Thames Benefits from Well Metered Evaluations

Thames Water is the largest regulated supplier of clean water and provider of sewerage services in the UK, providing eight million customers with water every day. Over time, water meters become increasingly inaccurate at recording customer usage, which leads to under-billing.

RPS has completed a study to help determine the level of under-recording using a sample of large commercial water users, including Premier League football teams. This information is helping Thames Water to make a sound business case to the financial regulator, Ofwat, for investment in a wide-scale programme of meter replacement.

Detailed meter performance analysis is being carried out in cooperation with our partners Information & Performance Services (I&P), who are experts in water meter technology. Patterns of water use have also been logged for each sampled customer to determine performance at different flow rates.

The results of this study will also help Thames Water to target efforts to reduce water leakages more efficiently, and reduce operational and maintenance costs. A similar study has also recently been carried out for Severn Trent Water, focusing on domestic and commercial premises.

As facilitators of end-to-end meter testing and verification services, RPS is well placed to win similar contracts across our base of water industry clients.