Taxonomy and model for valuing the contribution of digital water meters to sustainability objectives

Abstract

Water security is an issue across the world as communities face ageing infrastructure, population increases and climate change. The application of digital water metering (DWM) to properties has had a demonstrable impact on water savings at the property and network levels, on efficiencies within water utilities, as well as on improvements to customer satisfaction scores. Gathering and processing near-real-time water usage data is very important for both end-users and utilities, as well as demand and supply management planning. The potential contribution of DWM to the three pillars of water sustainability (environmental, economic development and social equity) is often overlooked. In Australia and other jurisdictions water utilities are facing up to the challenge of climate change. However, business cases promoting DWM are often unsuccessful because the benefit side falls short of the cost side. This study sought to identify possible DWM benefits not previously considered through an extensive review of academic and industry literature, and then to view those benefits through the lens of sustainability. The 77 identified benefits of DWM were catalogued and a taxonomy was created. The study elicited the opinions of experts, before quantifying them, thus identifying two distinct contexts of benefit value; subsequently, it surveyed the views of customers and developed a stochastic model of benefit value. The model, named DWM360, was applied to the project data of a large metropolitan water utility in Australia to model their DWM proposal for cost savings, contribution to sustainability and uplift in customer satisfaction. This paper presents a novel focus on how the benefits of DWM assist water sustainability. It considers differing social norms that impact consumer acceptance of changes in metering and water charges. The study will be of interest to researchers as well as practitioners looking to identify sustainability aspects of DWM.