A water-wise IoT solution for Moreton Bay Regional Council

By David Yuwono

If you’ve ever used a regional or remote amenity building, then you’ll understand how important it is to have water on tap. This is no different in Moreton Bay Queensland, where the Moreton Bay Regional Council found had one staff member spend a full day each week carrying out manual checks at the various sites, often travelling long distances only to find that a tank was still full.  

The Council was finding that while essential, monitoring their outdoor water tanks in remote locations across the region was a costly, time consuming and inefficient exercise. There had to be a better solution, and Council turned to Optus Enterprise and Myriota, a global leader in nanosatellite IoT, for help devising one.

Today, Moreton Bay is proud to be the first council in Australia to deploy innovative IoT satellite sensors in national parks for water monitoring.

The advanced solution, which provides near real-time data of actual water levels in the tanks, enables the Council to make informed decisions about water usage, solve problems unexpected water shortages and optimise their operations and resources. And no need to drive long distances between tanks.

Although we know that connectivity is always improving with the rollout of new network technology, physical barriers still need to be considered. Likewise, no matter how talented your IT or network team is, a network can only ever perform as well as it’s designed.  

How does it work?

Small sensors made by Australian industrial automation company, Ellenex, are attached to the water tanks. Connectivity is provided by a combination of Optus’ cellular-based IoT networks and digital platforms and Myriota’s direct-to-orbit technology.

This enables the Council to remotely monitor water levels daily and capture baseline data that will be useful for further analysis. Oh, and they’ll reduce their operating expenses too.

The Council estimates that the roll-out of remote monitoring will reduce costs by around $20,000 per annum, a drop in operational and maintenance costs of nearly 200% - an outstanding outcome.

And tanks aren’t the only assets to be benefiting from the addition of IoT in Moreton Bay. The Council has been visionary in its drive to implement other IoT applications that help them reduce operational costs while creating environmental benefits and is implementing other smart solutions too, from an AI road scanning system on garbage trucks to pathway defect detection e-bikes.

In a country the size of Australia and with so many remote regions, innovative IoT solutions based on Optus's IoT networks and platforms and Myriota’s low-cost, long-battery life satellite connectivity open up many new opportunities for enterprises and governments to track, monitor and communicate with assets at scale.

Watch the full customer story video below and hear from Peter Flannery, Mayor of the Moreton Bay Regional Council and Myriota’s Dr Alex Grant.

To find out more, speak to your Optus Account Manager today or phone 1800 555 937.