GEORGE NEWS - Striving towards the goal of becoming a smart city, the George Municipality has embarked on an initiative to drastically improve customer service delivery and revenue collection while reducing the overall revenue and non-revenue associated with water losses.
New smart ultrasonic water meters will be installed throughout George over a period of three to four years.
The first 2 000 meters are expected to be installed by early April this year and the initial areas include Blanco, Heather park, Dormehlsdrift and George South. Approximately 10 000 meters will be installed initially with an engineering consultant firm (Zutari) appointed to assist with the process and certify each smart water meter following installation.
Council agreed on a strategy to address ageing infrastructure and this included addressing water leaks and meter readings.
The tender for the project was awarded to Ontec Systems and will allow for replacing the existing meters with new Kamstrup ultrasonic smart water meters and for plumbing teams to address various issues at the same time.
Homeowners will be contacted by the installation teams should there be any issues regarding access to the existing meters.
Not prepaid meters
The smart meters are not pre-paid water meters and will not disconnect consumer's water supply. Actual live consumption data is sent via a radio signal to the service provider, Sigfox South Africa, and the municipality can access the the live data per meter at the Ontec Pyxis Platform webpage.
Chief strategy officer for Ontec, Dhasi Naidoo, says these smart water meters enable a multitude of benefits for both George Municipality and its citizens by automating its meter reading and billing cycle, providing daily consumption monitoring, trend analysis, and leak and burst alarm notifications for consumers to better control and manage their water consumption.
It will also provide the municipality with additional means to react to water losses faster manage water usage holistically.
The technology enables the municipality to construct a complete overview of water production, distributed and consumed to accurately identify and remedy leakages to limit water losses.
Simplify processes
Mayor Leon van Wyk applauded the use of new technology at a recent meet and greet with the full team of service providers linked to this ambitious project. "We are banking on this new meter to simplify the process of meter reading and to increase accuracy," he said.
"Considering that water is our most precious and scarce resource, these smart water meters can add immense value in terms of water theft and abuse management through early IT notifications and alerts, and with no moving parts [they] have an expected 15-year constant accuracy lifespan. George continues to lead by example with this project and it is one more step towards achieving the goal of George being a smart city."
Challenges the municipality experienced with the original meters in the past include unreliable billing data, infrequent and inconsistent account invoices and delivery, extended collection cycles and debit accumulation, inaccurate reporting of households' consumption, vandalism, no access, excessive leaking and wastage. The reporting process for faulty water meters and account queries will become a thing of the past.
Residents benefit from this technology as well – they can receive daily water meter readings of their actual household water consumption directly on their cellphones, enabling them to monitor and control their households' water consumption.
The early leak alarm warning saves on water waste and the accompanying financial penalties, as one can set one's usage threshold on a daily and monthly basis to prevent any billing surprises. The near real-time consumption allows one to understand exactly where and when water is used.
Residents will receive high usage warnings via SMS and email, enabling them to act immediately. Residents will have access to the My George Home Page http://george.ontec.co.za to track their own daily water consumption, respond to leakage alerts and manage multiple meters in one space.
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