More than 90% of non-household water meters in the north west of England are being read by United Utilities since the company has brought the service back in-house.
The wholesaler has signed up five water retailers since it began offering the service last December after contracting meter reading out for 20 years.
UU said discussions are underway with two more retailers to further expand the non-household offering.
The company invested heavily in technology and hired 80 staff to carry out the work in response to the demands of the non-household sector.
It also brought domestic meter reading back in house last year, which included increasing the use of automated meter reading (AMR) via agreements with councils to fit reading devices to bin lorries that automatically register meter reads when driving past customers’ homes.
Danielle Mather, meter reading coordinator, said: “With our geo-routing functionality we can align both household and non-household meter reading, making it a really efficient service and we are able to reflect these synergies in our pricing.”
She explained the company was looking to add more value and efficiency in future such as offering a “bilateral service” where UU will act as an agent on behalf of the retailer where meters need repair or replacement. “This will help speed up the process and improve the non-household customer journey still further,” Mather said.
Water Plus, the joint venture between UU and Severn Trent, is one of the retailers working with United Utilities. Its head of operational strategy, Jamie Gibson, said the service had allowed Water Plus to increase the number of meter reads it receives, meaning fewer estimated bills and better oversight of any water issues such as client-side leaks.
The high number of long unread meters has been cited as point of friction in the water retail market since it opened to competition in 2017. From April this year, Ofwat modified market codes to introduce penalties and incentives to boost the accuracy of readings. This was designed to deter retailers from submitted estimated reads in situations where a meter is difficult to access or locate. Improving the quality of market data is a priority for both the regulator and market operator, MOSL.