Smart Water Metering in Europe and North America – 4th Edition

Smart Water Metering in Europe and North America is the fourthstrategy report from Berg Insight analysing the latest developmentsin the markets for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) andautomated meter reading (AMR) technologies in the water sector inthese two regions. This strategic research report from Berg Insightprovides you with over 200 pages of unique business intelligence,including 6-year industry forecasts and expert commentary on whichto base your business decisions.

The registration and collection of water meter data has historically constituted a highly resource-consuming manual task, requiring professional meter reading personnel to visit each individualmetering point to optically register meter consumption values on a periodical basis. Automatedmeter reading (AMR) solutions which enable wireless walk- or drive-by meter reading operationshave over the years automated the work of meter reading personnel to some extent and aretoday commonplace within water metering operations. Throughout the past two decades,advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solutions aimed at addressing the shortcomings of AMRby instead leveraging a fixed communications network infrastructure have evolved. By enablinghigh-frequency readings of detailed meter data while also allowing for direct two-waycommunications with the utility backoffice, AMI solutions open up entirely new possibilities forwater utilities to make substantial enhancements of operational efficiency, reduce non-revenuewater (NRW), and greatly improve water conservation schemes. Today, the term smart meteringhas become a buzzword within the water sector that is to be considered synonymous with theconcept of AMI.

North America today constitutes the leading market for both AMR and AMI solutions globally andhad at the end of 2024 an installed base of 89.8 million active water utility AMR and AMIendpoints, representing a penetration of around 80 percent. AMI accounted for 42.0 million ofthe installed endpoints, equalling an AMI penetration of nearly 40 percent. Berg Insight forecaststhat the number of water AMI endpoints in North America will grow at a compound annual growthrate (CAGR) of 10.8 percent to reach 77.8 million units in 2030. Large-scale deployments of AMIstarted to gain traction in the region a decade ago and have since grown steadily with multipleprojects covering more than 100,000 endpoints now completed. Today, utilities seeking toreplace and upgrade their existing AMR solutions account for a substantial share of the AMIinstallations through meter-park upgrades.Europe is meanwhile the second largest market for AMR and AMI solutions and had at the endof 2024 an installed base of 80.8 million active water utility AMR and AMI endpoints, translatinginto a penetration rate of approximately 53 percent. Less mature than the North American market,Europe had in 2024 a total of 24.0 million AMI endpoints installed, representing an AMIpenetration of around 16 percent. The number is however forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 17.0percent to reach 61.6 million units in 2030. France and Spain have historically been the primarymarkets for water AMI solutions in Europe, but markets such as the UK, Italy, Scandinavia, theDACH region and the Benelux are now also emerging as major water AMI markets.

A variety of proprietary and standards-based communications technologies are today used forwater AMI deployments. In North America, proprietary RF networking platforms have completelydominated the market and accounted for as much as 91 percent of the installed base of AMIendpoints in 2024. Meanwhile, various proprietary and open-standard RF technologies basedon the EN 13757 standard accounted for roughly 43 percent of all AMI endpoints installed inEurope. The category includes Wize, which constitutes one of the most deployed technologiesfor water AMI in Europe. Other proprietary RF technologies that are not based on EN 13757accounted for over 32 percent of the European deployments. Optimised for cost-sensitive andmission-critical IoT applications, LoRaWAN and 3GPP-based LPWA technologies have becomereal contenders within the water AMI markets – particularly LTE-M in the US and LoRaWAN andNB-IoT in Europe. Emerging LPWAN technologies such as Mioty is also gaining traction inEurope, especially in Germany and largely thanks to Diehl Metering’s advocacy of thetechnology. At the end of 2024, LoRaWAN was used to connect a total of 3.7 million endpointsin Europe and this number is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 28.9 percent to reach 17.0 millionin 2030. Cellular communications meanwhile accounted for 5–7 percent of the installed base inboth regions and is also forecasted to see massive growth throughout the forecast period,primarily driven by 3GPP-based LPWA deployments.

The water AMI and AMR markets in Europe and North America are largely served by local orregional players and only a few companies such as Itron, Sensus (Xylem), Honeywell, Kamstrup,the Arad Group and the Minol-ZENNER Group have managed to establish a major presence inboth regions. At the end of 2024, the top 5 water AMI endpoint vendors in North America in termsof installed base were Sensus, Badger Meter, Itron, Aclara (Hubbell) and the NeptuneTechnology Group (Roper Technologies). The top 5 water AMI endpoint vendors in Europecomprised Diehl Metering, Itron, Sensus, Birdz (Veolia) and Kamstrup. The SUEZ subsidiarySUEZ Smart Solutions also constitutes a key player in the European water AMI market by havingbeen instrumental to the development and deployment of Wize technology.