The City of Mandurah, a Liveable Community award winner and one of the most advanced regional city in Western Australia, is now fully covered with 0G LPWAN network, installed, monitored and managed by Thinxtra Australia at no cost to the city.
Among the first IoT projects implemented by the City of Mandurah, to maintain that status of liveable city, is better monitoring water consumption and detecting water leaks by visualising water flow rates in water meters located at Council facilities.
The solution includes 0g-ready data loggers retrofitted via reed switch to the water meters, the data is sent via 0G IoT network to the WaterGroup data analytics platform (Envisi) to visualise the data with the ability to alert staff if water leaks are detected or if deviations in normal water consumption occur.
The potential benefits are obvious: improve water use in the City’s facilities, reduce water usage cost and nearly remove time consuming water meter inspections.
Sean Hutton, City of Mandurah, commented “In this case it means we can react to water leaks and abnormal water consumption as soon as it happens, instead of having to wait for the next utilities bill to discover an issue. This project aligns perfectly with our Waterwise council program in improving water use efficiency within council facilities and the community, and also has a direct benefit to council in reducing water usage costs.”
Guenter Hauber-Davidson, CEO of Watergroup, the provider of the solution, also added “It’s always great to work with a client ‘who gets it’. Mandurah is one of those instances where a Council has clearly seen how WaterGroup’s 0G network based smart water metering solution creates real value for them. By fully embracing the system and from initial results received so far, the City expects the system will be paid back in the first year. For those who do not have these types of house resources available on a consistent basis, there is the WaterGroup AWARE Service. Here the company actively monitors a client’s water use and chases up abnormal use or leaks.”
Such project was made possible in a very short time thanks to the support of Thinxtra who covered the city with the 0G wireless network within few weeks via its Smart Council Program. “By enabling councils to trial new solutions risk free, they can experiment with new services and gain real-life experience and understanding of IoT. Clearly, the Smart Council Program brings numerous benefits. There is no catch: At worst, councils will learn about IoT opportunities. At best, councils will create efficiencies and benefits for their citizens.” said Regis Berdaa, BDM Smart Councils at Thinxtra
About The City of Mandurah
The City of Mandurah is Western Australia’s largest regional city and 10th largest local government by population covering an area of 173.5km. It is home to more than 84,000 people with an average increase of 1500 new residents each year over the past five years. Between 2016 and 2036, the population for the City of Mandurah is forecast to increase by 36,778 persons (44.26% growth), at an average annual change of 1.85%.
The City of Mandurah is a 2011 International Awards for Liveable Communities (LivCom) dual award winner. The LivCom Awards, initiated in 1997 and endorsed by the United Nations Environment Program, is the only international competition judged on international best practice for managing the environment while improving residents’ quality of life by creating ‘liveable communities’. Participation in the Awards is an investment in the future of a community.
