FOUR WAYS TO CUT NON-REVENUE WATER IN A DROUGHT
By Hannah Wardle, UK Managing Director
As drought looms across the UK the pressure on water companies to safeguard water supplies is more critical than ever.
Data-driven tools like FIDO Smart’s Consumption Profiling can help smarten leakage reduction activities by providing timely insight for demand management.
By letting you monitor real-time usage without installing a meter, FIDO Smart makes it much easier to detect and act quickly on other forms of non-revenue water (NRW).
Data errors, water theft and unexpected demand can seriously affect DMA flows and look like network leakage, leading to inefficient use of stretched technical resources.
Here are four ways FIDO’s Consumption Profiling function can help you manage your network and nightlines with more precision:
1 Identify customer-side leakage quickly
In 2022, Water UK estimated that around a quarter of leakage attributed to water companies was actually happening on customer supply pipes. Customer-side leaks inflate company leakage figures and drain supply especially if unnoticed in high-consumption commercial properties or unmonitored zones. Using Consumption Profiling overnight instantly flags abnormal patterns, so you can see where the problem lies and take timely action in the customer’s interests.
2 Verify night-time usage in commercial properties
Sudden DMA night line increase? Your assumptions on commercial usage patterns might be out of date. Contracts come and go and working patterns fluctuate faster than you can track. Consumption Profiling can quickly confirm unexpected overnight water use patterns, helping you spot misreported operations or unplanned out-of-hours usage across your DMAs — critical insights during a drought that mean you don’t waste vital manpower searching a leak that never was.
3 Detect occupancy at void properties
Inaccurate void property data can affect your NRW levels and undermine both your billing and network planning. FIDO Smart highlights consumption at sites listed as unoccupied, allowing you to cleanse data, reduce revenue loss, and prioritise the right investigations — all contributing to reduced NRW.
4 Identify patterns of illegal fire main use
During drought restrictions, unauthorised use of fire mains becomes more than a nuisance — it’s a risk to supply and compliance. FIDO Smart can detect suspicious draw-off and even identify problem areas and usage patterns to help you respond more effectively, protecting both water supplies and public trust.
FIDO Smart is an all-in-one solution for managing NRW using FIDO AI, simple multi-use sensors and a smartphone app.
As well as giving you instant FIDO AI results on leak size and location, it is a powerful tool for demand management.
Consumption Profiling is one of several standard features enabling you to use our cost effective sensors as mini flow monitors.
Simply attach the palm-sized magnetic sensor to any fitting and choose the granularity of monitoring by setting the number of samples you want to take, the interval between them and the start and end times.
Consumption Profiling can also be used outside times of water shortage as part of leak investigations and to inform maintenance operations by checking the integrity of boundary and other valves.
Book a demo today to see how FIDO Smart can support your drought strategy, reduce non-revenue water, and help you deploy your limited resources where they’ll have the biggest impact.
