Smart water meters for Sydney Water

Water conservation consultancy WaterGroup has sold its IoT-enabled water meter to Sydney Water, in a move that puts the water provider on track to becoming a digital utility.

Originally announced in May this year, the Network-ready Ultrasonic smart water meter (NUmeter) is said to be the first commercially available ultrasonic smart water meter to have an IoT-type network communications module like NB-IoT, Sigfox or LoRaWAN fully integrated into it. As it communicates via existing cellular network architecture, this means set-up and deployment are simplified.

The product is designed to help utilities improve, optimise and simplify water distribution through smart water metering. Utilities will be able to track, in near real time, where water is going — and where it is lost — in their water distribution networks. This will help inform decision-making around investment in water infrastructure to meet future demand, as well as minimise water loss through early leak detection.

The meter is suitable for a wide range of applications, including residential utility metering, apartments, difficult-to-access areas like underground spaces or basements, and even rural zones.