Battery-Free Sensors Could Change the Future of Leak Detection

Early pilots suggest battery-free sensors may one day complement traditional leak detection systems by cutting maintenance and reaching hard-to-monitor areas

30 Jan 2026

The pitch sounds almost too tidy for the water sector. Leak sensors that run without batteries. No routine power checks. No replacement cycles. Just quiet monitoring in the background.

For now, it is more experiment than solution. But across the United States, a small and growing number of utilities are testing battery-free sensors as a complement to traditional leak detection tools. The appeal is simple. If these devices can work at scale, they could cut long term maintenance costs and reach parts of the network that are hard or expensive to monitor.

Early trials offer a glimpse of what might be possible. Companies such as AquaSensing and ABLIC have built sensors that harvest tiny amounts of energy from water flow or pressure changes. In controlled tests and limited field pilots, that energy has been enough to trigger alerts when leaks occur. The goal so far is not wide deployment, but proof that the concept holds up outside the lab.

Moving data off these devices is where the trade offs begin. Most rely on low power communications, including LoRaWAN for private utility networks or LTE-M when broader coverage is required. These systems are well suited for short, infrequent messages. Performance, however, can vary with geography, network conditions, and how and where the sensors are installed.

The real test comes in live networks. Unlike research settings, water systems deal with uneven flows, cramped infrastructure, and legacy software. Integrating a new stream of data into existing asset management platforms is rarely straightforward. That is why most projects remain pilots rather than full rollouts.

Utilities are not looking to replace their current tools just yet. Battery powered acoustic sensors, fixed monitors, and analytics platforms still do the heavy lifting. Battery-free devices are being explored as an add on, especially in locations where maintenance visits are costly. Firms like Xylem are already developing software that could eventually blend data from both approaches.

Open questions remain around performance at low flows, cybersecurity, and long term durability. Even so, as trials continue and lessons add up, battery-free sensors may quietly influence how future leak detection strategies are built.