SOUTH East Water has won an award for a program that can detect water leaks and save customers receiving “an unexpectedly large water bill”.
The continuous flow leak detection initiative won the Customer Experience Award at the Australian Water Awards announced at last week’s Australian Water Association’s Ozwater’23 conference in Sydney.
The leak detection program uses digital meter data to measure continuous flow (defined as 120 litres a day over 24-hours).
Customers’ first indications of a leak are communicated clearly and promptly rather than making their presence known in the form of an unexpectedly large water bill SEW’s digital utility general manager Andrew Forster-Knight said.
The program was a “crucial component” of the organisation’s goals to deliver clean water sustainably.
“To be able to harness new technology to deliver benefits for customers and the environment is incredibly rewarding,” Forster-Knight said. “By simultaneously conserving our most precious resource and offering a seamless, proactive leak detection service to the community, we can improve customer experience and help ensure water security.”
He said the “true reward … is the satisfaction and relief our customers feel when they are empowered to avoid excessive bills due to continuous water flow”.
Since its introduction in 2018, SEW customers had saved 720 million litres of drinking water and $3 million.
SEW representatives at the OzWater’23 conference made presentations on water recycling, microplastics in water and the use of stormwater as a water resource.
