One project in the North of England shows just how important digital solutions are to the green transition

Yorkshire Water is switching over to smart metering in a big way. The British utility plans to replace more than a million unconnected water meters with new smart meters. Such state-of-the-art metering will provide real-time data and analytics on water consumption for a region of over 5 million people. It’s one of the largest projects of its kind in Europe, and the Netmore Group — a Polar Structure subsidiary — is leading it.

Announced in early September of 2024, the plan is to replace a total of 1.3 million water meters at homes and businesses across the Northern English region of Yorkshire and the Humber by the end of 2030. The work, pending regulatory approval, is set to begin in 2025.

As lead partner, Netmore is coordinating with suppliers to deliver, install, and maintain the connected smart meters. It’s also deploying and expanding a wireless communications network to support the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system. Yorkshire Water has signed up for the company’s data services until 2045.

Minimizing water consumption & more

According to James Wilson, Manager of Smart Metering Delivery, AMI-connected water meters are vital to better understand patterns in water demand and adjust efforts to meet key targets.

In a press release about the Yorkshire Water project, Wilson specifically highlighted Netmore’s expertise in such areas. “They collectively have the ability to help us deliver our ambitious goals and success criteria related to leakage, water efficiency, customer experience, and operational carbon emissions,” he said.

Yorkshire Water wants to be more sustainable and conserve water resources. It’s publicly vowed to cut the annual amount of water lost through leakage in half by 2050. Water companies in England and Wales have been estimated to lose an average of 265.3 mega liters of water per day to leakage. Smart meters can seriously lower that number by providing data to find and fix leaks. Remotely reading meters will lower its carbon footprint due to fewer service vans on the road.

It’s the exact kind of progress Netmore enables and supports.

Long-distance, low-powered connections

Founded in Stockholm in 2010, the Netmore Group is an Internet of Things (IoT) company that provides both technical platforms and network coverage for infrastructure and business operations around the world. Along with smart metering for utilities, Netmore also applies IoT to things like energy monitoring and logistical asset tracking.

A key part of Netmore’s technology is the LoRaWAN protocol for long-range, wide-area networks. One of the fastest-growing areas of IoT, it allows connected devices to communicate across large distances without much power.

According to the Netmore-published whitepaper Smart metering with LoRaWAN POV, the protocol’s penetration rates and communication capabilities ensure high-quality data collection that makes it perfect for connecting smart water meters.

That’s why LoRaWAN is the foundation of Yorkshire Water’s AMI framework. Netmore began building the framework in 2022 when the utility first contracted it to set up and support 360,000 smart meters. The initial success of that project (which is still ongoing and will continue separately) not only convinced Yorkshire Water that LoRaWAN was ideal for connecting its water meters but that Netmore was the ideal partner to implement it on a large scale.

Netmore Group’s CEO Ove Anebygd has described the expanded partnership with Yorkshire Water as an important milestone but notes that the UK water company is not alone. “Utilities and municipalities around the world are migrating to sensor-based solutions capable of providing new and valuable datasets for measuring and conserving water for their customers and to address environmental concerns,” he explained in an official statement on Netmore’s website.

It’s part of the very reason that an infrastructure investment firm like Polar Structure is so closely connected with Netmore.

Digital solutions for a greener society

Since becoming the majority owner of the Netmore Group in 2022, Polar Structure has made the company central to its digital solutions platform. However, unlike with the firm’s other platforms — sustainable transport and green energy — there’s no new infrastructure or obvious improvement. Instead, connectivity and digitalization are added to monitor what’s already there.

For Polar Structure CEO Tobias Emanuelsson, such upgrades are just as critical as building railways or enhancing power grids. “We have to be aware of what we specifically need to improve for future generations,” he explained in a recent announcement of Netmore’s expansion into North America. “It is crucial that we can measure, control, and thereby positively impact our infrastructure investments.”

Digital solutions may not be flashy or physically grand, but they matter. A project like Yorkshire Water’s smart water meters connected with an underlying AMI is essential for the global green transition. Society increasingly extends beyond just the physical and into the digital realm. And building sustainable, future-oriented infrastructure wouldn’t be possible without an innovative, responsible, and long-term partner like Netmore.