Water is undoubtedly Australia’s most precious and scarce resource. As one of the most arid continents, Australian water utilities must continue to discover innovative customer facing solutions to save water, deliver on water efficiency and detect network and customer leaks early.
In light of the above, a smart water solution from GreenBe and its Optus-led consortium is delivering on all fronts via its customer-facing utility platform in Toowoomba Region.
The Toowoomba smart water consortium, featuring GreenBe, Optus Enterprise along with IOTA, ETS Electrical Services and M2M has been engaged by Toowoomba Regional Council in the deployment of 68,000 new smart water meters over the next four years, allowing Towoomba’s smart water customers to use the GreenBe Utility app in order to take immediate action to stop leaks, conserve water and change individual water consumption habits.
Toowoomba Council’s IoT water program is currently in flight and scaling to manage 68,000 properties, with GreenBe’s Utility digital customer engagement platform connected to Iota’s smart meters and IoT platform ‘Lentic’, a key part of the region’s smart water solution.
Highlights from the project include:
- Residents receive early notifications of water leaks and usage targets, reducing the chance of unexpected bills and wastage
- Greater operational transparency means leaks can be found and auctioned by customers immediately
- Smart water meters detected a 12 per cent loss of water to date
- Sustainability is actioned through customers’ day-to-day understanding of how their water usage plays out via GreenBe’s web, iOS and Android mobile apps
- Toowoomba Council is looking to harness GreenBe’s technologies for its smart cities initiatives and other IoT applications into the future
David Catalovski, Managing Director at GreenBe, said, “The smart devices will allow residents of the Toowoomba region to use the GreenBe Utility digital customer engagement platform to monitor their water usage in near real-time, take part in water efficiency ‘challenges’ and demand management programs, plus receive early notification of leaks – a boon for residents whose first warning of a hidden leak has been an unexpected large water bill.”
Thanks to smart meters, residents are able to use the GreenBe water apps to monitor their usage in 30-minute intervals, helping to make it easier to see which activities around the property are causing high water consumption – from long showers to watering the garden or even using an inefficient washing machine.
Benefits of GreenBe’s platform and apps for Toowoomba Council residential customers include:
- Flexibility and control over their water usage
- Direct access to their property’s usage data in 30-minute, hourly, daily and weekly intervals
- The ability to track high water consumption and potentially avoid bill shock
- Receive leak alerts if unusual flow is detected via sms, email or app-push notifications
- Monitor and set personalised water reduction targets and goals to reduce usage
- In-app access to tips and how to save water at home
- Improve water literacy and conservation knowledge with GreenBe’s proprietary ‘gamification’ WaterChallenges harnessing a unique ‘points and reward’ marketplace which dispenses e-vouchers for use with local Toowoomba businesses
- Capability to self manage and access in-app real-time customer support for technical issues
Toowoomba Council’s new advanced metering infrastructure solution will also enable staff to help optimise water management, have greater operational transparency, increase the accuracy of water usage measuring, know when and where leaks are happening, and measure pressure within the pipe network.
Rebecca Vonhoff, Water and Waste Committee Chair Councillor at Toowoomba Regional Council, said, “The meters will provide close to real-time readings. Residents will be able to…check their usage. They will be able to review their data which will make it easier to see which activities around the property are causing high water consumption. This will help to reduce the chance of residents receiving a surprise when they get their bill. If properties have an underground leak, the meters will also help with early detection.”
Embracing IoT and data is all part of a transition towards becoming a truly smart council, and the solution for Toowoomba can help deliver cost savings not only to local residents via GreenBe IoT applications and Council, but also benefits for the local environment.
This sponsored editorial was brought to you by GreenBe. For further information, please visit www.greenbe.com
