The Diputación Provincial de Soria has unanimously approved a €5.9 million contract to deploy NB-IoT-enabled smart water meters and automatic meter reading services across 121 rural municipalities. The procurement, endorsed during the provincial council’s final plenary session of the year on 29 December 2025, marks a significant milestone in the SOAR Rural program, which aims to fully digitalize the province’s water-cycle infrastructure by mid-2026.
Contract Scope and Technical Infrastructure
The mixed contract covers the supply of data loggers and water meters equipped with Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) communication capabilities, alongside telecommunications services enabling automatic remote meter reading. NB-IoT technology is specifically designed for low-power, wide-area applications and can penetrate buildings and underground locations where meters are typically installed, making it well-suited for rural deployment scenarios where connectivity has historically been challenging.
The provincial authority structured the procurement as an “harmonized contract” requiring publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, reflecting both its scale and funding source. Execution is scheduled for completion by June 2026.
SOAR Rural Programme Context
The contract forms part of Phase II of the SOcial Agua Rural (SOAR) initiative, a broader digitalisation effort targeting 320 population centres across the province. The overall programme carries a total estimated budget of €22.6 million, with approximately €6.9 million already secured through Spain’s PERTE de Digitalización del Ciclo del Agua—a strategic recovery programme channelling EU Next Generation funds toward water infrastructure modernisation.
Phase I of the programme, currently in its final execution stage, mobilised an investment of €3 million through an assignment to state-owned contractor Tragsa, which functions as an in-house provider for Spanish public administrations. That initial phase focused on foundational infrastructure including remote monitoring of water sources, tank management systems, distribution network sectorisation, discharge and overflow monitoring for sanitation networks, and irrigation automation for public green spaces.
The provincial government previously contracted Tragsatec—the engineering and consulting subsidiary within the Tragsa Group—to conduct a connectivity coverage study and prepare the technical specifications for the current tender, an assignment valued at €1.5 million.
Strategic Objectives and Expected Outcomes
Provincial officials have stated that the SOAR Rural programme targets multiple operational improvements: reducing non-revenue water losses, lowering energy consumption across water infrastructure, and enabling more sustainable resource management. The digitalisation effort is designed to provide municipal authorities with real-time visibility into water consumption patterns and system performance.
Soria Province presents a particularly compelling case for rural water digitalisation. Of its 183 municipalities, 180 qualify under Spain’s “demographic challenge” classification—territories facing significant depopulation pressures. The programme aims to deliver centralised water management capabilities through the provincial government while allowing individual municipalities to retain their upgraded local infrastructure.
Earlier phases of the SOAR initiative have already begun producing tangible results. In November 2025, the province formalised a contract to install 422 level sensors across wells and storage tanks, providing real-time monitoring of water levels throughout the supply network.
Funding Mechanism and National Policy Framework
The procurement draws from Spain’s PERTE for Water Cycle Digitalisation, one of several Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation launched under the national Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The water-focused PERTE aims to mobilise approximately €3 billion in public and private investment between 2022 and 2026, with €1.94 billion coming directly from EU Next Generation funds administered by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO).
The Soria project was awarded funding through competitive bidding following an application submitted in 2022 and receiving final approval in November 2023. Provincial representatives have emphasised that all milestones and objectives remain aligned with European funding requirements, noting that a multidisciplinary working group comprising technical and legal specialists was established immediately after the grant resolution to oversee proper execution.
Market Context: Spain’s Rural Water Modernisation Push
The SOAR Rural initiative reflects a broader national trend toward water infrastructure digitalisation, driven by aging distribution systems, climate-related water stress, and EU regulatory requirements for improved water accounting. Spain has emerged as a leading market for water-cycle digitalisation in Europe, with the PERTE framework supporting projects ranging from major urban utilities to small rural consortia.
NB-IoT technology has gained particular traction in rural water metering applications due to its ability to operate on existing cellular infrastructure, support battery lives exceeding ten years, and maintain connectivity in challenging physical environments. Major utilities across Europe have announced large-scale NB-IoT metering deployments, with industry partnerships targeting millions of installations by the end of the decade.
For Soria Province specifically, the digitalisation effort addresses a practical challenge: many of its small municipalities lack the administrative capacity and financial resources to independently upgrade their water systems. The centralised approach, managed through the provincial government with substantial EU co-financing, offers a pathway to modernisation that would otherwise remain out of reach.
We previously reported on Soria Province’s water digitalisation efforts, including the installation of 422 real-time water sensors under the SOAR programme’s first phase. Industry analysis of NB-IoT smart metering deployments, including Suez and Vodafone’s partnership targeting over two million meter installations by 2030, provides additional context on the technology’s growing adoption across European water utilities.
