Bengaluru: BWSSB to roll out AI-enabled smart water meters for commercial, bulk consumers in PPP mode
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has decided to install Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled smart water meters for large commercial and bulk consumers in
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has decided to install Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled smart water meters for large commercial and bulk consumers in the city. While the BWSSB will soon roll out a pilot project involving 1,000 such meters, it plans to scale it up to cover one lakh connections, sources in the Board said. “We aim to significantly reduce Unaccounted-for Water (UFW) through continuous monitoring, early leak detection, anomaly identification, and data-driven management of the water distribution network. We will first do a pilot, analyse its results and go ahead with the project,” said Manjula N., chairperson, BWSSB.
Ultrasonic flow meters use high-frequency sound waves to measure the flow and volume of water with high accuracy. These meters will help BWSSB identify any attempts to bypass the meters and steal water and detect leakages early on. PPP mode Bangalore Electricity Supply Company’s (Bescom) smart meter project turned controversial over the cost of the meters. To avoid a similar issue, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is not making smart meters mandatory for residential consumers and plans to install them only for large commercial and bulk consumers, estimated at around one lakh connections. Moreover, BWSSB has opted to implement the project under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode on a Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.
The company selected for the project will invest in and install nearly one lakh such meters without any upfront capital investment from either BWSSB or the consumers. The concession period will be 12 years, during which consumers selected for this metering system will have to pay a small amount — likely around ₹50 — every month as meter charges, sources said. Each of these meters costs around ₹12,000-₹13,000, and the entire project is estimated to cost around ₹300 crore. Sources in BWSSB said a comprehensive Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) ecosystem will be established by the concessionaire. It will include ultrasonic smart meters, communication networks, gateways, cloud-based data storage, meter data management systems, analytics platforms, and customer mobile applications.
The concessionaire will monitor usage, generate automated bills, collect them and deposit them with the Board for the connections they serve. These meters will eventually be transferred to BWSSB after the concession period of 12 years. The Board has recently approved the project for a pilot. BWSSB will soon issue tenders to select a concessionaire.
The BriefWire