Council selects smart water meter devices for trial

Published on 20 October 2020

Council has awarded a tender for the supply of smart water meters for its trial project on residential and commercial properties in east Mullumbimby and selected bulk recycled water clients in Byron Bay.

WaterGroup Pty Ltd was selected through a formal tender process and will now work with Council to deliver approximately 400 smart water meter devices to help optimise our water management over the next 12 months.

Byron Shire Council Project Manager, Andrew Swan said WaterGroup has a proven record with smart water metering, leak detection and water efficiency solutions and has worked extensively with other local government and major water utilities.

“The installation will be a simple and quick process with little impact on Council’s infrastructure”, Mr Swan said.

WaterGroup will supply Council with two models of smart water meters to accommodate both its residential and commercial clients.

Both models are designed to monitor water consumption through half hourly readings of average flows and usage data.

“This trial will allow Council to test the smart water meter technology for a potential Shire-wide rollout in the future,” Mr Swan said.

“The smart water meters will help us understand where our water is going and, similar to a burglar alarm, they’ll alert us to leaks that are essentially stealing water from our community’s natural resources,” he said.

It is expected 80% of the installations for the pilot will be completed by December 2020.

The first installations have commenced on bulk water recycled water meters in Byron Bay, with the east Mullumbimby area scheduled for October to mid-November.

The disruption to residents and business owners will be minimal, with the process expected to take less than 30 minutes to fit to each home and business.

For more information on the smart water meter trial go to the Your Say Byron Shire webpage.

For media enquiries contact Annie Lewis, Media and Communications Coordinator, on 6626 7320.