Rous County Council (Rous) is proud to announce the successful completion of the $3.5 million rollout of digital smart water meter across its customers.

This significant upgrade aims to improve water sustainability and security across the Lismore, Ballina, Byron and Richmond Valley LGAs.

The initiative began with the installation of the first smart meters in Ballina in February 2024. It has now reached all (2,100) customers, with the final property connection marking the completion of the project on Friday, 9 August 2024. The new smart meters, coupled with the "My Rous" app, are designed to provide our customers with timely information on their water use, customisable updates and alerts regarding water usage and leakage detection.

The rollout of the smart meters is part of Rous’s proactive position on water sustainability. Previously, Rous relied on manual water meter readings conducted on a quarterly basis. While sufficient for billing, this method offered limited insights into water use and timely detection of potential leaks. The new digital meters offer a significant advancement by delivering daily water usage updates to Rous and its customers through the My Rous app. The app, developed by GreenBe, empowers customers to monitor their water consumption, identify unusual activity that may suggest leaks, and explore ways to reduce their usage.

Andrew Logan, Group Manager Planning and Delivery at Rous, commented, “The new digital smart meters are already proving their worth, with dozens of our customers becoming aware of water leaks on their property through the daily information provided by the smart meter. This has allowed our customers to save money by not paying for undetected leaks and reduce the amount of water lost through leaking pipes.

In the months that the smart meters have been installed, we have seen hundreds of thousands of litres of potential lost water kept in our water storages for future use.”

Tina Le, the Chief Commercial Officer of Nucleus3, highlighted that the Rous region is ideally situated to benefit greatly from smart water metering.

“We’ve installed over two thousand smart meters for Rous and the savings are expected to be substantial. The ability to quickly identify leaks is a major advantage, conserving precious water and reducing both water bills and unexpected charges from larger leaks. Additionally, the My Rous water App will enable residents to better understand their water usage and enhance customer service by providing data to address issues.”

“The rollout of digital smart water meters across our modest network of customers will provide valuable information to our partner councils in the region, as well work towards reducing the amount of water lost from our pipe networks.” says Andrew Logan.

Phil Rudd, General Manager at Rous, added, “The data that the smart meters provide will allow enquiries from customers to be resolved quicker and enable Rous to undertake water balances across our network, with data from our digital bulk water meters, potentially allowing Operations staff to identify leaks in our bulk water mains.”

This upgrade represents a significant step forward in ensuring the long-term sustainability and security of our water resources across the Lismore, Ballina, Byron, and Richmond Valley LGAs.