Grundfos Folds Metasphere Into Its Water-Utility Business

Grundfos is taking the next step in integrating Metasphere, the telemetry and analytics specialist it acquired in 2023, bringing the business fully under the Grundfos brand in Australia. The change is more than a name transition. It puts Metasphere’s remote-monitoring technology alongside Grundfos’ pumps, hydraulics and water-network expertise, giving utilities a more integrated way to monitor what is happening below ground and act before network problems become failures. 

Grundfos acquired Metasphere specifically to strengthen its capabilities beyond individual pumping assets and address water networks at a system level.  Metasphere’s technology is built around a straightforward problem: wastewater networks often give operators too little visibility until something goes wrong.

Its telemetry systems use sensors to capture sewer-level data remotely, while analytics can combine that information with rainfall and other network data to identify abnormal behaviour, including developing blockages and inflow and infiltration. The information can then be used to prioritise field intervention rather than relying solely on reactive maintenance. 

That capability is now being incorporated into Grundfos’ digital water portfolio. Products and services originating from Metasphere, including ART Sewer and Grundfos Connect Sewer Insights, are being positioned within the broader Grundfos offering. The company says the portfolio can help utilities identify inflow and infiltration, detect potential blockages and better understand network behaviour before an overflow occurs. 

Grundfos has historically been strongly associated with pumps and hydraulic equipment. Metasphere adds a layer of network intelligence around those physical assets.

Grundfos already has evidence of how that model can work. In a project with South West Water in the UK, its sewer analytics platform used rainfall and sewer-level information to filter large volumes of false alarms and focus operators on genuine risks. Grundfos says the system eliminated up to 9,500 non-genuine alerts a month in that application. 

The company is also retaining an important feature of the original Metasphere proposition: connectivity with existing utility systems. Grundfos says its telemetry offering is designed around open standards and network data ownership, rather than forcing utilities into an isolated technology stack. 

That gives the company a stronger position in the shift from reactive maintenance to predictive network management, where the value is not simply knowing that an asset has failed, but seeing the warning signs early enough to prevent the failure from becoming an operational or environmental event.