Rous County Council has announced the successful completion of the $3.5 million rollout of digital smart water meter across the region. This significant upgrade aims to improve water sustainability and security across the Lismore, Ballina, Byron and Richmond Valley LGAs.
The initiative began with the installation of the first smart meters in Ballina in February 2024. Rous says it has now reached all (2,100) customers, with the final property connection marking the completion of the project on Friday 9 August 2024.
The new smart meters, coupled with the ‘My Rous’ app, are designed to provide customers with timely information on their water use, customisable updates and alerts regarding water usage and leakage detection.
Rous says the rollout of the smart meters is part of the organisation’s proactive position on water sustainability. Previously, Rous relied on manual water meter readings conducted on a quarterly basis. While sufficient for billing, this method offered limited insights into water use and timely detection of potential leaks.
The new digital meters offer a significant advancement by delivering daily water usage updates to Rous and its customers. The My Rous app, developed by GreenBe, empowers customers to monitor their water consumption, identify unusual activity that may suggest leaks, and explore ways to reduce their usage.
Finding leaks
Andrew Logan, Group Manager Planning and Delivery at Rous, said ‘The new digital smart meters are already proving their worth, with dozens of our customers becoming aware of water leaks on their property through the daily information provided by the smart meter.
‘This has allowed our customers to save money by not paying for undetected leaks and reduce the amount of water lost through leaking pipes. In the months that the smart meters have been installed, we have seen hundreds of thousands of litres of potential lost water kept in our water storages for future use.’
Tina Le, the Chief Commercial Officer of Nucleus3, highlighted that the Rous region is ideally situated to benefit from smart water metering. ‘We’ve installed over two thousand smart meters for Rous and the savings are expected to be substantial.
‘The ability to quickly identify leaks is a major advantage, conserving precious water and reducing both water bills and unexpected charges from larger leaks.’
Phil Rudd, General Manager at Rous, said ‘The data that the smart meters provide will allow enquiries from customers to be resolved quicker and enable Rous to undertake water balances across our network, with data from our digital bulk water meters, potentially allowing operations staff to identify leaks in our bulk water mains.’
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