The collection of data from the Internet of Things (IoT) can deliver significant benefits, but sometimes a human component is essential.

The human factor made all the difference to WaterGroup’s Active Water Analysis Risk and Efficiency service (AWARE), which won the Data Smart Transformation category in the 2024 IoT Awards, announced at the IoT Impact conference in Sydney on 13 June, 2024, at UTS. 

AWARE uses IoT technology to monitor and report on water usage by large users, enabling them to detect and remediate leaks and identify other reasons for excessive usage.

WaterGroup has been deploying and refining IoT based smart water metering since 2012 to help its customers save water. AWARE added a human touch to the monitoring technology and assisted some of Australia's largest companies to turn data into actionable insights.

The project has its origins in the Millennium Drought, which ran from the late 1990s to 2010, and was said to have been the worst since European settlement. WaterGroup recognised that active monitoring of water usage could yield significant and lasting water savings and that IoT could help, but significant challenges would have to be overcome.

To demonstrate this it had to develop and deploy reliable usage monitors and forge strategic partnerships with appropriate organisations. AWARE is testimony to its achievements.

AWARE combines real time monitoring of water usage with analysis and human reporting of usage anomalies: customers receive automatic notifications of atypical water usage within 24-48 hours, followed up by assistance from a human to ensure these IT-generated alerts are acted upon.

In 2023 WaterGroup had 800 supermarkets (including Woolworths), aged care facilities, shopping centres, universities, Sydney Water and others using the service. As a result of using AWARE these customers between them saved 600 million litres of water and $2m in water costs in FY23, according to WaterGroup.

This reduction in water consumption also made a significant contribution to CO2 reduction: every kilolitre of water produced and delivered puts 1.5 kilograms of CO2 into the atmosphere.

AWARE also underpins the real time water usage monitoring service offered by Sydney Water to its commercial customers. Sydney Water signed up 100 new businesses in FY23. Between them they have saved 390 million litres of water and $1 million, according to WaterGroup.

To develop AWARE WaterGroup overcame several technology challenges: it had to deploy autonomous smart meters that would operate and report reliably from, often, exposed locations and develop a user-friendly data visualisation platform to make water usage data available. Crucially, it had to create a solution that would overcome user inertia.

To gather data on water usage WaterGroup has deployed two types of water meters, both communicating using NB-IoT over cellular networks: the Captis logger, which is attached to existing water meters, and a device that replaces the existing meter and uses ultrasound to measure water usage.

Identification and remediation of leaks and other ways water is wasted are the major benefits of AWARE, but by providing real time data on water usage it also enhances users’ awareness of how they are using water, enabling them to identify trends, adjust business practices to reduce water usage, and meet their sustainable development goals and their environmental, social and governance objectives.

Express interest in being notified when entries open for the 2025 IoT Awards here.