How is Smart Water Metering Benefiting Australia?
Category: In the News - Published Articles
02 Oct 2019
A friend to the environment and your pocket
Firstly, what is smart water metering and why is it important?
Smart water metering is continually evolving in terms of information being communicated to clients. Not only are we now able to record real-time water consumption patterns, but consumers can identify, and thus quickly rectify, any abnormalities such as leaks; saving water and their hard earned cash.
Previously, water leakages have gone undetected for long periods of time, resulting in property damages and costly invoices. Up to 240 million cubic meters of water is wasted due to hidden leaks and broken pipes.
In this day and age, checking your water meter once a quarter via a manual bill just doesn't cut it. We are becoming increasingly accustomed to, and dependent on, having information readily available at our fingertips. The average adult spends up to 5 hours a day checking their phone. Mobile banking is now second nature to most of us, so why not our digitalising our water meter too?
The answer is that water is still too cheap. The sad truth is we would rather lose water than pay a little bit extra for it - that is, until we run out. Then, before you know it, tens of millions of dollars is needed to build new dams and new pipelines.
Yet, there are more effective solutions. In Australia, over 150,000 homes and businesses have adopted a smart metering system.
The digital meters enable a more digital customer experience - customers can use their mobile phones to monitor their account and identify potential savings in near real time."
- Pat McCafferty, Managing Director of Yarra Valley Water
With tremendous amounts of information readily available to the consumer, our desire to positively contribute to the environment is ever increasing. According to a recent study by HP and Planet Ark, over 90% of Australians are concerned about the environment and sustainability. At an increasing rate, we are actively looking to businesses and brands to practice sustainability, especially now that Australia is experiencing a "super drought".(Nine News)
[...]higher temperatures are increasing the drought threat and putting an even greater strain on our depleted water storages. Every state and territory has seen a decline in water storages over the past 12 months. Some Australian towns are on the brink of running out of water after years of below average rainfall."
- Nine Digital 2019
The savvy consumer
Smart metering allows Australians to be more proactive in terms of water efficiency. Research shows that 69% of us actively avoid wasting water. More than half the population purchase more efficient appliances.
One of the issues when trying to save water is that often we are unaware of how much we consume every day.
While we all value water as a vital part of our daily lives, few understand its true value. In part, this is due to a lack of exposure to the full costs of the water we consume - both directly through our taps, and indirectly through our food and other products."
- Infrastructure Australia
According to Sydney Water, New South Wales residents use roughly 200L of water a day, while those in the Northern Territory consume 500L. What we don't realise is on top of that, a further 80 litres/day are lost (per connection) by utilities before it reaches our homes.
With smart metering, Australians can track when and how their water is being distributed and consumed. Gaining transparency on our usage allows us to identify potential water savings.
The ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) estimates the population to hit 30 million by 2029. With major cities ever expanding, resources such as water are increasingly in demand, further requiring intelligent solutions to manage water usage and distribution.. Add to this the risks of a rapidly changing climate, and you can see how. Valuable smart meters are in enabling us to better understand and manage associated risks, especially for those of running out of water ('Day Zero').
Regular monitoring of end-use consumption data provides the ability to immediately quantify the effect of targeted water efficiency programs on their intended water end-use(s)."
- Rodney Stuart, Griffith School of Engineering
3 Reasons why we should be thinking about smart metering
- Improved water efficiency
- Active monitoring of Australia's water network
- First line of defence against of running out of water
The results speak for themselves
Smart water meters are being adopted all over Australia, leading to better consumer engagement, reduced operating costs and, more importantly, a reduction in water consumption.
- Sydney Water's smart metering residential project saw a reduction of 7-10% in household water consumption. Doolan (2011)
- Another study of smart meter adoption, across various locations, recorded an average reduction of 19.6% after providing consumption feedback. Sonderlund et al. (2014)
- A smart water meter study in Hervey Bay Queensland saw a reduction of baseline flows up to 89%. Britton et al. (2013)
Clearly, being able to record and identify water loss issues is highly beneficial. Smart metering provides the ability to combat that loss and make every drop last a little bit longer - until rain replenished our dams again!
Ask your water supplier or employer, what they are doing to maintain their social licence in terms of giving you the tools to actively manage your water use.
