Three project partners are water utilities that will deploy and use the SmartH2O platform in two case studies, in three different European contexts: a megacity (London, UK), a medium size city (Valencia, S), and a sparsely populated area (Canton Ticino, CH).

LONDON

Since 2011 Thames Water has been running a trial on smart metering technology (Fixed Network Trials – FNT) with the objective of  understanding the benefits for customers and the operational benefits of deploying a smart metering infrastructure covering full District Metered Areas (DMAs). Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) equipment has been installed to collect frequent meter readings (15 min intervals) from all connections within the DMA. The main objectives are to obtain an accurate water balance as well as confirming business case benefits of a large scale roll out. Two different fixed network technologies: advanced fixed network supplied by Arqiva/Sensus and a conventional fixed network supplied by Vennsys/HomeRider. This experiment covers 5 DMAs: 2 in London, 2 in Reading and 1 in Swindon with a total number of properties of 5’000. Total number of meters that have been installed are around 4’000.

VALENCIA

EMIVASA is certainly one of the companies leading the implementation of smart metering in Europe. The city of Valencia (800’000 inhabitants) will be, by the end of 2015, the first large city in Europe fully equipped with smart metering, with more than 430’000 smart meters from 6 different manufacturers connected in fixed network and providing near-real time data to data centres. Moreover, EMIVASA is already capable, after a great effort of developing specific software tools, of integrating data from smart metering into the Water Distribution Network management systems (rather than only for billing purposes).
The implementation of comprehensive platforms to manage data provided by smart meters and sensor devices of the WDN has become an issue of paramount importance for EMIVASA. The company is currently developing (some of them already in operation) a set of tools to deal with a variety issues related with WDN management and information to costumers. In relation to this, EMIVASA is already capable of displaying hourly information about consumption. This information is available to customers in their virtual office.

LOCARNO

SES is the partner in charge of the Swiss case study.
Società Elettrica Sopracenerina (SES) is a power utility based in Locarno, which has already run a test on multi-utility (water, gas and electricity) smart metering in Gambarogno, on the shores of Lake Maggiore. SES is interested in developing innovative metering techniques for electricity, gas and water, and the vision is to make the customer an active and self-aware actor in the rational use of water and energy.
In the SmartH2O project SES will install 400 smart meters in selected locations in the Locarno region. A first batch (200) is expected to be installed during the 3rd Quarter 2014, and a second batch (200) during the 4th Quarter 2014.