Stuart Moody, Customer Engagement Manager, Affinity Water

• Stuart co-presented with Rebekah East, Senior Customer Engagement Lead, Affinity Water  
• The talk had a clear arc: from setting out Affinity Water’s long-term smart metering rollout (over three Asset Management Periods, with one-third of the network smart every five years), through to the detail of customer onboarding, contact centre scripting, and digital account adoption. The goal? By 2050, Affinity Water aims for 110 litres per head per day (PCC), 15% reduction in business demand, and a 50% cut in leakage.    

Top Takeaways

• Behavioural change  is as important as infrastructure.
• A proactive,  empathetic contact centre is vital.
• Customer  communication must be layered, timed, and jargon-free.
• Post-installation  metrics are a goldmine for continuous improvement.
• There’s still  ground to cover in reaching full customer understanding of smart metering  benefits.

•  Chloe, delivered a punchy and practical talk on how behavioural science can drive meaningful water efficiency. With the UK facing a massive water shortfall by 2050, Chloe argued that smart meters are only part of the answer—getting people to change how they use water is just as crucial.
• Spotlighting campaigns like #LeakyLooChallenge and Water Saving Week 2025, which blend psychology, simplicity, and timing to reach millions. The real challenge? Water waste is invisible, urgency is low, and old habits are hard to break. But with trusted messengers, cleverly timed nudges, and a new Evaluation Toolkit to measure impact, Chloe showed how behaviour change can move from idea to litres saved.  

Key Takeaways:

• Behaviour  change is a major lever for tackling water demand.
• Simplicity  and timing matter more than bombarding people with facts.
• The invisible  nature of water waste makes customer engagement uniquely challenging.
• Science-backed  campaigns, tailored moments, and trusted voices are essential.

• Aaron opened with a stark fact: England and Wales are heading toward a serious water resource crunch. Smart water metering and AMP8 investment, is now at the core of how the sector hopes to change behaviour, cut leakage, and improve data-driven decision-making.   

Drilling into specifics:

• PCDs (Price Control Deliverables) are now hardwired into the regulatory framework, with penalties for underperformance.
• New  standards are emerging on hourly data reads, weekly transmission rates, and system interoperability.
• Capability maturity assessments are being piloted to track companies' readiness.
• The Water Efficiency Lab (WEL) will fund up to £25m in innovation, split across  tiers—from moonshot ideas to scalable pilots.

Key Takeaways:

• Smart  water metering is now a regulatory imperative, not a pilot programme.
• Sector-wide  governance and technical standardisation are the missing links.
• Innovation  funding is critical—but must be tightly integrated with delivery  challenges.
• Customer confidence and affordability must remain central to the smart rollout.

• The scale of the NHH challenge is staggering: just 1% of premises use 30% of the UK’s water. Within that, 8% of premises account for 80% of NHH use. One size cannot fit all—corner shops and chemical plants need vastly different approaches. Kye championed segmentation and differentiated engagement strategies as the only viable way forward.
• A key challenge emerged around the “logger vs smart meter” debate. Many customers already have loggers delivering high-frequency data. Replacing them with smart meters that add latency or reduce insight risks alienating users. But Kye reframed it: loggers and smart meters are not competitors—they’re complementary. Smart meters provide the big picture; loggers offer the detail.  

Top Takeaways:

• NHH market  is disproportionately important for water use.
• Behavioural  segmentation is essential—tech alone isn’t enough.
• Logger vs  smart meter isn’t a zero-sum game— they can work together.
• Tariff  innovation and customer-led data access are next frontiers.
• AMP8  represents a step-change—but only if engagement keeps pace.

• Will was joined by Sam Barton, a senior manager at the firm.  
• The presentation was structured around eight themes, moving briskly from the global context (USA and Australia are scaling hard) to the UK’s deployment challenge. Drawing from energy sector experience, they highlighted the “appointment problem”: it took 12 contacts to land one install, and even then, 40% failed. It was a cautionary tale for the water sector—get appointment-led installs right, or face delays and cost blowouts.
• Will and Sam stressed the importance of getting and using smart data. It's not just about installing meters; it’s about ensuring signal health, data continuity, and turning insights into action. Efficiency and debt prevention should be embedded into every customer touchpoint—from billing to high usage to CRM journeys. As Sam put it, “You can’t retrofit smart into a 2005 billing system and expect miracles.”  

Key Takeaways:

• Scaling from 2M to 10M meters is a five-year, sector-wide transformation.
• Installation  is only half the job—operability and data integrity are critical.
• Appointment-led models need sophisticated engagement engines.
• CRM and billing systems must be rebuilt with smart data in.  

• Jason took the audience through Anglian Water’s rollout journey, from humble trials in Newmarket in 2016 to the successful delivery of nearly 1.1 million meters by early 2025—two months ahead of schedule. COVID and a global chip shortage may have stalled things, but they responded with sharp run-rate increases and agile delivery. At peak, the team installed 2,000 meters a day.
• Jason  laid out their two-AMP strategy, geographic prioritisation, and reliance  on partners like Arqiva and Sensus.
• Then  came the operational complexity—building 300+ masts, standardising field  tools, and handling internal/external access challenges.  

Key Takeaways

• Smart  meter rollout is about systems, not just installs.
• Internal  access and data integration are major hurdles.
• First-time-right  installation is essential for cost control.
• Agile  delivery and installer feedback drive performance.
• Real-time  data pipelines are critical for scale and leakage response.

