The impact of digital water meters on water security

Digital water meters are driving a revolution in water management. They reduce waste, energy consumption, and emissions while transforming how we approach resource efficiency and sustainability.

Digital water meters have emerged as a critical technology in promoting water conservation, but the technology provides many other environmental benefits that are often overlooked. Digital meters help households, businesses, and utilities reduce water waste, improve resource efficiency, and reduce power, petrol, and chemical use, lowering their environmental footprint. Taggle Systems, one of Australia’s leading end-to-end digital metering solution providers, shares insights on how digital water meters are making a difference.

Water conservation

First and foremost, digital meters promote water conservation, reducing the quantity of water extracted from the environment. Customer Portals allow users to identify leaks and high-water consumption activities and track their daily, weekly, and monthly water usage, driving behavioural changes. This transparency encourages consumers to adopt more sustainable habits, such as shorter showers, efficient watering of gardens and choosing water-saving appliances.

Leaks occur on individual properties and within the distribution network. District-metered areas (DMAs) assist water utilities and councils in identifying which DMAs or areas within DMAs have the largest leaks. Teams can then be deployed to conduct more localised leak detections. This is a way of optimising limited resources to produce the best outcome.

Leaks can account for huge water losses, with 30-40 per cent of water lost to leaks not uncommon in Australia. This is a huge, unnecessary waste of this most precious resource. With digital meters and the insights they provide, water utilities and end consumers can better identify, quantify, and locate leaks quickly to reduce these huge losses.

Water conservation reduces the amount required, which flows into many vital environmental benefits.

Power consumption

The water treatment and delivery process is highly energy-intensive. According to the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment, the median energy consumed to supply one megalitre of water is about 670 kilowatt-hours (kWh). This involves extracting, treating, and distributing water across vast networks to homes, businesses, and industries. Water treatment plants use significant amounts of electricity to filter, disinfect, and purify water. Similarly, pumping systems require energy to maintain pressure and transport water over long distances.

As water security becomes a more significant issue, the source water for utilities is becoming increasingly energy-intensive to extract. Water from nearby lakes and rivers is being compensated with more distant sources or highly energy-intensive systems relying on boreholes or even stormwater harvesting.

We also need to consider what happens to the water once it leaves each property and enters the wastewater network, as that also has a high overall power demand. According to the Department of Planning and Environment, wastewater treatment has a median power use of 720kWh per megalitre of sewage in NSW. This is because wastewater treatment involves many power-intensive processes, such as pumping, aeration, and filtration.

Reducing water consumption decreases the demand for both these treatment processes, directly cutting the energy required. As a result, lowering water use and waste can significantly reduce your overall carbon footprint by minimising the emissions associated with energy production in these systems.

Chemical requirements

Various chemicals are used during water and wastewater treatment to ensure the water is safe for consumption or release into the environment. Reducing water demand lowers the need for these chemical treatments, conserving resources and reducing the production and transportation of these harsh substances.

Water quality is often impacted when water security is at risk from floods, droughts, or bushfires, requiring additional chemicals or intensive filtration during treatment. Reducing demand can help secure supplies and reduce the amount of treatment needed. Furthermore, when alternate water sources are required, these sources often have worse water quality with higher salinity or turbidity, further driving up the chemicals required for treatment. By reducing the overall amount of water required, the reliance on these lower-quality water sources is lessened.

Another example of chemical environmental impact from water is when leaks and over-watering can cause chemical runoff of fertilisers and pesticides, which can affect our delicate ecosystems. Taggle’s customer portal automatically sends alerts when water runs continuously, which can help save chemicals from gardens reaching our waterways.

Carbon footprint of vehicles

Manual meter reading requires utility personnel to physically drive to each home and business quarterly. Occasionally, staff will have to take additional visits for special meter reads. With digital meters and remote monitoring, these trips are no longer required, drastically cutting the number of kilometres driven by utility vehicles for this purpose. Furthermore, when issues arise, the data is checked first, which can often provide valuable insights, reducing the need for site inspections.

This reduction in travel translates to lower fuel use, fewer emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other pollutants, and decreased wear on fleet vehicles, leading to fewer replacements and less environmental impact. Digital water meters enable real-time, remote data collection and maintenance, contributing to cleaner, greener utility practices and reducing transportation-related emissions.

Australia has a vast land mass with many utilities spread over large areas. Treating, distributing, and monitoring water is resource intensive, and by reducing consumption, we can reduce the environmental impact in ways much more powerful than the water savings themselves. As we grapple with growing environmental challenges, Taggle’s digital metering solution offers a powerful tool for reducing water waste and minimising our ecological footprint. Transitioning to Taggle’s digital water meters is not just a step towards a smart city; it’s a leap toward a more sustainable community.

For more information, visit taggle.com