Toowoomba’s smart water conservation partnerships

While persistent storm systems batter and flood parts of NSW and South-eastern Queensland, it can be hard to imagine water conservation being an issue. 

But as Dorothea Mackellar wrote in her iconic poem, My Country; this is, overall, a “sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.”

Toowoomba in Queensland is one of those areas at the other extreme of the weather scale and while many Queenslanders battle floods, Toowoomba remains drought declared, with little to no rainfall for many years.

However, Toowoomba Regional Council is taking on partners in a smart approach to water conservation.

Optus Enterprise, in partnership with IOTA, ETS Electrical Services and GreenBe will work with the Toowoomba Regional Council to prove up a solution to optimise water management, logistics and give residents visibility on how much water they’re using.  This will lead to the staged deployment of 68,000 new smart water meters.

With meters expected to be rolled out before mid-2022, the four-year project is designed to reduce the amount of leakage and non-revenue water for the Council. By transitioning to a smart IoT solution, Council will have greater operational transparency, increase water usage measuring accuracy, and capabilities to identify when and where leaks are happening, and measure pressure within the pipe network.

“Optus Enterprise, along with our strategic partners, are excited to be involved with this major upgrade to Toowoomba’s water infrastructure,” Zorawar Singh, Head of Core Product at Optus Enterprise said. “Using best-of-breed technology, we are delivering an end-to-end solution that can put money back into the pockets of residents while also helping to save precious water from being wasted.”

Toowoomba Regional Council Water and Waste Committee Chair Councillor Rebecca Vonhoff said the smart water meters would bring significant benefits all-round.

Image Credit: Nicholas Rhodes on UnSplash

“This is an exciting water-saving project as the meter replacement program will allow for advanced analytics and help balance the entire water network,” she said.

“The meters will provide close to real-time readings. Residents will be able to use a web portal and/or an app on a device 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.

“Essentially, this means that Council will be able to operate the water network more efficiently and residents will be able to monitor their own water usage effectively which will provide cost savings to both the resident and to Council.”

Image credit: Greg-Spearritt on Unsplash

Toowoomba Regional Council needed a true end-to-end solution as Queensland is the only state or territory in Australia that has individual councils managing water infrastructure rather than private companies. Without having in-house capability or technology experts to create their own solution, they relied on a consortium of businesses to deliver a best-in-class, end-to-end solution that could be maintained easily by Council and used by residents.

The deployment leverages Optus’ NB-IoT network, IOTA’s devices, and AMI platform, GreenBe’s user experience platform and ETS Deployment Services to bring it all together. This helps Council address its requirements around digital metering, as well as transitioning into a true smart Council as they embrace IoT and data.

Residential, industrial, and commercial volunteers from the local community will be part of the initial proving-up stage of the meters in the second quarter of 2022, allowing for testing and fine-tuning of the system.

This is Australia’s first telco-led consortium to be awarded a contract for an Advanced Metering Infrastructure solution.

However, Optus is no stranger to water conservation.

Here’s a fun fact for you - our own Optus Sydney Campus, filled with leafy outdoor spaces and well populated, water featured duck ponds is green in every sense.  Over seven hectares, the campus’ irrigation and many bathrooms are fed by a 1.6 million litre underground rainwater tank.

We’re dedicated to reducing our environmental footprint, with a growing number of environmental solutions.