Smart metering

Help us conserve water with smart water meters.

Saving water – Smart water meter upgrades for businesses

Millions of homes and businesses use our wonderful water every day. But if we’re not careful, there might not be enough of it to go around in the future.

With a rising population, more demand for water, and less-predictable rainfall, we all need to think about the future. Our children – and our children’s children – could be living in a water-stressed region.

We think our water is the best around. And when something is this precious, it’s worth protecting. We’re putting millions into our networks to make them secure for the future. You can find out more about what we’re doing about this here.

How businesses can help

Across our region, businesses use about 347 million litres of water every day. That’s enough to fill over four million bathtubs. However, we know some of this water usage is down to leaks.

We’re upgrading smart water meters in businesses to help us find and fix leaks more quickly. Working 24 hours a day, smart water meters are very good at telling us when a business might have a leak on its premises.  

A smart water meter on your premises means more water for our homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals. Better for you, better for the environment, in fact better for your whole region, now and for the future.

If your business uses water, there are other things you can do to help save.

Water saving tips

The plan for smarter water meters

We plan to roll out 40,000 smart water meters across our region by April 2030.

We’ll look at things like current demand, leakage and future growth levels in each area to decide where to install.

Smart meters can detect a continuous flow of water on your property, which could signify a leak. If your smart meter has identified a potential leak, here are some steps you can take to check for it before calling a plumber.

How to check for leaks

Your smart-ready water meter

What you can expect

Helping your business make the most of our wonderful water.

 

Where is your current meter?

It’s a good question – and don’t worry if you don’t know the answer. 

Every property is different, and yours might not be the same as others. Generally, though, we find meters in one of three places:

Your meter will be underground near to your property. Sometimes it’s located in a car park,  on property grounds or a nearby pathway. Accessible under a lid, similar to the image above.

These are normally smaller than chambers.

It’ll be at the edge of your property – either on a pavement, at the end of a driveway or carpark, or just outside of your property boundaries.

If it’s inside your property, often it’ll be in a utility room, plant room, or under a sink in a kitchen or toilet.

Changing your meter to a smart-ready water meter

What you can expect

Things are slightly different for each type of meter. Check out the process below that applies to you.

Step 1

Our partners Network Plus will contact you to arrange a suitable time to check your current meter.

You’ll need to make sure someone’s there on the day they visit, as they’ll need access to the location of the chamber.

 

Step 2

After they’ve been, they’ll get in contact with you to arrange a good time to exchange your meter. Again, you’ll need to make sure someone’s there for this visit.

 

Step 3

Network Plus will arrive and let you know they’re there.

At the chamber, they’ll lift the lid and swap your meter for a new smart-ready meter.

They will need to switch your water off – normally for about one hour – while they’re making the change.

 

Step 4

We’ll test the water to make sure everything is running smoothly before we leave the site.

These are normally smaller than chambers.

It’ll be at the edge of your property – either on a pavement, at the end of a driveway or carpark, or just outside of your property boundaries.

Step 1

We have informed your Water Retailer on this exchange. If you're in, we'll let you know that we've arrived by knocking your door.

 

Step 2

Our team will start working on the boundary box. We shouldn’t need to come into your property.

 

Step 3

At the boundary box, we’ll swap your meter for a new smart-ready meter.

They will need to switch your water off – normally for about 30 minutes – while they’re making the change.

 

Step 4

If you’re in, we’ll test the water to make sure everything is running smoothly before we leave the site. If you’re not in, we’ll leave an information card for you.

Step 1

Our partners Network Plus will contact you to arrange a suitable time to check your current meter.

You’ll need to make sure someone’s there on the day they visit, as they’ll need to get into your property.

 

Step 2

After they’ve been they’ll get in contact with you to arrange a good time to change your meter. Again, you’ll need to make sure someone’s there for this visit.

 

Step 3

Network Plus will arrive and let you know they’re there.

They’ll replace your meter at the same location.

They will need to switch your water off while they’re making the change, and we’ll let you know how long this is likely to be.

 

Step 4

We’ll test the water to make sure everything is running smoothly before we leave the site.

Cloudy or discoloured water following exchange

After you’ve got your new smart ready water meter, you may find your tap water looks a little unusual. It might look murky, cloudy or an odd colour.

Don’t worry, this is normal. When we’re working, we sometimes disturb sediment that’s lying in your pipes.

You can easily fix this by just running the cold tap gently for 20 minutes. If this doesn’t clear it, please follow our easy self-fix guides found here:

Discoloured water and how to fix it

FAQs

We’re proactively and reactively upgrading meters across the region. 

Reactively, we are exchanging faulty or damaged meters all over the region as required by customers, retailers or initiated by Severn Trent.

Proactively, we are targeting small, external meters in Coventry, Warwickshire, Birmingham and Leicestershire with a focus on those which are Long Unread and Legacy Long Unread. 

This upgrade will help us detect issues, fix leaks faster, and allows us to manage the network more efficiently and provide better service to our customers. 

The level of disruption depends on where your meter is located. Click here for more details.

In Coventry, Warwickshire, Birmingham and Leicestershire, there may be a gap of a few months between the meter being installed and connected to the network, whilst the network is being built. Meters can still be read at this time, but will not be classified as SMART until they’re connected. 

Outside these areas, the NBIOT technology means meters should connect and begin transmitting within days; these will be classified as SMARTAMI in the market after a calendar month of connectivity.

Yes, we’ll give advance notice in line with market code regulations.

For connected meters, data is shared to Retailers daily via an SFTP.

Please contact your Account Manager for more details. There is no cost for this. Severn Trent will also feed data into the MOSL Smart Meter Read Hub once this is launched. 

No, your Retailer will contact you once the smart meter functionality is enabled. There’s no change to how you’re billed—you’ll continue to pay your water bills through your current water Retailer.

Yes, the new meters support third-party loggers. If your meter already has a logger, it will be reattached after the meter is replaced.

We’ll analyse water usage patterns to better understand demand at both local and regional levels. They also help us detect leaks more quickly, ensuring repairs happen sooner. Being smarter with how we use water means more water for our homes, businesses, schools and hospitals.

No, a customer who doesn’t currently have a meter installed will not fall into this programme of work.

For a meter to be commissioned and classified as SMARTAMI, Severn Trent will adhere to the Ofwat definition

  1. A meter must be connected on 80% of the weeks in the financial year (42 weeks if the meter is present for the full year, pro-rated if not).
  2. A meter must have 85% of hourly reads present.

These checks will be carried out when a full calendar month has passed following installation, and only if a meter meets these criteria will it be classified as SMARTAMI. Otherwise, the meter will be classed as DUMB or AMR, dependent on meter type.