Day 2 - 27 April, 2023 CONVINCING & EDUCATING CUSTOMERS & DATA USAGE

08:45 Coffee and Registration

09:15 Chair’s Opening Remarks 

OPENING PANEL – REGULATORY PERSPECTIVES ON SMART METERING AND THE CUSTOMER  

09:20  Promoting Efficiency and Rewarding Great Outcomes

Ofwat is focused on achieving great outcomes for Customers and the Environment.  Every 5 years it carries out a price review to set limits to water companies revenue that are required to operate efficiently. At the same time Ofwat also agrees levels of performance in key metrics common to all companies, and bespoke levels of performance commitments which the companies have agreed are identified are important to their customers. This presentation will show how Ofwat promotes innovation and the role that smart metering may have a part to play in achieving great outcomes.

Ian Pemberton, Chief Engineer, Ofwat

09:40 Latest Perspective from the Environment Agency on Achieving Water Efficiency from Smart Metering

• The Environment Agency’s view on smart metering
• The benefits of smart metering
• What we expect from water companies in England
• Current and planned future smart meter installations in England
• New and future applications of smart water metering

Angela Wallis, Water Demand Management Specialist, Environment Agency 

10:00 Questions and Discussion

10:15 Morning Refreshments and Networking in the Exhibition Area

10:45 Exploring Public Attitudes to Smart Water Metering  and Their Role in Helping Customers Save Water

Stavros Melides, Business Development Manager, Waterwise 

11:05 Questions and Discussion

11:15 Roundtable Discussions on Educating Consumers On The Benefits Of Smart Metering 

Given the ongoing inflation and cost of living crisis affecting many parts of the globe, the following workshop sessions will enable attendees to discuss winning over consumers and educating them about smart meters in practical economic terms and providing best practice examples of consumer education programmes and how relationships are maintained in smart metering.

Convincing Customers of the Economic Benefits of Smart Meters

• Strategising customer education campaigns based on credible economic data
• Using campaigns to educate customers on the economic benefits of saving water
• Putting the customer in control with greater transparency and awareness
• Communication strategies for handling customer objections, including any initial bill increases   
• Measuring the impact upon customer behaviour change
• Results and conclusions

Working With Diverse Customer Groups To Change Attitudes To Technology & Apps

• Showing customers how to save water using the latest innovative metering technology and apps
• Educating consumers on how to utilise modern technology, such as the most recent mobile applications, to save water.
• Communication methods for addressing consumer issues, including any first bill hikes
• Measuring the effect of a change in consumer behaviour

How To Tailor Communication To Different Groups Of Customers To Make It Easier For Them To Change Their Behaviour And Attitude Toward Metering Data And Water Conservation

• Understanding customers as a family or household as opposed to generically
• How to tailor the communication message for different consumer groups, homes and families

HOW TO USE METERING DATA TO BENEFIT WATER CUSTOMERS
12:00 Case Study: Best Practice Utilisation Of Metering Data – Beyond Billing, Usage & Leak Detection – To Create Value For Water Customers

Smart metering creates vast volumes of data, which is currently under utilised. Today, water utilities are learning to exploit this data and implement an analytics-driven strategy that can extract their intelligent meters' actual worth to maximise their potential for customers. This practical case study highlights some of the latest cutting-edge methodologies for data utilisation.

• Leveraging data and adopting an analytics-driven approach to extract the total value from smart meters
• Optimal execution strategies for processing millions of data points in real-time to deliver actionable insights for customers
• Best practice on actually getting valuable data to different customer groups
• Sharing robust data with customers in the areas of

               - Asset health to address potential problems before they occur

               - Linking intelligent meter data with acoustic logger data

               - Detecting anomalies in pressure and flow and sharing specific data sets with customers

               - Offer sizeable cost benefits and proactive customer service

               - Remote control – water flow – applicable for certain innovative metering technologies

               - Flexible services, track usage time to help the consumers reduce consumption

• Working with water efficiency and leakage teams in the field to make good use of the data
• Knowing what data to share and not to communicate with customers   

Jaime Flores Cabeza, Deputy Director of R&D & Innovation, Canal de Isabel II

12:20 Questions and Discussion

12:30 Networking Lunch Break

Evaluate The Latest Solutions & Innovative Products To Help Water Utilities Make Better Use Of Data Generated From Smart Meters & Intelligent Sensors

13:30 Predictive And Proactive Detection Of Network Leaks Using Metering Technology – A Case Study Using Embedded Sensors

South East Water is deploying digital meters containing miniaturised, embedded sensors for network leak detection. The first 30,000 have been deployed across a diverse area, and have shown some amazing insights into how leaks develop and escalate in different pipes and materials. This information, together with sophisticated algorithms, allows leak detection to be optimised and to minimise customer disruption. This case study will show that leaks can be detected weeks and sometimes months ahead of them coming to the surface, and how this knowledge can be used to transform the approach to water network maintenance.

Andrew Forster-Knight, General Manager Digital Utility, South East Water

14:00 -1445 Audience Roundtable Discussion

1. SMART METERING DATA ANALYTICS AND MACHINE LEARNING INNOVATION 
The Latest Developments In Smart Metering Data Analytics & Machine Learning To Help Customers With Their Decision-Making      

2. DIGITAL TWIN Sharing Examples of Utilising Digital Twins To Take Metering Data & Present It In A Way That Is Easy For Staff To Understand To Help Customers Manage Consumption     

14:45 Afternoon Refreshments and Networking

15:15  Audience Roundtable Discussions

1. ADAPTING TO CHANGING SKILLS REQUIREMENTS

• Adapting The Workforce In The Field To The Era Of Smart Metering & Water Data Analytics
• Workforce Strategies To Retrain & Transition Meter Readers Into New Roles
• Developing More Advanced Skills for Those Involved in the Installation, Management, and Maintenance of Metering Infrastructure, Including IT, Data Analytics, and Communications Technologies

2. ADDRESSING SECURITY RISKS 

Sharing experiences on building strategies for addressing cyber and data security risks when rolling out innovative metering programmes using smart meter technology and devices

• Cybersecurity
• Data Security
• Data Protection

16:00  Closing Session and End Of Day 2