Advanced water meters use wireless technology with long life batteries to record water usage data, which can be collected more frequently and more accurately without having to physically read the meter for billing purposes.

You will benefit from improved early detection of hidden water leaks within your property and better understanding of water use on a daily basis.

Advanced water meters provide Council with key information relating to network leaks, better network demand management and optimisation and increased billing accuracy throughout the regions water network.

Advanced water meter technology has been implemented all over Australia over the last decade.

Taggle Systems advanced meter infrastructure has been rolled out and used by many local councils and local water authorities within South Australia, Victora, New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Territory.

Depending on the age and condition of your existing water meter, your property will receive one of two devices:

• A water meter tag (wireless transmitter), which is retrofitted on to your existing mechanical water meter,or
  

   

• A new inline integrated water meter, which includes a digital meter reading display, will be installed into the existing waterline and replace the existing mechanical water meter.
  

These different types of advanced water meters all transmit the same type of water usage information and offer the same benefits.

The advanced water meter device detects the water meter dial rotating within the water meter and transmits hourly readings, using an encrypted radio signal, to Council’s receiver network.

The information is then stored in a secure database managed by Council.

Advanced water meters are powered by batteries with a 15-year lifetime. Council is responsible for monitoring the battery status and replacing the asset when required.

Residents/owners/occupiers will not be required to monitor or replace batteries.

The advanced water meter technology being rolled out through the Advanced Water Meter Infrastructure Project is safe with respect to Electromagnetic Field (EMF) emissions. The manufacturer (Taggle Systems) has advised that the emissions from the installed advanced water meters and meter tags being installed are many orders of magnitude less than the average mobile phone (roughly 30 times). The infrastructure sends the captured data to its receivers once every hour, lasting for just half a second whilst a mobile phone continually transmits signal throughout the day.

There is no established scientific evidence that the low-level exposure from the advanced water meter infrastructure causes any effects to the health of humans, plants, or animals. Further scientific information can be found on the Australian Government’s website Advanced Meters and Health page of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency website.

No personal data is transmitted from your advanced water meter. The data that is transmitted only includes the advanced water meter serial number, timestamp and meter reading (i.e. total amount of water used in kilolitres).

The current manual meter read occurs every six months, subject to access to the meter. By moving to automated meter reading, both Council and residents can monitor their near real time, water usage between the six (6) monthly reading cycles.

By making use of the advanced water meter technology, proactive residents can:

• Detect potential leaks early by registering to the online portal (once available in late 2023) and setting up leak alerts,
• Develop their own strategies to reduce their water usage,
• Check their water consumption hourly, daily, weekly.

Advanced water meters enable Council to:

• Respond more effectively to water consumption enquiries,
• Identify peak and off-peak water usage times and assist with managing pumping by decreasing the runtimes of the pump water heating infrastructure, driving down costs and lowering both Council and residents’ environmental impacts.

Notify residents sooner of potential leaks through the early notification of a resident’s abnormal high-water consumption.

Water in your meter box after installation is not an indication the new meter is leaking or that it is the cause of a potential leak identified on your property.

Prior to installation, your meter box is cleaned with pressurised water, then a vacuum truck sucks out as much water and residue as possible, however some water may remain in the meter box afterwards.

This water should dry up quickly, however, if it doesn’t dry up within two days (weather dependent), please contact Council on (07) 4970 0700.

The advanced water meter rollout program is compulsory and is part of Gladstone Regional Council’s commitment to continuously improve focus and practices around smart asset management.

Council’s decision to upgrade the existing water meter infrastructure to new, advanced water meter infrastructure is part of a whole-of-region, multi-year upgrade project.

The new infrastructure will help the community and Council to monitor water use to ensure Council can continue to provide a safe, reliable and cost-effective water supply, now and into the future.

For customers whose mechanical water meter is retrofitted with an advanced water meter tag, there will be no water outage, as there is no need to turn off the water for this type of installation.

For customers who require their mechanical water meter to be replaced by an integrated advanced water meter, there will be a short water outage at their property/business, usually for less than 15 minutes. Depending on the complexity of the installation, some meter exchanges may take longer.

If your water needs to be turned off, the contractor installing the advanced water meter infrastructure at your property will knock on your door or ring the bell when they arrive to see if you are home and let you know when your water will be turned off.

If you have any concerns about your water being turned off, please use the contact details on the notification card or contact Council.

All water meters are Gladstone Regional Council owned assets and are the responsibility of Council to manage, maintain and repair, as required. If you experience any issues or damage with your meter, you can report it to us for investigation.

If you notice that your advanced meter is damaged or the meter itself is leaking, please contact Council on (07) 4970 0700.

Once installed and after your water supply returns, please follow the below steps:

• Flush air pockets from the pipes. Turn on a hot water tap and run for about 30 seconds until the water flows smoothly.
• Check water before use. If it appears discoloured, turn on the nearest external tap to the meter and let it run for a short time until it runs clear. Then, do the same to the furthest external tap from the meter to clear your pipework.

Avoid laundering with discoloured water. To prevent staining from any discoloured water, do not wash clothes until water runs clear.

There will be no charge to you for supplying and installing the new advanced water meter infrastructure. As standard meters age, they lose their accuracy and are replaced once they reach their end of serviceable life as part of Council’s standard maintenance program. This advanced water meter rollout program is no different to our standard maintenance process.

There will be no change to the way we bill you with the rollout of the advanced water meter technology. The advanced water meters are highly accurate when recording usage, with some customers noticing differences in their overall water usage compared to current meter readings due to the accuracy of the reading. Your water usage bill will still be issued twice yearly.

Gladstone Regional Council’s advanced water meter rollout team are in the process of testing the customer interface MyWater. Council is aiming to have this ready for customer use by the end of the 2023 calendar year. However, in the meantime, Council’s revenue services team will monitor the incoming data from the advanced water meter infrastructure and make those who have leaks detected on their properties aware of the potential leak through Council’s early leak detection process.