Live & Online International Conference 25 & 26 March 2025. (Workshops 24 & 27)
PRODUCED BY
PARTNER EVENT
PARTNER EVENT
PARTNER EVENT
PARTNER EVENT
PARTNER EVENT
A Watershed Moment: The Global Shift Toward Smart Water Metering Solutions
Across the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, a powerful convergence of factors is accelerating the deployment of smart water metering technologies for 2024 and 2025. This period represents a pivotal moment for the international water industry, marked by an urgent need to address pressing environmental challenges and optimise water resource management.
In the UK, a confluence of regulatory drivers, including Ofwat's 2024 price review, the Water Act of 2014, and the Environmental Act of 2021, all underpinned by the Climate Change Act, propels significant advancements in smart meters. These regulations are compelling UK water utilities to adopt new innovative technologies as a strategic measure to achieve critical goals, such as reducing leakage and lowering per capita water consumption.
The urgency extends beyond the UK, as many parts of Europe grapple with even more severe water scarcity and drought conditions. European utilities are increasingly turning to smart water management solutions not just to meet regulatory demands but to actively engage customers in reducing water usage, which is vital for long-term sustainability. This trend is mirrored globally, where utilities across various regions embrace smart technologies to tackle inefficiencies and drive sustainable water use. From Singapore to Nigeria, the key business drivers have much in common.
Smart Water Metering & Data Utilisation 2025 is the essential gathering for industry leaders, regulators, and innovators seeking to navigate these transformative changes.
As we approach 2025, water utilities worldwide carefully evaluate the business case for smart water metering systems. The decision often hinges on the sophistication required from these technologies, balancing the need for accurate consumption data with the imperative to engage customers effectively. Yet, with budgets increasingly strained, the return on investment (ROI) versus the cost of implementing smart meters remains a pivotal issue, and this critical consideration will be a major focus of our 2025 event.
Smart Water Metering Progress: Addressing the Challenges of Implementation Across Diverse Regions
Across Europe and the UK, the adoption of smart metering varies significantly. While some regions have fully integrated these systems, others still navigate the early stages of pilots and limited deployments. This disparity underscores the importance of our upcoming conference as a platform for bridging gaps in knowledge, experience, and execution.
So, what will be the key theme for 2025, and how will this conference support the industry in tackling these challenges? Over the summer, we've engaged in extensive dialogue with utilities worldwide, and the promising news is that many are now beginning to unlock the potential of the vast amounts of data generated by smart meters.
Turning Abundant Data into Powerful Utility Solutions
However, the industry needs a unified approach to benchmarking and optimising data utilisation. While utilities can access abundant data, the challenge lies in making it actionable and valuable. This will be a central theme of the 2025 conference as we bring together industry leaders to share insights, strategies, and solutions for turning data into a powerful tool for efficiency, sustainability, and customer satisfaction.
Preparing for the 2025 Smart Water Conference: Diverse Perspectives & Targeted Solutions
As we gear up for the 2025 event, our research campaign for the final agenda will continue through October 2024. However, we've already initiated extensive dialogues with water utilities around the globe, revealing that many are still grappling with the complexities of integrating smart meters into existing technical infrastructures. These discussions have highlighted critical strategic issues, particularly regarding ROI and determining the appropriate sophistication of smart metering systems. While customer engagement and data analytics remain central to these conversations, the challenge of technical integration—especially achieving seamless interoperability—remains a significant hurdle.
Although the final agenda is still being researched, we plan to structure this year’s sessions around two primary tracks: strategic issues and technical challenges. This dual approach will ensure we meet the varied needs of our audience, offering targeted insights and practical solutions.
Expanding Horizons: Fresh Insights For Water Utilities and New Business Development
In our ongoing research, we've expanded our network by connecting with new water utilities across Europe and beyond, gaining fresh insights that hold valuable lessons for utilities worldwide. These new interactions should create significant business development opportunities for vendors, further solidifying the meeting’s reputation as a hub for industry growth and collaboration. We are making remarkable strides by engaging with new international water utilities we hadn’t previously interacted with, uncovering unique perspectives, particularly from smaller and rural utilities. These utilities, often facing challenges unrelated to climate change, such as Canada’s harsh winter conditions, bring critical insights that enhance our benchmarking processes and support companies' drive to innovate and improve.