•  From the outset, Dr. Al Hader emphasised that AMI meters, while crucial, are insufficient alone. Without a connected platform—specifically, an AI-driven digital twin—smart meters risk being reduced to mere billing tools. In Abu Dhabi, smart metering is not a standalone project but a pillar in a broader data integration ecosystem spanning SCADA, GIS, CMMS, weather feeds, pressure sensors, and customer data.  
• One of the session’s most eyebrow-raising stats? A 1% reduction in non-revenue water in Abu Dhabi equates to $31 million in savings per year. So yes, accuracy and integration are not just nice-to-haves—they’re strategic imperatives.

Top Takeaways:

• AMI meters must feed into a broader, AI-driven digital twin to unlock full operational value.
• Data quality, not just data quantity, determines  the effectiveness of leak detection and forecasting.
• Visualisation tools help target investment and accelerate decisions.
• Battery life, signal strength, and customer      feedback loops are vital for field success.
• Smart meters are the “eyes” of the system; the digital twin is the “brain”.

• Ethan kicked off with Kraken’s story—born inside Octopus Energy and now powering platforms across 65 million customer accounts globally, including 5 million in water. Kraken, he explained, isn’t just a billing system—it’s a full-stack platform that includes MDM, CRM, payments, and behavioural engagement.
• Drawing from energy, Ethan highlighted the wildly successful Saving Sessions, where over 1.5 million people voluntarily reduced electricity use. “You can’t tell people to stop using water for three months,” he joked, “but the principles still apply: data, agility, trust, and good UX.”   

Key Takeaways:

• Behavioural  lessons from energy can inform water strategies—but not be copy-pasted.
• Gamification  works—but only if the customer already wants to engage.
• The  future lies in integration across energy and water to show true cost and  impact.

• Rob, speaking on behalf of Southern Water on a strategic implementation panel, delivered a pragmatic and provocative call for the water industry to rethink how it approaches smart metering. His core message? Simply installing meters won’t change behaviour—it’s time to stop expecting different results from the same old methods. Rob argued for reimagining everything from funding models to programme design, warning that once smart meter rollouts begin, the sector is committed to 10–20 years of ongoing replacement and engagement. He highlighted the importance of trust-building from the outset, warning that smart meters “enter people’s space”—and inconsistent installation disrupts customer confidence before data even starts flowing.
• Rob also urged the sector to think beyond its own boundaries, noting that smart energy and water behaviours are beginning to collide. For example, energy companies encourage overnight appliance use, just as water utilities rely on low-flow hours to detect leaks. This points to the need for cross-sector collaboration, shared pilots, and transparent communication with customers. Rob believes the real power of smart metering lies not in the technology, but in what it enables—data, insight, and an opportunity to engage customers with meaningful value. “Let’s not waste it,” he concluded, “because we may only get one shot to get it right.”

• In a wide-ranging and data-rich presentation, Matthew from SCV Water delivered what might be described as “Smart Metering: The Greatest Hits, California Edition.” Matthew's  talk traced how real-time data from AMI systems is transforming utility operations, water conservation efforts, and customer engagement across Santa Clarita Valley.
• Matthew began with a pain point familiar to many: the mismatch between production and billing data. Monthly billing distorted perceptions of water loss—but with AMI, those temporal gaps are closing. Real-time clarity has enabled better analytics (via Power BI), faster leak detection, and smarter planning.  

Key Takeaways

• AMI  closes the gap between production and billing data, correcting false water      loss signals.
• Real-time monitoring enables demand curtailment, targeted outreach, and smart  enforcement.
• AI  and predictive analytics support leak detection, customer behaviour  change, and proactive asset management.
• Data  must be contextualised with GIS, demographics, and weather for real insight.
• The  future lies in AMI integration with home water systems and utility operations.

• The Strategy Panel Implementation panel offered a rich and candid exploration of the sector’s journey from rollout to real results. With perspectives from Rosie Rand (Thames Water), Dr. Sam Fox (Water UK), and others across the industry, the session focused not only on the technology but the behavioural, social, and structural shifts required to make smart metering work.   
• Rosie Rand, Smart Metering and Demand Reduction Lead at Thames Water, delivered a grounded, insight-rich perspective from the non-household frontlines. Responsible for rolling out over a million smart meters—including nearly 60,000 to businesses—she highlighted the complexity of serving non-household customers within a fragmented wholesaler-retailer framework. With different rollout technologies and policies across wholesaler regions, retailers are often left juggling competing systems. Thames has responded by improving data-sharing, leveraging MOSL’s central platform and its own initiatives to deliver granular smart data that drives billing accuracy and customer behaviour change.
• Rosie stressed the growing opportunity around continuous flow. She revealed that 25% of NHH meters show signs of continuous usage—of which 30–40% can be resolved with a single notification. 

• As Chair of the Water UK Smart Metering Strategy Group,  Dr. Sam Fox brought a system-level, forward-looking voice to the day 2 strategic implementation panel. Framing  the sector’s transition from planning to delivery, noting that while individual companies may be at different stages, now is the time to extract shared lessons and accelerate alignment. Sam highlighted the work of the new Demand Observatory, a cross-sector initiative collecting insights from smart meter rollouts to inform both short-term tactics and long-range behaviour change strategies.
• Sam emphasised the urgent need for customer segmentation. Averages, he warned, mask reality. Real-world engagement requires tailored messaging—whether for tech-savvy users, the financially conscious, or the environmentally driven. He also pointed to a glaring data gap: the UK doesn’t yet know what’s being trialled across the country, particularly around digital portals and public awareness campaigns. 
• He made a compelling case for sustained engagement, integrated portals, and the strategic use of AI—while also warning about AI’s hidden water footprint. In essence, Sam argued for smarter systems, sharper strategy, and a long-term cultural shift towards water as a precious, shared resource.