Victorian utility South East Water has continued to showcase its culture of excellence after winning two awards at this year’s Asian Water Awards.
The technology, developed by South East Water’s Research and Development and Operational Technology teams, received the Water Technology Excellence (Research and Development) – Australia and Water Technology Excellence Award (Water Resource Management) – Australia awards at the Asian Water Awards 2024, held on 22 October in Singapore.
The technology was also Highly Commended in the Research and Development Excellence category at the (AWA) Victoria Water Awards.
The Hydrotrak® Geofencing System uses GPS location devices integrated with GIS spatial data of our network and hydrants to automatically detect the vehicle’s location when stopped at a hydrant for a tanker filling operation. The device automatically sounds an audible alarm, prompting the driver to push the fill button, which then generates billing data.
Since deploying the system in December 2022 to more than 300 water carter vehicles, South East Water has recovered more than 65ML of water that was previously unaccounted for, reducing both water and revenue loss.
South East Water General Manager of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation, Daniel Sullivan,said the solution played an important role in driving long-term water security and South East Water’s financial sustainability.
“HydroTrak® helps us account for water extraction from our hydrants, providing improved financial outcomes at a time when customer affordability is a challenge.
“It resolves a common industry problem – the inability to detect and charge water carters for their hydrant use. Historically, this has resulted in significant water and revenue loss for water utilities, with these losses needing to be absorbed by customers,” Mr Sullivan said.
South East Water is currently working with a number of interested organisations to find a pathway for industry-wide adoption of the Hydrotrak® Geofencing System. The utility anticipates that a larger scale adoption of the technology could provide better financial outcomes for the industry.
“Understanding water carter consumption will allow for better demand forecasting, resource planning and management. This will translate into numerous community-wide benefits like better, fairer prices for customers,” Mr Sullivan said.
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