Sydney Water has rolled out a $2 million pilot smart meter program, which has already reduced the average bill by $70 for residents across Liverpool, Beecroft, Bellevue Hill and Kenthurst, where 7,500 smart meters were installed.
Residents saved 28,000L of water between April and November 2023 after Sydney Water sent 313 early leak detection notifications.
Sydney Water’s Head of Customer Metering and Accounts, Jason Dagger, said that this multi-million dollar initiative is a transformational project for Sydney Water with smart meters using the same technology as a mobile phone to send data.
“Residents with a smart meter are notified of any potential leak within their property via an SMS, phone call or email from Sydney Water informing them of the leak and offering support to fix it,” Mr Dagger said.
“This minimises the impact on their water bill, and as a result, we can already see significant customer savings.
“With a long, hot summer ahead of us, we are urging customers to be mindful of water waste in and around the home.
“We need to start acting now, and this is something we can do to help our customers save even more water.”
Sydney Water plans to expand the smart meter program, allowing more customers to benefit from this service.
In 2024, Sydney Water plans to continue to invest in smart meters, installing another 25,000 across residential properties, with more expected to be installed in the coming years.
“We plan to install a smart meter in every property within our area of operations. It will be the largest rollout of smart meters in Australia once completed,” Mr Dagger said.
Sydney Water considers leaks and water network issues in the local area, the condition of the existing mechanical meters and the cost to read the meters when deciding where to install these smart meters.
Smart meters have been a requirement for all high-rise residential buildings with more than two stories since 2014. This accounts for around 140,000 smart meters across Sydney.
Featured image: A smart water meter. Image credit: Sydney Water.
