Meter data challenges existing demand planning and efficiency messaging, experts warn

Research from UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR), on scrutinising hourly consumption data from new metering technologies, has revealed new insights into how customers use water, and suggested the water sector needs to rethink how it models demand in water planning.

The collaborative project revealed a nuanced and highly dynamic picture of water consumption. This included the identification of ten different consumption profiles which customers frequently move between at different times of the day, week and year.

The researchers said the use of static and simplistic profiles of demand should be replaced with a more representative model of demand in water planning. The project also showed that 10% of households used 25 per cent of total water used, highlighting the importance of an effective water efficiency strategy for high users.

Other recommendations from the project included:

• companies’ demand analysis needs to be considered from a data-driven perspective and use the project’s methodology to explore factors and patterns specific to their local datasets and supply area;

• methodology guidance should be developed so water companies can make best use of water consumption metering data in line with emerging best practice and legislation;

• data sharing is critical if water companies are to collectively tackle household water use but they need to determine standards and procedures on data sharing within European Union General Data Protection Regulation; and

• recording and archiving of data by water companies is crucial to identify long-term trends and they should consider the additional value of using higher-resolution data too.

UKWIR programme lead and supply demand manager at South West Water, Paul Merchant, said: “This project has brought together a huge amount of data on household water use and gives water companies a tantalising glimpse of a completely new way of understanding and reducing demand for water. This project supports the idea that the effect of customer behaviour has a bigger impact on water consumption than socioeconomics or weather. This provides potential new avenues for how companies target their water efficiency activities and assess the likely impacts.”

The UKWIR project, which was overseen by a steering group comprising water company members, the Environment Agency, Water UK and Waterwise, has now set out further avenues for research and proposed setting up long-term studies for water companies and regional water resource groups to consider.