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SMART.MET will test new smart metering solutions in five European sites

On 30 November 2020, the SMART.MET consortium announced the two companies that have passed the selection procedure for Phase 3 of the pre-commercial procurement (PCP) that will involve the ‘development of a test series and field testing’ of innovative smart-metering solutions.

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The purpose of the SMART.MET project, led by a group of 7 European public water utilities, is to drive the development of new technologies to deal with the collection and management of smart metering data, through a joint Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) divided into three phases: Phase 1 focusing on a solution exploration and design (completed), Phase 2, focusing on developing an operational prototype of the solution (completed), and Phase 3 dedicated to ground testing of the solutions, in progress.

In view of the final stage of the pre-commercial procurement (PCP) three companies proposed their technical offers for implementing their proposed prototypes. The SMART.MET consortium announced today that after a thorough assessment, the following companies have been admitted to participate in Phase 3 and awarded contracts for the implementation and ground testing of smart meter prototypes.

  • Telereading (Italy) 
  • Hydroko, Ng (Belgium) 

The solutions proposed by Telereading (Italy) and Hydroko, Ng (Belgium) will have to pass a first technological test at the laboratories of Eau de Paris (France) and Budapest Waterworks (Hungary), two of the seven public water utilities partners in the consortium.  Following this preliminary step, each technology supplier will manufacture and test 1500 innovative smart water metering prototypes in five countries: region of Sélestat (France), Vicenza (Italy), Zafra (Spain), Liége and Herstal (Belgium), and Budapest (Hungary). The test sites represent a diversity of urban, rural or mixed sites. This field testing will verify to what extent the prototypes’ main features meet the functional and performance requirements set in the pre-commercial procurement.

If successful, the field testing should lead to the full market exploitation of innovative prototypes. These innovative solutions are expected to develop a new cost-effective, efficient, water-smart metering system which will help to improve water utilities’ performance and customer services. The innovative smart water meter will allow utilities to decrease their operating costs and better prioritise and plan their infrastructure investments. In particular, utilities will be able to obtain accurate real-time metering data on detection of leaks, network damages, general or optimisation of the amount of supplied water.

The final results of the SMART.MET will be presented in a closing conference at the end of 2021.


About SMART.MET (PCP for Water Smart Metering)

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SMART.MET (PCP for Water Smart Metering) is a European project funded under the Horizon 2020 research programme launched in 2017. The SMART.MET project aims at promoting demand-driven research into the development of new innovative smart meter solutions that fully cater to the needs of water utilities.

Smart water metering presents itself as an effective solution to the challenges faced by the majority of European water utilities today, from extreme events induced by climate change to the need to replace ageing infrastructure. Indeed, providing access to accurate data in real-time can help decrease operating costs and prioritise infrastructure investments, while improving the daily management of networks and customer services. 

The buyers’ group is composed of seven water utilities from five different EU countries which came together in the SMART.MET project to guide the development of new technologies based on open technological platforms for the remote reading of water meters.  

Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) concerns the procurement of research and development services. It is a unique instrument to foster competition for the development of high quality and alternative solutions whilst providing an adapted answer to common needs and opening new markets for companies. 

Driving the development of new solutions for smart water metering data collection and management.
 

More information:
Website: http://smart-met.eu
Twitter: @SmartMet_PCP
Email: smart.met@oieau.fr

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation