New smart water meters for the consumers in Herning, Denmark

When exchanging the current mechanical meters with smart meters, Herning Vand leads the way with groundbreaking technology, enabling the consumers to follow their water consumption more closely. The smart meters send information about the consumption each hour and, at the same time, informs the utility company of any leakages.

Due to the integrated intelligence in the actual meters, Herning Vand will be informed quickly of sudden and abnormally high consumption, which is often an indication of incipient leakage or pipe burst. Via the new reading system, Herning Vand will be able to track where a possible leakage has occurred (e.g. a running toilet or a hose that has not been turned off) and thus be able to inform the occupant quickly before any damages occur or become worse. At the same time, the water loss is minimised quickly and efficiently. In this way, both the consumer and the utility company can save water and money.

”Not only will the consumers benefit from this new investment.

Herning Vand gets much better opportunities to optimise operations and the distribution network by being able to register errors in pipes and cables quickly. The smart meters ensure a more precise billing both in the form of reliable and accurate consumption figures and in the fact that the consumers no longer have to read their consumption themselves. This reduces misreadings”, says Jesper Kjelds, Senior Vice President at Kamstrup. 
In addition to the delivery of meters, Kamstrup will also be responsible for training installers, enabling them to exchange the 17,000 smart meters. At the same time, it is the responsibility of Kamstrup to take care of the operation and maintenance of the remote reading system after the installation. The exchange of the meters starts in middle of 2016 and will take two years.
With the installation of the smart water meters, which in the future will be remotely read, the customers of some insurance companies can obtain a discount on the water pipe damage insurance. However, this is something that the consumers have to check themselves with their insurance companies.