FLOWD Smart Water Solutions has engaged with Noosa Shire Council to conduct a pilot initiative called Water Secure Noosa, that involves a trial of smart metering within Council Facilities and other commercial and institutional facilities.
The Smart metering trials will be across four Council sites representing the most significant water usage. These are Noosa Aquatic Centre, Noosa Leisure Centre, Noosa Shire Council Head and Noosa Shire Council Facilities Depot.
Noosa Shire purchases water from Unity Water with bulk water supply sourced from reserves managed by SEQ Water. Water security is an important consideration in the Noosa region.
Seqwater owns and operates the region’s bulk water supply system, including dams and weirs, conventional water treatment plants and climate resilient water sources.
The SEQ Water for Life South East Queensland Water Security Program research indicates that apart from a severe drought or a significant change in supply or demand, we are likely to have enough water until about 2040. After that, we will need new water sources to meet growing demand.
Smart water metering demonstrates potential for water use reduction and associated cost savings of up to 46% of a facilities total water usage*.
“The Noosa Pilot is about is implementing smart water metering and monitoring the results,” said FLOWD’s David Langdon.
The pilot will offer a dashboard so that managers of the facilities within the pilot will have access to water usage data.
“The FLOWD software reads digital meters and provides information that is easy to understand and work with. It can be configured so that if a facility exceeds a certain volume of water use as certain water baseline use, they get an automatic alert via text or email.
“We aim to give facility managers complete control of managing water so that if there is an issue, it can be addressed quickly before costs add up for excess water use or property damage, he said.
Water Secure Noosa is a FLOWD Smart Water Solutions community pilot to monitor and assess the benefits of smart water metering within Noosa Shire.
*2019 Study of Smart Water Metering Technology for Water Management in Urban Areas, http://ozwater.org/Watersource/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/001-Koech-Richard_v1.pdf
Randell and Koech
