Municipal water, wastewater treatment and distribution facilities are embracing automation and remote operation and monitoring. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) empowered by the Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIoW) will have a $15 billion impact on the market by 2026 and will divert another $16 billion through different market routes.
Sales of all flow control and treatment for these plants will exceed $100 billion in 2026. Of this total $31 billion will be attributable to the impact of IIoT and Remote O&M. This is the latest forecast in the Mcilvaine publication Industrial IOT and Remote O&M.
Xylem has moved forward aggressively with the purchase of smart meter firm Sensus. It also acquired Viscenti which provides data analytics to predict pipe breakage problems as well as providing analytics of the smart meter data.
The smart water metering market emerged in the 2000s as water utilities responded to global trends of using detailed and near real time data and analytics to deliver more predictive and proactive services. The backbone of this effort is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) technology. AMI can provide a remote and constant two-way data link between utilities, meters and consumers. Communications are delivered through various technologies including power line communications (PLC), telephony, broadband, fibre optic cable, wireless radio frequency and cellular transmissions.
The revenue in smart meters already exceeds $2 billion/yr. worldwide. This market segment will grow at near double digit rates over the forecast period.