Earlier leak detection saves water, money, hassle, and costly damage
As we face growing pressure on water supplies, early intervention and better visibility of usage will be key to building long-term resilience.
Smart water meters are already making a measurable difference: identifying hidden leaks within days, reducing bills, and helping households and water companies act sooner. Yet with only a small proportion of homes currently using this technology, there’s a huge opportunity ahead to protect one of our most precious resources.
Gary Adams
Director in Calisen’s water team
Water is rarely out of the news at the moment – and rightly so. It is an essential and precious resource we must preserve to avoid predicted water shortages in years to come. In England, the Environment Agency reported that around 19% of water put into supply was still being lost through leakage in 2023–24. Smart metering can help to close the gap between supply and demand – improving long-term resilience. At present, only an estimated 12% of households in England have smart water meters, but revised plans suggest this could increase to around 51% by 2030 with a drive to accelerate the rollout even further.
The leakage challenge is not only about what happens in the network. A significant part of the problem sits on the customer side of the meter: small, hidden and continuous leaks in homes and supply pipes that can remain undetected for long periods in traditional metering environments. Without regular consumption data, these leaks are often only identified after visible damage appears or when a customer receives an unexpectedly high bill. Around 40% of homes don’t have a meter at all.
Smart metering changes the equation. By providing regular, high-frequency readings, smart meters can reveal continuous flow patterns that indicate a leak much earlier than conventional approaches. That enables water companies to move from delayed, reactive detection to earlier and more targeted intervention, helping customers understand unusual usage, identify potential leaks and take action before more water, money and effort are wasted. It also gives water companies a stronger tool to support drought resilience and long-term water security.
By taking readings every hour, smart water meters help water companies identify leaks in the home within days. A leak could be as little as 1 litre per hour, which could be a dripping tap or seeping connection on an internal pipe. Aggregated across millions of properties, even small continuous leaks can represent a significant and largely avoidable source of water loss.
We know from the smart water meters that have been installed already that results can be achieved quickly with water companies declaring that up to 22% of properties where a smart meter is fitted have an existing leak they didn’t even know about or chose to ignore. Thames Water stated that its smart metering programme has helped detect around 84,000 customer-side leaks, saving 120 megalitres per day. Meanwhile, Anglian Water has said its leak alert service has identified over 600,000 customer leaks since 2021, saving customers an average of 14.75 litres per household per day and reducing bills by an average of £25.
As the industry accelerates towards large-scale deployment, the real opportunity lies in how this data is used, turning insight into action, and detection into prevention. Getting this right will not only reduce waste and bills but play a central role in securing long-term water resilience across the UK.
At Calisen, we see this as the next stage in smart water metering: not simply deploying assets, but helping translate smart data into earlier intervention, better customer engagement and stronger operational outcomes.