Expanding Perspectives: A Global Exchange at the Forefront of Smart Water Innovation
This year, we are more determined than ever to expand the reach and impact of the event by bringing an even broader array of perspectives to the forefront. We’re excited to host a dynamic mix of in-person speakers in London and virtually—ensuring a vibrant exchange of ideas, best practices, and innovative solutions from around the globe.
Emerging Regions for Smart Meter Testing and Deployment
In parts of Eastern Europe, for example, smart metering has gained significant interest, especially in drought-affected regions. These communities are leading the way in adopting this technology, offering invaluable lessons in customer engagement that utilities across Europe and the United States can learn from and implement.
Learning From Early Adopters
Early adopters of smart water meters set the standard by using data to revolutionise water management and predictive maintenance. With impressive reductions in leakage, these pioneers are proof of what’s possible, and we’re eager to showcase their success stories at the event, providing actionable insights for others.
Cybersecurity in Focus: Protecting Smart Water Systems Amid Geopolitical Shifts
A critical and increasingly urgent challenge in the smart water metering landscape is cybersecurity. With the geopolitical climate becoming ever more complex, concerns over the security of smart water metering systems have intensified, especially among EU water utilities.
Recognising the significance of this issue, this year’s conference will feature in-depth workshops dedicated to exploring these cybersecurity challenges and equipping participants with actionable solutions to safeguard their systems and data.
In our ongoing research, 90% of respondents have expressed concerns about cybersecurity measures. This highlights the critical importance of addressing this issue, and it will be a major focus as we continue to develop the conference program.
The 2025 Conference: Practical Solutions and Cutting-Edge Strategies for Smart Water Utilities
In summary, our mission for Smart Water Metering & Data Utilisation 2025 is to propel the industry forward with cutting-edge strategies, practical solutions to technical challenges, and clear guidance on infrastructure compatibility. We are committed to showcasing best practices that help utilities overcome public resistance and effectively communicate the numerous benefits of smart metering to their customers.
We will aim to ensure that every session will be outcome-driven, ensuring participants leave with actionable insights—enhancing leak detection, advancing water conservation efforts, improving billing accuracy, boosting customer engagement, or increasing overall operational efficiency.
What's New For 2025?
For a start, more new water utility speakers and a deeper dive into successful technology adoption and data-driven decision-making.
How Leading Utilities Are Tackling Water Challenges Worldwide– Sharing More Examples From Densely Populated Urban Areas Facing Severe Water Stresses
We are contacting a broad range of water utilities, including many new ones who haven’t previously spoken on European metering events. Remarkably, over half of our research calls have been with these new utilities. This expansion is key to making the event more dynamic and relevant, fostering greater international participation from water utilities and solution providers that can help.
Our goal is to bring many of these utilities on board as speakers. For example, we are in active discussions with water utilities in Jakarta, Indonesia, where they are tackling the challenge of high initial costs despite compelling business cases for enhanced water conservation and leak detection. In Bangkok, the focus is on revolutionising urban water management, while in Nigeria, the primary issue is managing water scarcity during peak summer months in rapidly expanding urban centers.
Notably, public acceptance in these regions is already strong—communities recognise the value of smart water technologies and are eager to adopt them. This raises an important question: What lessons can countries in the early stages of systemic droughts learn from these pioneering examples?
Additionally, we've connected with a local water utility in Argentina focused on reducing non-revenue water and upgrading infrastructure, particularly in overcoming the technical challenges of integrating older systems. These conversations have been incredibly insightful, and while we haven’t finalised our final agenda yet, we’re diligently working to include new perspectives that can offer solutions to utilities facing similar pressures. This initiative also creates significant business development opportunities for vendors, as bringing fresh case studies and expert speakers is one of our top priorities for this year’s conference.
