Article
From installation to impact: Insights from the Smart Water Systems Conference 2026
Summary
At this year’s Smart Water Systems Conference, one message came through clearly: smart metering is no longer just about installing devices. Across both days, Horizon Water Infrastructure contributed both strategic thinking and live delivery insight, showing that smart metering creates most value when data, operations, governance and delivery are designed to work together from day one, and that the sector is now moving from ambition to practical, outcome-focused delivery at scale.
Understanding the state of smart metering
Over two days in London, the Smart Water Systems Conference 2026 brought together leaders from across the sector to discuss how smart technologies, data and collaboration are reshaping the future of water infrastructure.
With AMP8 now in its second year and Ofwat placing greater emphasis on outcomes, water companies are under increasing pressure to deliver measurable improvements across leakage, demand management and network performance.
Horizon Water Infrastructure (HWI) was proud to contribute to that conversation through two sessions that reflected both sides of the challenge: how smart metering should be designed, and how it can be delivered at scale in practice.
The sessions also showed that smart metering is no longer a future ambition. It is an active transformation already underway across the sector. The question is no longer whether smart metering matters. It is how to structure programmes so they deliver real operational outcomes over time.
Day one: smart metering only works when the whole system works together
On day one, HWI’s Smart Solutions Design Partner Tanya Dady spoke as Chair of the Future Water Association Metering Group in a session titled “Smart metering: greater than the sum of its parts.”
Her message challenged one of the most persistent misconceptions in the sector: that smart metering is primarily a device installation programme. Instead, she set out that the real value of smart metering is only unlocked when technology, data, workflow integration, customer engagement and operational processes are connected.
That distinction matters. Water companies are under pressure to reduce leakage, manage demand, improve network visibility, respond to water scarcity and deliver regulatory outcomes. Smart metering only supports those goals when the data is usable, trusted and embedded into day-to-day operations.
In other words, utilities do not simply need meters. They need measurable outcomes enabled by reliable data.
Tanya captured that challenge clearly:
“My challenge to all of us in this room is not just to implement smart metering well, but to think bigger, act more connected, and hold ourselves to a higher standard.
Because if we do that, we won’t just improve performance – we’ll leave things better than we found them: a legacy for future generations.”
It was a strong way to open the conference because it moved the conversation beyond rollout. The point was not that smart metering needs more complexity. It was that it needs more connection between the parts that already exist. That is where whole-system value begins.
Read more: For smart metering to succeed, water companies need to look beyond AMP8 – Tanya Dady
Day two: moving from strategy to delivery at scale
On day two, Simon Bryant and Richard Channell from Horizon Water Infrastructure joined Stephanie Davidovitz, Head of Smart Metering at Southern Water, to present “Scaling smart metering and network innovation.”
Where day one focused on strategic design, day two showed what that thinking looks like in a live operational environment.
The session focused on Southern Water’s smart meter upgrade programme and the Funded Data-as-a-Service model behind it. The programme is being led by Horizon Water Infrastructure as prime contractor, bringing together programme planning, meter supply, installation delivery, connectivity networks, technology platforms and data and analytics within one integrated delivery ecosystem.
That structure simplifies programme management, reduces interface risk and creates clearer accountability across delivery.
The operational proof points shared in the session were especially important. At the time of the presentation, the programme had installed 87,000+ meters in five months, achieved a 91% connectivity rate, and identified continuous flow in 14% of households.
Those figures are meaningful not just because they show pace, but because they point to something more important: usable data at scale.
That usable data is already enabling:
- Faster identification of customer leaks
- Improved visibility of water usage
- Better understanding of network behaviour
In turn, these capabilities support leakage reduction, demand management and better operational decision-making. When the data can be trusted, teams can act faster.
Just as important were the delivery lessons behind those outcomes. Rapid mobilisation was not simply about accelerating installs. It depended on getting the foundations right early:
- Programme governance
- Partner integration / The alliance approach
- Technology validation
- Delivery planning
- Supply chain readiness
The aim was to move from strategy to delivery quickly, while establishing data continuity from day one.
Read more: Traditional approaches are holding back the UK’s smart water delivery – Simon Bryant
The sector conversation has shifted from installation to outcomes
One of the clearest takeaways from the conference was just how much the sector conversation has matured.
Just a year ago, much of the emphasis was still on starting the smart metering journey. Now, the discussion is moving beyond hardware and into the harder but more valuable questions around data, operational integration and outcomes.
That shift was visible across both days. The focus is increasingly on how data can be used to find leaks faster, understand consumption better, support demand management and improve operational decision-making.
Smart metering programmes are moving beyond meter deployment and becoming platforms for:
- Intelligent networks
- Data-driven water management
- Improved customer engagement
There was also a wider sense that the sector is becoming more open to doing things differently – from how programmes are funded and regulated to how delivery models are structured.
Collaboration will turn ambition into delivery
Another important message from the conference was that successful smart metering programmes are not delivered by one organisation in isolation. They depend on close alignment between water companies, delivery partners, technology providers and operational teams.
That was reflected clearly in the Southern Water session. This programme is being led by Horizon Water Infrastructure working in close alliance with Southern Water, SUEZ and M Group Water as one integrated team. We would like to recognise and thank those partners for their contribution to both the programme and the session.
Across both sessions, the same principle kept surfacing: smart metering works best when complexity is simplified, accountability is clearer, and delivery is built around outcomes rather than individual components.
That is the difference between installing assets and creating operational change.
Read more: Water infrastructure: Why water companies need integrated advisory, delivery and funding
Looking beyond AMP8
The conversations across the two days made one thing clear: the sector is moving quickly from asking why smart metering matters to working out how to make it succeed in practice.
Horizon Water Infrastructure was proud to contribute to that discussion by sharing both strategic insight and real-world delivery experience.
Across thought leadership, programme design and delivery at scale, the direction of travel is becoming clearer. Smart metering creates most value when it is treated not as a standalone asset rollout for AMP8 alone, but as a connected, data-led programme designed to improve performance across the whole system. That is where models such as Funded Data-as-a-Service can play an important role – helping water companies bring funding, delivery, technology and usable data together around measurable outcomes.
