Benidorm advances hand in hand with Hidraqua in the implementation of smart water meters in homes

Benidorm City Council with Hidraqua, is making progress in replacing all conventional water meters with smart meters with remote reading in homes and businesses in the city; a technology that allows the user to know and control the consumption of their home or establishment in real time and detect possible leaks.

At this time, "approximately 22% of all meters in Benidorm have already been replaced, and it is expected that in 2022 the figure will exceed 50%", according to the mayor, Toni Pérez, and the manager of Hidraqua in the Marina Baixa, Ciriaco Clemente, after visiting one of the zones of the city where remote reading has already been fully installed. A visit in which the councilor for Water Cycle, José Ramón González de Zárate, has also participated, and in which it has been verified that 6,000 smart meters are already operating in Benidorm.

Toni Pérez has pointed out that “the initial forecast was that all the meters would be replaced by the end of 2022, but the project calendar has been affected by the supply problems derived from the pandemic, which has delayed the implementation in the terms that we had marked ourselves ”. Thus, the mayor has specified that "by December 2023, 100% of homes and establishments will have remote reading meters."

Both the mayor and the manager of Hidraqua have stressed that with this technological solution “progress continues in the digitization of Benidorm, and specifically, in the efficient and responsible use of water for which the city has opted in recent years through of initiatives such as the opening of the Dinapsis Digital Transformation center ”. “We are talking, therefore, of sustainability linked to the use of technology, the same commitment that has guided the management of the integral water cycle and that has led the city to achieve levels of performance that are well above the average. national and even European, since Benidorm uses 97% of the water that enters the network ”, they added.

Remote reading operation

Toni Pérez has pointed out that, in addition, "this technological solution makes life easier for users", since the remote reading system "through email and SMS, alerts you in case a certain consumption is exceeded or a number is detected. hours in which the meter is consuming or stopped ”. In this way, "it is possible to detect internal leaks in homes immediately or to know the consumption at the moment in second homes that are not inhabited."

In addition, it allows the actual billing of all periods, avoiding at all times estimated readings if the operating personnel have not been able to access the meter. These situations occur, for example, during the first confinement experienced as a result of the pandemic or in the case of the water meters that are inside the houses and at the time of reading they have not been able to access the interior of the same.

From Hidraqua they have highlighted that "this technology also allows us to control the drinking water network with greater precision, and detect any incident in the network".

Likewise, it actively contributes to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN within the 2030 agenda, since it allows a more responsible and sustainable use of water (SDG 6) and reduces, among others, CO2 emissions by avoiding the movements in vehicles of the operating personnel to read the meters (SDG 13).