Following Telstra’s announcement of its narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network being switched on across Australia in September, Bundaberg Regional Council will now be one of the first to turn on their NB-IoT enabled smart water meters as part of their strategy to increase water efficiency across its region.
“We are doing a 12 month trial with WaterGroup’s NB-IoT enabled smart water meters, to explore the benefits of incorporating smart technology in to the region’s water meter reading infrastructure,” said Water and Wastewater portfolio spokesperson, Cr Jason Bartels, Bundaberg Regional Council.
“The ability to provide a customer portal through which residents can manage their own water consumption was also a factor in choosing this metering solution,” adds Cr Bartels.
“With Telstra’s long range coverage, our NB-IoT enabled water meters will be able to submit data from hard to reach places, and provide increased frequency and availability of data that will help the Council quickly understand its water usage and realise cost savings,” said Guenter Hauber-Davison, Managing Director of WaterGroup.
“The data that can be collected from smart meters is invaluable from an operational perspective. The data from the smart meters is transmitted to a central point and, if rolled out permanently across the region, would mean manual meter reading would no longer be required,” said Cr Jason Bartels.
“This is an evolutionary approach for Bundaberg Regional Council, especially now as regional water suppliers are facing the ever-growing demands and challenges to become more water efficient and sustainable during some of Australia’s toughest drought conditions,” adds Guenter.
The Bureau of Meteorology reports non-revenue water loss in Australia in the past five years at 878,027ML, averaging approximately 10% of utilities’ system input.
“Causes of water loss include real or physical losses, such as leaks in a system’s network, and apparent losses, such as metering inaccuracies and unauthorised consumption,” says Guenter.
“Already 4 of Australia’s largest water utilities, including Sydney Water are trialing the NB-IoT ready smart water metering solutions for just this reason,” he added.
WaterGroup launched the first commercially available NB-IoT ready, fully integrated, ultrasonic smart water meter in January 2018. It is affordable, easy to connect, has long battery life, long-range connectivity, is NMI Certified and meets all the relevant Australian standards.
Find out more about the NUmeter here.
