Automatic Water Meter Replacement Project given green light

28 Nov 2019 2:50 PM -

At it’s November Ordinary Council Meeting, Council approved the installation of an Automatic Water Meter Replacement Project for the cost of $1.25 million funded. This project will be funded from budgeted funds for FY19/20 of $600,000 and a further $650,000 additional funding from the Water Fund Restriction.

Council has undertaken extensive investigation into potential solutions for this project and has selected Taggle Systems as the preferred supplier. The Taggle Systems solution is proven and widely utilised across a number of Councils and Water providers Australia-wide. 

Council’s Director of Environment and Engineering Peter Keane stated in his report to Council that Council is scheduled to replace 2789 water meters of the 4400 meter fleet due to these meters being 10 years old or greater.

“These meters have reached the end of their useful asset life and result in the inaccurate measurement of actual water use. Council intends to replace these meters with fully integrated meters inclusive of automatic meter reading components. It is also intended that the remaining 1436 meters will also be retrofitted with these same components. This project will provide both Council and the property owner with the ability to monitor and manage the effective use of our valuable water resources.”

Mr Keane further added that this integrated solution includes the ability to accurately measure the various segments of the water network and therefore provide the ability to measure and monitor for unmetered water use or system leaks.

“This provides Council with the long-term ability to locate and repair areas of system leaks therefore potentially relieving pressure on the overall water supply network.”

Councillors were unanimous in their support of introducing a more accurate and robust system but wanted to be sure ratepayers are protected from potential “bill shock”. Deputy Mayor George Weston successfully added to the resolution that a customer education program be run before and during roll out and Councillor Michael Kidd was supported with his addition that water use and costs to customers be reviewed and reported back to Council after six and twelve months from the commissioning of the new meters.

Integrated with the Taggle System solution is a web-based customer water application that is available to all users. This will provide residents, tenants, landlords, real estate agents etc access to the live meter and water consumption data allowing residents to have the ability to monitor their water usage in real time, with updates coming on average hourly. This application is also capable of notifying residents of leaks that the system has detected in the resident’s property.