The Connection between Water Prices and the State of Water Networks

The Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2011 (“Summer Davos”) is taking place this week, and we thought it’s a great venue to announce our first research report. This report, planned to be the first of many, shows the connection between water prices and water loss rates. Water loss is a key metric that impacts the sustainability, conservation and efficiency of water networks.

In some of the world’s cities, water is priced lower than the costs to pump and transport it, let alone sustain its delivery infrastructure: the network of pipes, pumps, reservoirs and valves that brings water to our homes. In some places water is free.

The question raised by TaKaDu’s research was whether the price of water also affects water loss rates. Theoretically, water underpricing can lead to undervaluing of water and underinvesting in the water distribution network.

Water pricing doesn’t impact residential consumption alone. Globally, only about 10% of water is used residentially, while the remaining 90% is used for agriculture and industry, so water mispricing obviously affects the way all sectors use water.

You can read more by clicking on the ‘Continue reading’ link below.

Plugging the Leaks: The Business of Repair

Lux Research have published a new report. In it they put the value of the water infrastructure inspection and repair market at $ 20 Bn annually, growing at a healthy clip of 10% a year.

“Outdated water infrastructure and record high government deficits are both fueling demand for low-cost inspection and repair solutions – namely software and sensor technologies that can provide a snapshot of a utility’s entire infrastructure,” said Brent Giles, a Lux Research Senior Analyst and the report’s lead author. “Without this holistic view, utilities cannot prioritize the most critical repairs – and may end up throwing money down the drain to address the leaks that are visible today rather than the ones that could prove catastrophic tomorrow.”

What’s interesting about the report is that Lux say that although the market is big and growing, the result of an infrastructure deficit and aging pipes, the underlying problem the market is set to solve – water loss – won’t be resolved without technology innovation.

While Lux commends both Smart Metering and Pipe Repair Technologies, it comments that the big move that would make a lasting change in the management of water networks is Smart Infrastructure Monitoring options.

Smart Systems and Little Data

Last month, The Economist issued a special report on smart systems. The report is an excellent exploration of the second world that is emerging beside the real world we know: the digital reflection of the world. The real world is strewn with sensors, which constantly transfer masses of output data that is then reflected in a mirror digital world. The mirror digital world doesn’t exist for the sake of knowledge alone. It hopefully makes the task of managing the real world easier and better.

Building a Better Tomorrow: The Global Cleantech 100

The global cleantech 100 was announced by The Guardian and The Cleantech Group. TaKaDu, recognized in the list for its “Water Management” takes a look at the state of the cleantech world as reflected in the list.

Talking about the Future of Water Networks: Smart Water Industry Forum in IWA

This morning TaKaDu chaired an IWA Industry Forum entitled “Smart Water Networks: Data-driven solutions for water networks management”. We were joined by executives from three solution vendors from across the value chain: Telvent – a leader in data aggregation and visualization, Echologics – a pioneer in advanced acoustic analysis, and Hetek – a Canadian resource-loss management provider. Our own Haggai Scolnicov, TaKaDu’s CTO, represented the Water Infrastructure Monitoring angle in this lively discussion.

Are Smart Metering and Water Infrastructure Monitoring the same thing?

A question we often get asked is whether Water Infrastructure Monitoring and Smart Water Metering are the same. While the straight-forward answer is ‘no’, there are definitely interesting links and interrelationships between the two. TaKaDu believes that the world of water metering is set to undergo a revolution rather than an evolutionary growth, and Water Infrastructure Monitoring is one of the key enablers of this revolution.

Countering The Infrastructure Deficit – The Software Version

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about the growing infrastructure deficit. Across the US, Canada and Europe, experts and policy makers share a growing concern around the many billions required to catch up with this deficit, or in layman’s words: Public infrastructure is aging and decaying. While there may be disagreement about the actual extent of the deficit, there is no arguing that it is there to stay – and that some types of infrastructure age with less grace than others.

An emerging category named ‘Water Infrastructure Monitoring’ carries the promise of optimizing – through the use of advanced software and data collection – the process of pinpointing the assets that need to be serviced, and taking corrective action, thereby prolonging asset life and diverting scarce budgets to the right places

Water PLUS – Keys to Building a Scalable Water Business (Part 2)

This is the last of a two-part series by Guy Horowitz, TaKaDu’s VP of Marketing, about scaling a water technology business.
In my previous post I introduced the PLUS framework for water-technology scalability, and expanded upon the first two attributes: Software and Usability. Let’s explore the other two:Leverage and Partners.

Charting Our Water Future: Making Water Everyone’s Business

Going through “Charting Our Water Future”, a report by the 2030 water resources group, which, as its name implies, is looking at the future of water supplies in 2030.
One of the views that caught my eye in the report was the gap between how policy makers see the priority of making water investments and evaluating these water investments from an economic viewpoint.

Let’s say a country is facing water shortages. Should it invest in creating more water (desalination, for instance), improving its water infrastructure (investing in groundwater production and pipe networks) or try to get more efficiency gains (e.g. scheduling agricultural irrigation)?

It’s Time for the Smart Water Grid

It’s been a great year for the Smart Grid. Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, analysts, journalists, and regulators can’t stop talking about it. Experts are competing to project greater market potential. Zpryme puts the Smart Appliance market alone at $15.2bn by 2015, Lux Research talks about $15.8bn, Cisco estimates the overall opportunity at $100bn and Pike research uses a whopping $200bn figure.

Giants like Cisco and IBM have set aside billions to fund Smart Grid activities. The US government has kept up, allocating hefty tax credits and incentives for Smart Grid development, with $3.4bn from the stimulus bill granted to 100 smart-grid initiatives last October. VCs are investing heavily, as these three lists show. But while we anticipate the first Smart Grid IPO (market-permitting) from Silver Spring Networks, we’ve got to wonder out loud: Why isn’t water being served at this party?