Manual meter reading is being phased out at an accelerated pace, and smart water meters are catalyzed by policies and entering a golden development period

The disadvantages of mechanical water meters are highlighted

In the early years, mechanical water meters were widely used because of their low price and easy installation. The application of mechanical water meters has a high market penetration rate. However, with the development of the times, the disadvantages of mechanical water meters have gradually become apparent, causing a series of problems to water supply companies and residents' lives. For example, traditional mechanical water meters have problems such as data collection, labor costs, data accuracy, and difficulty in household entry.

In recent years, driven by policies such as "one household, one meter", "three supplies and one industry", regular rotation of mandatory inspections, and "ladder water prices", downstream water supply companies have reduced their pipeline network Driven by long- and short-term demand factors such as leakage rate levels, improving water supply operation efficiency, and strengthening smart water construction, the market demand for smart water meter products in my country is growing rapidly.

Data shows that in 2019, the market demand for water meter products in my country was 71.93 million. Among them, the market demand for smart water meters is 32.3 million. According to Zhiyan Consulting survey data, my country's smart water meter production penetration rate may reach 30%-40% in 2020.

Smart water meter empowerment effectively solves industry pain points

In recent years, with the acceleration of urbanization and the increase in the number of water users At the same time, residents' awareness of water conservation is not strong and water resources are wasted seriously. my country's urban water shortage problem is very serious. In order to save water resources, higher requirements have been put forward for water supply companies' metering, billing and charging, and goals such as regular/real-time meter reading and automatic billing need to be achieved. By installing smart water meters and using remote meter reading technology and intelligent terminal valve control technology, functions such as automatic meter reading, real-time monitoring, and arrears alarms can be realized to ensure the rational use of water resources.

In addition, with the development of urban modernization, urban water supply user groups include a type of "large user" group, which mainly includes domestic water use in universities, production water in large enterprises, and office and administrative water in hospitals. and customer types such as commercial construction services water. From the perspective of its own economic interests, it is important for water supply companies to manage, detect, and analyze the water use situation of large users to increase water sales and reduce water consumption.Low production and sales gap is the key to improving economic efficiency. Water supply companies need to choose smart water meters with better performance in terms of measurement accuracy, stability, and data transmission stability to improve the satisfaction of large users while strengthening water management and control, thereby further improving the economic and social benefits of water supply companies.

In addition, smart water services are an important part of the development of smart cities. With the acceleration of smart city construction, the industry has ushered in a period of golden development opportunities. The realization of water supply dispatching, pipe network monitoring and other goals puts forward higher requirements for the measurement and application performance of terminal metering products. Water meter products need to have intelligent functions and gradually develop towards networking and system integration.

With the introduction of favorable policies, smart water meters have entered a golden period of development

At the beginning of 2019, the Market Supervision Administration and the Housing The Ministry of Urban and Rural Development issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Civilian "Three Tables"", requiring the strengthening of civil "Three Tables" management. In May 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Comprehensively and Deeply Promoting the Comprehensive Development of the Mobile Internet of Things", which clearly pointed out that in terms of intelligent governance, energy meters, fire smoke detectors, environmental monitoring and other fields will be used as entry points to promote mobile IoT. Internet application development.

It is foreseeable that with the acceleration of my country's digital transformation and the acceleration of smart city construction, it is an inevitable trend in the future that smart water meters will gradually replace mechanical water meters, and manual meter reading will be eliminated at an accelerated pace. At present, many cities have formulated smart water meter replacement plans, launched smart water meter bidding, and begun to lay smart water meters.

　(Original title: Manual meter reading is being phased out at an accelerated pace, and smart water meters are catalyzed by policies and entering a golden development period)