Global Smart Water Infrastructure: Market Forecast (2015-2025)

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Sep 29, 2016, 04:38 ET

LONDON, Sept. 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A study covering the global market for smart water infrastructure over the period 2015-2025 (225 pages + dataset + PowerPoint).
Smart water infrastructure investment - including smart metering, smart networks and software - is projected to total $35.9bn between 2015-2025. This study covers 125 individual countries including forecasted investment, key water industry metrics and the main vendors.

Water scarcity is a growing problem across the globe, compounded by climate change and population growth. All signs indicate that this scarcity will only continue to grow more severe. Even as countries scramble to build water treatment and desalination plants and impose consumption restrictions, countries globally are still on average losing 28% of their water due to leakage, theft, and inaccurate metering. This lost water – or "non-revenue water" (NRW) – creates additional needs for costly treatment plants, increases the demand for energy from pumping stations, and puts added stress on already strained infrastructure, communities, and environments. Meanwhile, lost revenue from this water only increases the need for government subsidies, which already are necessary to cover a significant portion of the costs of water in many countries.

Under many current water tariffs, this lost water is undervalued. All infrastructure investments and conservation programs aimed at addressing water scarcity have real costs, and therefore so do the billions of cubic meters of water that are lost to leakage and theft each year. A key component of this study's methodology is the calculation of the savings potential in each country from smart water infrastructure based on the "full cost of water." The full cost of water is a metric that takes into account water scarcity, water-related energy and labor costs, as well as implicit and explicit subsidies not captured by existing tariffs.

Smart water infrastructure—such as smart metering, networks, and analytics—will improve water sector efficiency by reducing leakage, waste, and theft. These components represent cost-effective solutions that have already been applied in many regions across the globe and show enormous potential for growth. The price per cubic meter saved/created through smart water infrastructure is often better than larger, more challenging solutions (for example desalination), and smart water projects frequently
have favorable payback periods.

Smart water infrastructure solutions alone will not be sufficient to address water scarcity issues in the hardest hit countries and regions. But they will be a critical first step and will complement other solutions. Even in water-abundant regions, smart infrastructure shows strong potential. For all utilities, leakage reduction will help improve utility efficiency, while IT and analytics will also improve operations. Using an average of the full cost of water, as calculated by Northeast Group, and current tariffs, smart water infrastructure could save $27.5 billion per year across the 125 countries covered in this study if fully implemented.

Key questions answered in this study:
- What are the savings potential of different smart water infrastructure solutions?
- How large is the market for smart water metering, networking, and IT across 125 individual countries?
- What is the full cost of water in water scarce countries?
- How do smart water infrastructure costs compare with alternative water scarcity reduction solutions?
- Who are the major vendors active across smart water segments and geographies?
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