NHS Highland, one of the UK’s largest Health Boards, has cut its annual water bill by £400,000 in just three years after working with Business Stream, Scotland’s largest supplier of non-domestic water and waste water services – the saving representing a third of the £1.2 million it was previously spending annually on its water services.
Costs were cut significantly through the installation of automated meter readers (AMRs), which helped the Board monitor water use and isolate anomalies in the system, allowing it to implement efficiencies, align billing with consumption, and detect faults in its pipe network. A full plan of its underground network was also put together – a process referred to as network mapping – helping it to ‘understand the estate, plan for any extensions, and manage risk’. Gordon MacDonald, energy and sustainability manager, said: “It’s absolutely essential that we manage our budget efficiently, given the pressure that public finances are under. Having meters installed across our estate meant our bills more accurately reflected what we were consuming, and enabled us to identify where savings could be made.”
