Wave and data collection partner seek to root out broken meters

Wave is this month kicking off its Market Improvement Funded project with data collection specialist OccuTrace to scrutinise broken meters in the market.

OccuTrace will visit a sample of 2,000 supply points with meters showing zero-consumption from October to December. The sample will incorporate a variety of meter sizes, ages, manufacturers, types and customer segments across all wholesale areas in England. The results will be used as evidence for new meters to be fitted at each affected site, as well as to build a source of evidential data which shows the condition of NHH meter assets across the market. This will help inform the design of future market improvements.

Some 11% of meters in the market currently show zero consumption, which affects over 113,270 occupied business premises across England. Wave said while some may be correct, its analysis suggests that in c65% of cases, “it’s likely the meter is broken, meaning thousands of customers across England may have no access to their business’ water consumption data, would never know if they had a leak and may be paying incorrect bills”.

Wave’s metering and operations manager, Claire Stanness, said: “By working with OccuTrace to understand how many NHH meters are actually broken, any patterns such as age or manufacturer and translate this data into actionable insights and market improvements, we believe this project will offer significant benefits to customers, retailers and wholesalers and ensure consumption data is reliable and available to all business customers at all times.”

The project, running from September to December follows a 2021 joint initiative between Wave and OccuTrace to investigate long unread meters. The results of that project are now being used to address and reduce the number of meters in the market with no read for over 12 months.