SP Services to install first 300,000 smart water meters from 2022
SP Services will install Singapore's first 300,000 smart water meters from early next year as part of the national plan to digitalise the water system.
At no cost to customers, these meters that use digital technologies to monitor water usage and leaks will be rolled out to homes as well as commercial and industrial buildings at seven locations, said national water agency PUB yesterday.
The locations are the new housing estates of Tampines North and Tengah, Bukit Batok, Hougang, Jurong West, Tampines and Tuas.
The first phase of PUB's smart water meter programme is set to be completed by 2023.
The award of the estimated $123.7 million project to the subsidiary of SP Group follows an open tender exercise which attracted seven local and foreign tenderers.
PUB added that SP Services was selected as it demonstrated a strong track record and the necessary technical resource capability to undertake this project, alongside its network solutions provider Itron's experience in deploying nearly 800,000 smart water meters in Baltimore and Cleveland in the US.
SP Services will be responsible for the supply and installation of the smart meters and supporting infrastructure, as well as their operation and maintenance for 15 years.
Households and businesses in the first phase of the programme will receive notification letters from PUB prior to the installation.
"In selecting these locations, PUB had considered a range of factors including property mix, efficiency of deployment and the need to replace older conventional water meters," it said.
With the new meters, the agency can automatically access meter readings without the need for labour-intensive manual reads, which are currently conducted once every two months.
Paired with a customer portal, users will be able to monitor leaks and high water usage in near real time.
Pilot trials carried out in 800 households in Punggol and Yuhua in 2016 and 2018 found that about 10 per cent of them experienced leaks that often went unnoticed until they received a higher-than-usual water bill.
With the smart meters, these households had savings of about 5 per cent from early leak detection and the adoption of water-saving habits.
Following the first-phase roll out, PUB intends to review the results before implementing the programme for the rest of Singapore.
Those who wish to find out more about the smart water meter programme can visit pub.gov.sg/smartwatermeterprogramme.
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