Water track step closer
THE ability for Toowoomba region residents to track their water usage in real-time is now a step closer to reality.
At a Toowoomba Regional Council meeting earlier this week, councillors voted to award the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Smart Water Meter contract to a consortium led by Optus Networks Australia, IOTA, ETS Electrical Services and GreenBe.
Councillor Rebecca Vonhoff said the contract decision followed a rigorous assessment of tender proposals from commercial providers to ensure the technology would meet the council’s requirements and provide the maximum benefits for Toowoomba region residents.
“Council will work with Optus, IOTA and GreenBe to develop the processes and logistics needed to implement this technology,” Ms Vonhoff said.
“The next steps involve integrating the new smart water meter technology with council’s systems. The smart water meter technology will give council accurate data and improve early detection of leaks and breaks.
“People will be able to monitor their water usage in close to real time.”
This tracking system will include portal and app by GreenBe, which will allow residents to check their usage via their computer or smart devices.
Usual water meter readings will continue for those people without a computer or smart phone.
Councillor Nancy Sommerfield said the next stage involved the proof of concept and a series of milestones before the council would proceed to full implementation.
“Earlier this year council put a call out for volunteers to be part of the initial rollout of smart water meters. There was an eager response from community members wanting to be early adopters of this technology,” Ms Sommerfield said.
“The volunteers come from a range of locations and include residential, industrial and commercial users. This will allow testing and finetuning of the system from end to end.
“While the back-of-house systems will take a while to set up, council expects to be able to contact the initial group of volunteers in early 2022 to start the proof of concept.”