Meter technology change –

IoT smart meters for

a sustainable water
consumption.
Erfurt (Germany) Case Study

4,098 m3

562 m3 1,6 m3/h

1,2 m3/h
 ERFURT

THÜWA
WATER SUPPLY NETWORK

247 K
CUSTOMERS

In the ThüWa supply area, 247,000 customers are

ABOUT THE CUSTOMER reliably supplied with drinking water.

ThüWa ThüringenWasser GmbH is part of the

Stadtwerke Erfurt Group since 1993 and one of the
largest service providers in the water sector in the
German state of Thuringia. The water supply
company reliably supplies more than 247,000
1,700 KM
DRINKING WATER
customers with drinking water in its supply area of SUPPLY NETWORK
almost 600 km². In addition to the state capital Erfurt,
the supply area also includes the municipalities of the
A pipe network of 1,700 km length supplies
“Erfurt Basin” special-purpose association.
the water to the customers.

The ThüWa drinking water supply network has a total

pipe network length of 1,700 km with 4 water
extraction plants and 23 pressure boosting plants
and pumping stations.
600 KM²
SUPPLY AREA

An almost 600 km² area, including the

municipalities of the “Erfurt Basin”.
“Improve our customer service and
our water network sustainability
are part of our strategic agenda.
Smart water meters and new
connectivity technologies are key
tool to achieve it.”

ThüringenWasser GmbH

THE CHALLENGE:
MANUAL READING ONLY ONCE A YEAR,
COSTLY AND NON-SCALABLE

About 39,000 mechanical water meters are actually different times of the year. This caused a lot of work,
installed in ThüWa’s water supply area, used especially in the preparation of the water utility’s
exclusively for billing purposes. Manual reading annual financial statements, and high costs for IT and
– common practice so far – is extremely costly and auditing companies. Furthermore, the existing water
time-consuming, with high personnel expenditure meters with moving measuring parts are susceptible
and a high number of meters. An additional to deposits, e.g., caused by calciferous water. This
complication are meters that are difficult to access. can reduce their accuracy over their current service
And: manual reading makes it possible to bill life of 6 years and, in the worst case, to differences
consumers only a specific date. However, a wish of between actual and measured water consumption.
many landlords is to provide their tenants with And since data reading is only available once a year
operating costs. for each meter, it is difficult for ThüWa to implement
topics such as optimization of the water supply or
ThüWa therefore divided its supply area into 12 leakage detection.
meter-reading districts in which meters are read at

KEY ISSUES

BILLINGS DUE NO REPORTING NO OVERVIEW OF

TO MANUAL DATE-BASED LEAKAGE IN THE
READINGS AND BILLING DISTRIBUTION
ESTIMATED NETWORK
CONSUMPTION
THE SOLUTION:
DM’S IOT NETWORK PLANNING SERVICE
RESULTED IN WIRELESS LPWAN mioty® TECHNOLOGY

ThüWa ThüringenWasser GmbH The choice of communication The comparison of possible

decided to replace all mechanical water technology plays a key role in fixed technologies showed: the wireless
meters with Diehl Metering HYDRUS network readout. To evaluate LPWAN mioty® technology convinced
2.0 ultrasonic water meters over the advantages and possible applications with best performance and cost-
next 2-3 years. This concerns the of various IoT communication effectiveness. Thus, ThüWa will
domestic water meters as well as the technologies, Diehl Metering’s IOT implement the mioty® network together
large bulk meters in the network. Network Planning Service was used. with the Stadtwerke Erfurt group within
First, a situation analysis was carried the next 2-3 years. A first site has
The simple plug-&-play installation and out together with the customer. Targets already been established.
minimal maintenance requirements and future possibilities of the network
make the HYDRUS static ultrasonic were defined, and different By setting up a network with the mioty®
water meter the ideal meter for water communication technologies evaluated. technology and communicating
suppliers. Thanks to an integrated Based on this, a detailed network with HYDRUS 2.0 domestic and bulk water
radio module, drive-by or fully all required antenna locations was meters, ThüWa will be able to fully
automatic readout via fixed network planned. digitalize its meter reading and billing
can be realized immediately. process.

FIXED NETWORK VIA MIOTY – HOW IT WORKS?

HYDRUS 2.0 Domestic, Bulk IZAR IoT GATEWAY Compact IZAR PLUS Portal

ENDPOINT BASE STATION METER DATA MANAGEMENT

THE BENEFITS:
RELIABLE DATA TRANSMISSION,
FAST & SECURE BILLING,
COST-EFFECTIVE AND
FUTURE-PROOF ROBUST AND
ACCURATE
METERING TECHNOLOGY
Reliable, robust and ready for Smart city
The mioty® network will allow metering applications The HYDRUS 2.0 ultrasonic meter is resistant against deposits
and measures consumption reliably, even at smallest flow
to merge with the IoT world. Special features of the
rates. Non-revenue water is minimalized, for more
technology are extreme radio ranges of up to 11 km
sustainability and more profit.
and good radio penetration, allowing to read out
meters in difficult installation situations without errors.
Another advantage is the high robustness. The mioty®
telegram splitting ensures reliable data transmission POWERFUL
of the meter data: Captured data is not sent in one & DATA SECURE
piece, but is split into many small pieces. If one data
snippet gets damaged on the way to the receiver, the
mioty technology features extreme radio ranges of up to
meter telegram can be found and restored complete-
11 km, with lower receivers at the same time needed. Data
ly thanks to error correction. This ensures a high level splitting ensures reliable data transmission.
of operational reliability for the water supplier.

Optimized radio range with only a few antennas

The optimized radio range plays a key role in terms of COST-EFFICIENT
investment and operating costs. For radio coverage & DIGITALIZED PROCESSES
of the entire city of Erfurt, mioty® requires far less
antenna sites than other technologies. A small
Exact billing on any given day, paperless interim statements,
number of antenna sites is needed to meet various digitalized processes and cost savings.
requirements for a setup, like access authorization,
installation permit, etc.

Billing processes run faster, more secure and stable

End consumers are billed only for their actual
consumption as of the due date. From the recording
Further potential
of meter readings to the transfer to ThüWa’s billing
The advantages of the HYDRUS 2.0 ultrasonic water
system, the overall process is faster, more secure and
meter come into play. Since there are no moving
more reliable. An interim statement can be generated
measuring parts in the static meter, it is immune to
paperless at any time.
deposits and measures the customer’s exact water
Balance sheet accruals and the costs for ThüWa to consumption stably over its entire service life – even
prepare annual financial statements are also a thing at the smallest flow rates. With a service life of up to
of the past. 16 years, the HYDRUS series represents enormous
economic potential for the utility company.

Last but not least, mioty® offers a broad technical

basis for future digital applications of the ThüWa and
enables further steps in the field of SmartCity.
ComCorporate 03/2023