utility managers can understand in real time what is happening and manage any operational response required.
Vodafone In this ground-breaking project, Vodafone is providing Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) connectivity to connect customers’ smart digital water meters, sensors and acoustic loggers on underground mains water pipes. This enables data to be transmitted and analysed, offering a more accurate way of identifying and preventing leaks. NB-IoT operates within a very narrow radio band frequency and provides wider coverage and deeper penetration than traditional networks - even underground or within buildings. It also operates in a way that reduces consumption for battery powered devices in the field, such as water meters and sensors, so that they can last ten years and beyond.
Z-Tech As part of South East Water’s industry leading NB-IoT trial, Z-Tech worked in a multi-partner collaborative project to install over two thousand smart meters from a number of different suppliers. The project had multiple challenges in retrofitting new technologies into the meter asset base but this was managed by the multiple-contractors working together seamlessly and allowing South East Water to ultimately use the data to serve the customer and work towards the dgital transformation of the water industry.