South East Water wins award for leak detection program

South East Water’s continuous flow leak detection initiative has won the Customer Experience Award at the Australian Water Awards, announced at the Australian Water Association’s OzWater’23 conference.

The leak detection program uses digital meter data and can detect leaks in real time by measuring continuous flow (defined as 120 L per day over a 24-hour period). This allows the first indications of a leak to be communicated clearly and promptly rather than through an unexpectedly large water bill.

Andrew Forster-Knight, General Manager Digital Utility, said the program is a crucial component of the organisation’s goals to deliver clean water sustainably, by conserving the resource and helping to ensure water security.

Since the program was introduced in 2018, South East Water customers have saved 720 million litres of drinking water and $3 million.

OzWater’23 has been a significant time for South East Water, with the organisation’s commitment to improving customer experience and delivering sustainably a key theme in presentations and panel discussions.

Members of South East Water’s team have presented on topics such as water recycling, microplastics in water and the use of stormwater as a water resource. Alana Jones, Customer R&D Project Manager, has been nominated as a finalist for the Best Paper and Presentation Award for ‘Customer water usage: Attitudes and behaviour change at South East Water’.