THE NEWS’
The replacement of old meters with modern, intelligent ones, the “smart meters”, is also underway in Latina. For Acqualatina the digital era also arrives in the Pontine capital, after the replacement operations had already been started in recent months in some smaller municipalities. The water service manager in Ato4 plans to install, in total, over 100 thousand smart meters throughout the area covered, thanks to Pnrr funds.
The installation, after having taken place in Lenola, Sezze, Formia and Aprilia, now arrives in Latina, in some neighborhoods, and Nettuno (the entire city). In the Pontine capital, the installation has already begun in the Nuova Latina and Nascosa neighborhoods (formerly Q4-Q5), whose residents have started receiving text messages warning them of the operation. Citizens will be gradually notified either by means of posters displayed in the condominium spaces, or through SMS messages, sent to anyone who has provided their mobile number (to join the free SMS simply connect to the link https://www.acqualatina.it /information-service-via-sms/). The installation of the new smart meters will be free, will only involve a brief interruption of the water flow, and will be carried out by the manager’s staff, equipped with an identification card. If the meter is located outside the building and accessible, the presence of the owner will not be necessary, otherwise it will be necessary to allow the operator access to the premises. According to the manager, the new smart meters will allow remote reading and remote management of water meters, with various advantages compared to traditional meters: reduction in the costs of managing readings and the contract, which will become practicable remotely; greater frequency in meter reading, with billing always certain and secure; network monitoring and maintenance optimization in case of losses; precise knowledge by the user of consumption and waste, thanks to real-time measurement of consumption and related analysis.
PNRR
The installation of the smart meters is part of the broader Acqualatina project worth approximately 54 million euros, of which 40 million financed by Pnrr. In the presentation of the “Global water evolution” project to the mayors of the ATO last September, the leaders of Acqualatina explained that the replacement of the 100 thousand meters would have cost around 11 million euros. The installation in Latina should have taken place between November 2024 and September 2025, but was evidently brought forward. The smart meters will work in two modes, radio waves or cellular network and their advantages range from reducing management costs to increasing the frequency of data reading, to user awareness regarding the consumption of water resources. The “Global water evolution” project, however, has a much broader scope for the entire ATO: the safety of Mazzoccolo, worth 2 million euros all from Pnrr; the new Sardellane pipeline, worth over 18 million euros, of which 14.5 from Pnrr, relevant for putting a stop to the physical water losses that afflict the network; the adaptation of the purifiers of Ventotene (over 1.9 million euros, all from Pnrr), and of Ponza (4.8 million euros, all from Pnrr); the sewage sludge drying greenhouses, worth 9.4 million euros, of which 6.7 from Pnrr. The digitalisation of all networks (over 4000 kilometres) is also central, for an investment of 1 million euros, to have greater control over the situation, aimed at combating physical losses.
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