Every drop counts: Smart meters to check water waste in Electronics City

Electronics City, one of the largest industrial hubs in Bengaluru, aims to drastically reduce water waste by adopting smart metering that will help check the usage in real-time.

Located off Hosur Road in southern Bengaluru, Electronics City houses a number of information technology companies, hotels, educational institutions, shops and hostels. It's governed by Electronics City Industrial Township Authority (Elcita), a quasi-government agency that consists of representatives of private establishments and the local gram panchayat.

Earlier, Elcita had to manually read the water meters of each establishment to record their consumption. This job is now done by a command centre. The next step is installing smart meters that will help each establishment check their water usage in real-time.

"Our ultimate aim is to monitor the total water consumption by all the commercial establishments under us, big or small, including water from their own borewells, so that we can arrive at a per capita usage," a member of Elcita told DH.

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Elcita has framed guidelines, specifying predetermined limits of water consumption for each establishment. "Any abnormal usage can be easily traced, and the establishment concerned is asked to reduce the water usage," the member explained.

Establishments are asked to use treated water, instead of freshwater, for watering plants or washing clothes. "This helps us promote water recycling and reduce freshwater consumption. Many companies have fixed taps with the decreased force of flowing water to control usage," the member said.

Elcita first tried smart metering as part of a Smart Cities Mission project and installed around 30 meters. The success of the pilot scheme prompted Elcita to aim for installing smart meters in all establishments.

One of the highlights of the pilot project was the reduction in the leakage of water. The new system is connected to the pipelines and gives real-time data on the total amount of water being supplied and consumed, which helps in the early detection of leakages in loops to avoid wastage.

"This has helped us achieve less than 5% water leakage in Electronics City. If the smart measurement detects more than 5% leakage anywhere, we check for the causes and take out immediate repairs. It also allows us to maintain the pipelines," another senior member of Elcita said. Elcita is currently working on another 100 pipeline installations and will then focus on the borewells.

The smart meters also help in water demand forecasting, customer profiling and priority delivery, increased network reliability and remote monitoring.