Smart meters mean smart savings: Significant reduction of water use and waste means major financial gains for Port of Otago

In 2021, ADR was awarded a contract by the Dunedin City Council (DCC) to upgrade smart meters for their commercial water customers, a technology update that could yield significant cost savings. Now approximately a third of the way through the deployment of those meters, one of DCC's largest customers is already experiencing significant financial benefits.

The Port of Otago by necessity goes through huge amounts of water. They supply fresh water to vessels, operate a full container washing facility, and conduct water spraying through the yards to keep the dust down. Areas of the port are tenanted to organisations outside of the Port, e.g. stevedores, which also have high water usage. With no electronic water meters in place, the Port was unable to:

• Determine just how much water they were using, particularly when supplying huge vessels like cruise ships
• Detect underground leaks, which might continue for a month or so before someone noticed
• Accurately bill vessels for the amount of water they were taking on
• Accurately charge tenants for their water usage

"We'd been looking at getting electronic water meters for some time," recalls Jon Visser, Infrastructure Assets Engineer at Port Otago. "We knew we needed to take a smart water meter approach, and DCC and ADR made that happen for us."

"Smart water meters harness technology to monitor water usage remotely and identify and fix faults faster," says ADR's Marketing & Development Manager, Bruce Franks. "Customers like Port of Otago have access to a self-service online portal, allowing them to view information on water use and helping them to identify any issues or interruption to service."

Almost immediately after the meters had been deployed, Port of Otago were able to discern two major findings - usage and leakage.

Reducing consumption - pinpointing water use efficiency gains

When the smart meters are being implemented, customers can set their own thresholds as to water use and leakages. This means that certain people on the team at Port Otago would receive alerts via email and text when water use exceeded that threshold.

"We were able to correlate spike in usage with vessels in port and our CCTV data, so we could see what was happening at the location of the meter," Jon explains. "The data tells us when water is being used and why, and able to identify the reason for the spikes. This means we can work towards reducing the usage, which correlates to significant cost savings."

An example of this are the massive cruise ships that dock at the Port. "Those cruise liners take on a lot of water," Jon explains. "They want as much as they can possibly get. The water meters give us the data to cross-check with our invoicing so we can determine if we're charging those vessels enough for their water. When billing, accuracy is paramount, and the data from the meters mean we can bill precisely. We've learned that in the past, we were undercharging those cruise ships by about 20%."

Reducing wastage - pinpointing leaks swiftly

The Port of Otago has many pipes that are very old, on reclaimed land, with 100-tonne container carriers driving over them, meaning they were susceptible to leaks. With no electronic water meters in place, the Port had no way of knowing if there was a leak on site. Typically, the leaks would be underground, and the leakage would go straight out into the water table. "When this happened, the DCC would notice their reservoir was emptying and they'd come and see if it was something to do with us," says Jon. "Then we start looking - surface water leaks are very obvious, but in many cases there are no signs of a major water leak because it’s underground. So it might continue leaking for a month or so before someone notices. That could amount to $20,000 worth of water being lost."

The thresholds that had been set when the meters were implemented meant leaks were identified much faster. The meters provide information every 15 minutes, and the Port, via the self-service portal, can access that data whenever they need to. "We could look at the data and see it creeping up, even though the activity in the area hadn't changed," Jon explains. "We could see the upward trend which indicated a leak, potentially getting worse. So then we're able to investigate and identify the cause of the leak, and resolve it. We typically experience three or four leaks a year, so in the long run we're looking at major savings in both time and money with the electronic meters."

Looking ahead - greater opportunities for revenue growth and cost savings

With the financial benefits of the water meters already having a positive impact on the Port of Otago's bottom line, Jon says that they're looking to increase the number and type of meters going forward.

"We're looking at implementing calibrated flow meters to work out more accurately how much water the vessels are using," says Jon. "And we're also considering zoned ones so we can see how much water different areas of the port are using. For the areas that are tenanted, we'll be able to bill them accurately and that will help us recover revenue."

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