In Technological Atlas, our colleague Pablo Pelayo, head of Smart Metering at Celestia TST, writes an article that we recommend reading for anyone managing a water network. His starting point is uncomfortable and necessary: the debate has shifted from how many meters are connected to what we do with the data once we have it.
It is a distinction that we see daily at Celestia TST in real projects. A park of new meters, each speaking for itself, resolves the measurement point, but does not guarantee a manageable network. There always remains the old park that will continue to provide service for years and, above all, the locations where the signal does not reach: deep manholes, basements, shadowed areas. There, the challenge is not for the meter to speak, but for there to be something capable of listening to it. That is why we argue that telereading is truly valuable when the data enters daily operations and allows for anticipating leaks and incidents, not just automating billing.
The article goes further and addresses something that is rarely mentioned: the predictability that the sector needs to invest wisely. Pablo himself points out on the subject: "the important thing about technology is that it solves real problems. A challenge that, in this case, can only be addressed through joint work between operators, manufacturers, and administrations." That long-term perspective, and not technology alone, is what sustains the transformation.
Read the full article by Pablo Pelayo in Technological Atlas: The remote reading of water in Spain: from complying with the standard to managing the network