Netmore to Hook Up 1 Million Severn Trent Water Meters to Wireless Network

Global network operator Netmore has today signed a 3-year deal with the UK’s second-largest water company, Severn Trent, to deploy and manage network services for 1 million smart meters across more than 20 counties. This will involve the deployment of a dual wireless Long Range Wide Area (LoRaWAN) and Narrowband-loT (NB-IoT) network.

Fixed wireless LoRa networks harness only a small slice of lower frequency radio spectrum (usually in one of the sub-1GHz bands) in order to support relatively slow, but extremely low power, data connections over a wide coverage area. Such networks tend to run at sub-Megabit speeds (often under 0.05Mbps, but some variants can handle several Megabits), which makes them ideal for linking Internet of Things (IoT) style sensors.

Last year we reported that Netmore had signed a contract with Yorkshire Water (here) to upgrade and connect 1.3 million water meters across the Yorkshire region of England (i.e. those that are reaching the end of their operation life) to their new LoRaWAN. The latest deal thus represents a major expansion to that.

The data this network will deliver, on a daily basis, to Severn Trent is expected to improve customer awareness of water usage, reduce leakage, and help accurately plan water supplies for the future. Severn Trent’s goals are to reduce household water leakage by 16%, household water use by 7% and business water use by 3.5% come 2030.

Anthony Hickinbottom, Smart Metering Networks Lead at Severn Trent, said:

“Following a rigorous evaluation process to advance our AMI initiatives, we are confident in our choice of Netmore and its metering partners for our program. Netmore’s experience in supplying carrier-grade network connectivity and reliably delivering smart meter data will help Severn Trent monitor water consumption more accurately, identify leaks faster, and reduce and operational carbon emissions in line with our stated goals.”

Itron and Diehl have been selected as LoRaWAN meter providers for this program and Vodafone IoT has been selected to provide connectivity services for NB-IoT meters. The Netmore Connect platform will be utilized for all network and device management and data delivery to Severn Trent’s Meter Data Management System. Under the management of Severn Trent, Network Plus Services will plan, schedule, and install the meters.

The deal means that Netmore now operates the UK’s largest LoRaWAN network, covering 43 of the UK’s 92 counties, reaching over 51 million people or nearly 77% of the population, and connecting more than 3 million smart water meters. We should add that Severn Trent also work with rival broadband and LoRaWAN operator Connexin to deliver smart water metering using their wireless network (here).

Severn Trent itself serves 4.4m homes and business customers in England and Wales.