New Technology Evolution
The second major innovation this year is in the realm of technology. While the core categories of technology for smart water metering haven’t changed dramatically, the innovations and enhancements within these categories are now more focused on cost-effectiveness, accuracy and precision. Many utilities are particularly interested in the real-time data collection and analytics capabilities of AI-powered AMI systems, which, despite their higher cost, enable utilities to make quick, informed decisions.
New Meters With Two-Way Communication
We’ll also explore advancements in two-way communication technologies, which not only collect data from meters but can also send commands, such as remotely shutting off water. These innovations are especially crucial for utilities that have already implemented smart grid technologies, especially in North America, where integrating AI and IoT with smart grids is gaining momentum.
Improvements To Metering Hardware
Recently, there has been a significant shift in metering hardware, with new models offering greater accuracy, durability, and lower maintenance requirements—vital innovations for utilities managing large-scale deployments. Some of these new meters include additional sensors, like pressure and temperature, providing even more comprehensive data for utilities.
Ensuring Cyber Safe Smart Metering Systems
Another hot topic for 2025 is cybersecurity. With the current global tensions, ensuring that all new technologies include robust cybersecurity measures is more critical than ever. We’ll discuss these enhancements in depth—how secure are these systems, and what steps can be taken to protect increasingly digital infrastructures?
The Latest Connectivity Innovations
We’re also seeing innovation in low-power IoT connectivity, such as NB-IoT, which is becoming a popular choice for cost-effective and scalable communication solutions. Similarly, more utilities are developing customer portals, and we're seeing emerging communication technologies like cellular-based metering, LPWANs, and even Amazon Sidewalk, which uses existing consumer devices for data transmission. We’ll explore how these technologies compare cost, coverage, and signal strength.
Proven Results From The Latest AI Innovations
In the past 12 months, we’ve also seen a wave of AI and modelling innovations hitting the market. We’ll highlight the best of these to show how they can integrate with current systems to enhance utility operations.
As you can see, technology integration and innovation are central themes for 2025, and we’re excited to showcase many of the latest advancements.
Calling all vendors and solution providers—can you help?
Smart water metering is a rapidly evolving, technology-driven field. Every year, the market expands, with many water utilities looking to scale up their pilot projects, upgrade existing systems, or even launch entirely new roll-outs. To navigate these technological challenges, water utilities need your expertise. Can you offer the solutions and insight they require?
Scenario 1: Implementing Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
Can you walk utilities through minimising costs while integrating AMI systems with existing infrastructure? How does your solution compare in terms of operational and maintenance costs? What is the cost-benefit analysis of obtaining more accurate, real-time data, and how does this support a strong business case?
Scenario 2: New Communication Technologies, Including Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN)
From our research, there seems to be conflicting data on the coverage and penetration capabilities of LPWAN in both urban and rural areas—can you clarify this for water utilities? Specifically, with narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), what are the expected battery lifespans for meters, and how easy is it to scale NB-IoT across an entire utility network? How secure are these communication networks, especially since cybersecurity is a hot topic for 2025?
Scenario 3: Smart Meter Data Analytics
Water utilities are looking to use smart meter data analytics to gain better insights from their data. These platforms sound compelling, but how can you customise data analytics to meet specific utility needs? Additionally, how does your platform handle data security and privacy?
Scenario 4: Cybersecurity for Smart Water Metering Solutions
For those providing hardware or AMI solutions, what measures are in place to protect against cyber threats? How does your system comply with GDPR and other regulations? What are the best practices for guaranteeing security while minimising the costs and complexity of implementing these measures?
Scenario 5: Battery Technology for Smart Meters
What is the expected battery life for your meter type, and how easy is it to replace or recharge batteries in the field? What are the impacts on cost and the environment?
Scenario 6: Cloud-Based Metering Solutions
How do you guarantee the security of cloud-based metering systems? How do these systems impact data accessibility and reliability?
These scenarios represent just a snapshot of the questions that utilities face when deploying advanced technologies.
This year, we’re enhancing the experience by integrating more roundtable discussions into each morning and afternoon session to discuss in-depth questions like these. After the curated Q&A sessions, you'll have the opportunity to dive deeper into these issues with your peers, share findings, and connect with vendors. We hope these discussions will be valuable for water utilities and vendors, fostering new relationships and solutions.