Anglian Water has recently hit a huge milestone in its smart metering programme, with over 1.3 million smart meters now connected across the East of England. This marks the largest smart meter rollout of any UK water company.

The milestone means that nearly 60% of customers have access to consumption data and the water company’s leak alert service. The service warns customers within days whether a leak has started, avoiding damage to their property as well as saving customers money on their water bills.

The service has identified over 600,000 customer leaks since 2021, saving customers on average 14.75 litres per household per day, reducing bills by an average of £25. As well as this, the leak alert service has reduced the volume of water entering Anglian Water’s sewers and impacting their water recycling centres across the region.

Lindsay Congreve, Head of Metering Operations for Anglian Water said:

“Through our longstanding alliance with Kier and Clancy, alongside network partners Arqiva, we’ve committed to rolling out 2.2m smart meters by 2030 – so we’re very proud to have already hit this exciting milestone. “Anglian Water operates in the driest part of the country, so we’ve long prioritised investing to make sure we have a resilient water supply for generations to come.”

Overall, smart meters have reduced the amount of water the water company puts into supply by more than 18 million litres per day.

Smart meters continue to be a key part of Anglian Water’s demand management strategy to reduce long-term per capita consumption. With over half of the water company’s meters now being smart, the programme continues to give customers more visibility of their water usage than ever before. This enables them to better manage their household bills and reduce their water consumption.

Lindsay Congreve continued:

"The working relationship with our installation partner where we were all invested in making this happen faster than any other UK utility, bringing our network partner Arqiva into the same integrated approach, has made our award-winning programme a huge success, fitting and connecting 1,000 meters per day, every day for five years.

“That, allied with our key aim that smart meters are first and foremost to help our customers, has driven all of us to deliver the highest performing system in the UK with 92% of our meters delivering data every single hour of every single day”.

Anglian Water has also launched seasonal tariff trials for household customers with smart meters. The tariffs, which have been rolled out from 2024, are designed to help customers keep track of their usage and see how it changes as the seasons do.

The seasonal tariffs have been carefully crafted, so discounted charges in the colder months offset higher charges during summer months. The aim of the tariff is to encourage customers to reduce their overall water usage in the warmer months by finding ways to use less water for gardening, paddling pools or other recreational activities.