French independent water company Sogedo has signed a ten-year partnership with IoT firm UnaBiz to enhance water conservation and better manage water consumption for communities and individuals.

With resources becoming increasingly scarce, utility companies and users are becoming more aware of their water consumption habits. To address this, Sogedo has partnered UnaBiz to deploy smart water meters, water consumption sensors, pressure sensors and condition monitoring sensors powered by Sigfox 0G technology to help users control their water consumption.

This partnership will digitalise the management of Sogedo’s water supply networks and enable consumption monitoring at scale.

Low-cost and energy efficient water metering technology was implemented by Sogedo in 2016. Since then, more than 22,000 devices have been deployed and over 1000 alerts recorded by the water company, resulting in the detection of over 500 leaks in its customer base. The timely detection of leaks has allowed Sogedo to save over 90,000m³ of water throughout its water distribution network, the equivalent of 30 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Near real-time monitoring of indexes and alarms has also made it possible for Sogedo to avoid more than a hundred potential pollutions due to water backflow, resulting in a direct improvement in drinking water yield.

“This ten-year partnership demonstrates the relevance of UnaBiz’s IoT in the utilities sector and our plans to further densify our network in France,” said Patrick Cason, managing director of Singapore-based UnaBiz in France. “In addition to the 0G network infrastructure, UnaBiz will also provide additional services such as a multi-cloud platform, access to new IoT protocols, and additional sensors for potential services. By putting technological innovation at the service of environmental transition, UnaBiz and Sogedo say they are making a lasting commitment to transform tomorrow’s world.”

For Sogedo subscribers, this partnership offers several benefits such as accurate and more timely billings that reflect user consumption patterns collected from regular remote readings. The active monitoring of asset condition such as the wear and tear of infrastructure components such as meters and pipes enables preventive maintenance of devices and water network, preventing disruption of services and improving resource conservation.

“This partnership demonstrates our desire to offer our customers services that meet their needs and current challenges,” said Julien Siffert, remote control expert at Sogedo. “The combination of Sogedo’s expertise in water and UnaBiz’s know-how in communication technologies bring about better operations, time savings and the better management of precious water resources for the benefit of the community.”

Sogedo is an independent water and wastewater company based in Lyon, France, with over 325 employees. With this new agreement, the water company plans to double the number of subscribers benefiting from this remote reading technology by 2024.