Australia’s South East Water deploys Huizhong smart water meters
Image: South East Water
Victoria water utility South East Water has selected Avnet to supply Huizhong’s SCL61H-100 smart ultrasonic water meters.
The award builds on a partnership extending over several years in which Avnet, a global solutions provider, has provided the company with smart water meters and advanced solutions for remote telemetry trials.
In support of the new programme, involving the rollout of 1 million smart water meters – and said to be Australia’s largest to date – Avnet has established a dedicated water meter test lab at its Bayswater facility in Melbourne for thorough verification testing.
South East Water general manager, Digital Utility, Mark Elvins said the organisation is excited to realise the cost savings and sustainability benefits the digital water meters will deliver for customers, the community and the environment.
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“As we look to the future, we need to build resilience into Australia’s water network to continue to respond to the challenges of water scarcity, a changing climate and growing population,” said Elvins.
South East Water has developed the ‘Sotto’ vibration sensor, which is embedded in the water meters to continually monitor the network for leak detection.
The data is ingested into the company’s Lentic IoT platform for management and pinpointing of leaks with high accuracy. The technology also automates key internal functions including meter exchange, billing and customer leak notifications.
With the over 100,000 smart water meters already installed across Melbourne’s south-east, the company has reported customer leak notifications saving around 683Ml and customers AU$2.9 million (US$1.9 million) through the identification of potential leaks on customer properties in near real time during 2023-2024.
Moreover, the network leak monitoring programme enabled over 140Ml of drinking water to be saved through the early identification and repair of water leaks in the company’s network.
