The City of Dudelange took the decision to equip its entire water distribution network with water smart meters. They will be installed from 2017 and integrated into the national system of electricity and gas smart metering which is currently deployed throughout the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. These water smart meters will be supplied by Swiss company GWF MessSysteme. Schwartz and Co built the entire bill of specifications, and then checked and evaluated the bids.
The City of Dudelange is pioneering this project of equipping its distribution network with water smart meters, when the City is at the same time carrying out the deployment of gas smart meters as a natural gas distribution network operator.
These water smart meters will be wire or radio connected to the national electricity and gas smart metering system. The City of Dudelange is part of Luxmetering, an Economic Interest Grouping with all 6 other electricity and gas distribution network operators in the country, to implement the provisions of August 2012 laws on the organization of electricity and gas markets.
Thanks to these new water meters, which will be automatically and remotely measured and managed, the City of Dudelange will improve the quality of water distribution service to its inhabitants (possibility to bill water every month on the basis of actual consumption, remote meter-reading without disturbing the user, moving In/Out management, leaks detection) and provide them with new services to better manage this vital resource.
Water smart meters will be installed by the City from the beginning of 2017 along with gas smart meters, thus optimizing the installation process and reducing costs. They will communicate with the central system of Luxmetering, through the electrical meter which will serve as a communication gateway. Luxmetering will supply collected data to the City of Dudelange every day.
Sharing Luxmetering’s best-in-class IT and communication infrastructure between national electricity and gas smart meters on the one hand and water smart meters on the other hand is also an important factor in optimizing costs, securing and protecting data, which will benefit inhabitants of the City of Dudelange and of whole Luxembourg.
Fully aware of these issues, the City of Dudelange also offers all water network operators in the country the opportunity to access this technology of water smart meters, with the objective of maximizing the number of meters that will be connected to the national smart metering system, creating economies of scale, benefitting country’s population as a whole. Several towns and municipalities have already expressed an interest.
Hervé Schwartz, Founding CEO of Schwartz and Co declared: “Automation of water, gas and electricity metering management by information and communications technologies, which are at the heart of smart grids, is going to revolutionize how we manage these core resources. It will contribute to more rational and sustainable use of these resources and to improve the quality of service to consumers. In this area, the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg is positioned at the forefront with one of the most sophisticated multi-fluid smart metering system in Europe, which will now collect water metering data in addition to national electricity and gas metering data. “
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About Schwartz and Co
Schwartz and Co is an international and independant strategy and management consulting firmspecialised in energy, transport and water industry sectors. Schwartz and Co provides consulting services with strong business content in four domains : Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions, Regulation & MArket Models, and Operations Management. The firm is based in Luxemburg (group headquarters), Brussels, Paris, Lausanne, London and Beijing.