The pressure on water resources in the South of England has encouraged the Government to be more active in examining metering options for the future and to consider further legislative change to accelerate the rate of household metering.
The priorities for water companies as the Government sees them have been succinctly outlined in the DEFRA document "Directing the Flow - Priorities for future water policy":
"The Government supports:
i) work to develop a deeper understanding of the effects of water metering on demand and water resources; and, in the light of that understanding,
ii) metering and tariffs designed to tackle discretionary demands at peak times and points in the system"
Part of Echo's service is to work with our water clients to understand the external drivers and help identify the best strategy for addressing them. Our approach is to help water clients to make the case for new technologies and to identify how and where the benefits of progress can be realised.
The opportunities for smart metering for example, has become a hot topic for the water industry. OFWAT neatly summarised task ahead in evidence given to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee Report on Water Management, in September 2006:
"Ultimately implementing smart bills and / or smart meters would involve companies, and therefore customer, in additional expense. The benefits in sustained water savings would need to outweigh the costs. We therefore expect companies to make the case if they wish to move to smart water bills and introduce smart meters. This may be on the grounds of operational efficiencies, in order to charge by a peak demand related tariff or to provide accessible customer information. Any company wishing to pursue this should set out the costs and benefits case supporting changes in their approach."