Businesses getting smart water meters

With a smart water meter at the Cerebos Greggs factory in Forth St, Dunedin, is Peter Renton,...
With a smart water meter at the Cerebos Greggs factory in Forth St, Dunedin, is Peter Renton, smart water meter project manager for the Dunedin City Council. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
A thousand smart water meters have been installed in Dunedin and more are on the way.

The new electronic meters are for businesses and institutions and their installation is expected to curtail water wastage and enable leaks to be fixed faster.

The Dunedin City Council is about a quarter of the way through the $7.8 million project.

"Water is a precious resource and non-domestic customers are charged for every litre they use or lose," council Three Waters group manager David Ward said.

"Water leaks can cost a business thousands of dollars."

Mr Ward said water meters used by non-domestic customers were outdated and due for replacement.

"The new smart electronic meters will allow remote real-time monitoring of water use, allowing faster identification and repair of faults," he said.

"Early detection means leaks can be repaired quickly and customers won’t need to pay for water they’re not using."

Funding has come from the council’s Three Waters renewal budget.

AD Reilly has the contract to install the meters and connect them to the water network, working with Spark and Fulton Hogan.

The council said the project was not linked to Three Waters reform.

City councillor Jim O’Malley said the council did not use meters for households, but he expected this might change in the foreseeable future if Government reforms continued.

A spokeswoman from Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s office said this would ultimately be a decision for the water entities that were in the process of being created through legislation.

The Government proposes to have large regional water entities take over activities from councils.

The water management technology being installed in Dunedin makes use of Spark’s internet-of-things network, which is a system for devices embedded with sensors, software and other technologies.

A smart water network enabled the council to improve the water system’s efficiency and create a more sustainable operation, Spark spokesman Tony Agar said.

The council’s water system includes 21,000ha of water catchment, six water treatment plants, 57 storage reservoirs, 35 pumping stations and 1450km of pipes.

Port Otago and the University of Otago are using the new meters.

The university has 200 water meters, the highest number of meters in Dunedin, and Port Otago, the largest user of water in Dunedin, has six meters.

Mr Ward said water demand was previously managed for the city by volumetrically charging non-domestic customers across 4200 water meters.

"This new system ... flips us into a world where instead of resources being chewed up by routine inaccuracies, we can now focus on efficiency gains."

Property owners would be empowered to manage their water consumption, as the amount used was displayed.

grant.miller@odt.co.nz