Collaboration provides NZ's largest smart water meter upgrade

Itron is working together with Watercare Services, a New Zealand water and wastewater utility, to modernise its water network by upgrading its existing mechanical meters with 100,000 Itron Intelis wSource digital water meters.

This upgrade is part of Watercare’s plan to connect almost half a million smart meters in total across the Auckland region.

The deployment represents one of the largest smart water metering upgrades in New Zealand and will give Watercare Services greater visibility into its network to accelerate leak detection and improve billing accuracy.

“We continue to identify new ways to conserve and protect the world’s most vital water resources,” said Justin Patrick, senior vice president of Device Solutions at Itron. “In support of New Zealand’s 2025 Water Services (Wastewater Environmental Performance Standards), our goal is to enable utilities, such as Watercare Services, to reduce real water losses across their network.”

This digital transformation project supports Watercare’s broader technology program to modernise Auckland’s water network and improve how data is used to manage assets, customer use and leak detection.

Itron’s Intelis wSource meters use an NB-IoT network to deliver frequent and highly accurate consumption data. The meters are built to operate for 15 years with minimal maintenance, even in Auckland’s harsh marine environment, and provide suitable data transmission and long-lasting durability.

“The Intelis wSource water meter will eliminate manual meter reads, support efficient operations, provide infrastructure insights and strengthen the utility’s future infrastructure resiliency,” Patrick said.

Image credit: iStock.com/huafires