Thames launches saver schemes for smart-metered businesses

(by Karma Loveday)

Thames Water has launched three new initiatives to help businesses save water and money, as it marked the milestone of more than half of all non-household meters in its area now using smart technology. The company is currently fitting around 2,000 business smart meters a month, and has installed over 90,000 smart meters in all to its 170,000 non-household metered customer base.

The new initiatives, which together are projected to save 16m litres of water a day, are: 

• Smart Water Saver Scheme – to reward eligible businesses with bill credits where they reduce water consumption by at least 10% compared to the same period last year. This is expected to save 1.1m litres of water a day. 

• Outreach to business customers with the biggest continuous flow, to directly identify and fix the customers’ leaks and other wastage. This is expected to save 14.5m litres a day.  It comes on top of existing activity under which Thames writes to businesses where smart meters identify potential continuous flow. In August, more than 2,100 such letters were sent. Thames has seen the proportion of smart-metered businesses showing continuous flow reduce from 34% to 28%.

• Temporary shut-off of water supply to confirmed vacant business premises – expected to save 0.5m litres a day.