Severn Trent Water and sister company Hafren Dyfrdwy are seeking input from suppliers as they develop their Smart Metering Initiative.

The companies are conducting a soft market testing exercise to understand the opportunity to improve metering coverage, connectivity, provide greater visibility through more frequent water consumption data, in line with its 2035 vision for 100% meter coverage.

The utilities have issued a Prior Information Notice and are now seeking to engage with multiple industries to identify potential suppliers who have current or emerging technical capabilities in this area.

The aim of the PIN and soft market testing is to conduct market consultations with a view to preparing a potential future procurement activity in relation to this emerging technology.

As part of the Green Recovery initiative, Severn Trent Water and sister company Hafren Dyfrdwy are looking to roll-out Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) smart meters in Coventry and Warwickshire with the goal of installing 157,000 smart meters by 31st March 2025. They intend to do this at pace with installation estimated to commence by March 2022, to reach around 30,000 meters by end of May 2022.

The water companies want to obtain a better understanding the ability of the market to deliver in the following 4 areas:

• Meter devices (Lot 1)
• Data Communications (Lot 2)
• Installation and commissioning (Lot 3)
• Analytics and behavioural change (Lot 4)

Areas of strategic consideration will include:

• Reduce demand for water by reducing leakage on the network and helping customers to reduce their usage
• Improve the accuracy of consumption data to enable more efficient operational leakage targeting
• Reduce the amount of time it takes to identify leaks on both customer supply pipes and internal plumbing
• Continually and consistently receive data needed in order to enable a smart network
• Support the water efficiency programme via identification of trends in water consumption and highlighting high or unusual consumption
• Improve the customer experience through the provision of advanced technology

The utilities are also keen to understand the different delivery models available to it from advisory model through to delivery and implementation of ready-made applications/tools.

Information they are looking for from interested suppliers includes detail of similar services offered to their current clients, and the experience they have in delivering this type of work, highlighting volumes and lead times.

Deadline for submission of reponses is 4pm UK time on Friday 27th August 2021 – click here to access the PIN.

Estimated date of publication of a formal contract notice is 29 September 2021.

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