Smart Meters
Smart meters make it easier to monitor and manage your daily water usage by providing hourly consumption data and early leak detection at the touch of a button.
We have trialled this technology to ensure we deliver future benefits that will help our residents manage their water usage, identify leaks, and save money on excess water bills.
Council has been installing smart water meters across the city as part of Councils routine maintenance program since 2020. All new 20mm water connections are also smart water meters. Townsville currently has over 27,500 smart meters installed including the entirety of Magnetic Island, Paluma, Toomulla, Cungulla, Alligator Creek, Pallarenda, Rowes Bay, Annandale, Oonoonba and parts of Kelso, Douglas and Cranbrook.
Council teams are currently replacing water meters on a suburb-by-suburb basis and residents will be notified when their meter is due for replacement under the planned replacement program.
Benefits of Smart Meters
Smart water meters take the guess work out of managing your water consumption.
How to Read Your Smart Meter
Integrated Smart Water Meter
- Locate your smart water meter – it will be at the front boundary of your property.
- Lift the lid on top open – you will see the digital display
- The smart meter’s digital display shows the total amount of water used on your property since the installation date.
- Please note: the screen will display 52 seconds of water consumption reading followed by 8 seconds of diagnostic readings (4 diagnostics x 2 seconds each).
- The top line displays billable units, this number is in kilolitres. The bottom line is your water consumption in hundreds of litres.
For example, the meter reading below shows the top line as 2 kilolitres and the bottom line as 582.33 litres. - Close the lid after reading your meter to help keep the screen free from dust and dirt.
How to read your smart water meter (video).
Standard Water Meter with AMR
- Locate your smart meter – it will be at the front boundary of your property.
- You have an HP3D (High Power Pulse Counter), so your meter reading is found on your mechanical water meter.
- Lift the lid on top to open and view the dials.
- The meter reading is the total amount of water used on your property since the date your mechanical water meter was installed.
- The white dials indicate consumption in kilolitres and are the billable units. The red dials show water consumption in hundreds of litres. For example, the meter reading shown below is 700.030 kilolitres or 700,030 litres.
- Close the lid after reading your meter to help keep the dials free from dust and dirt.
Accessing the MiWater Portal
Do you have a smart meter on your property? Register in the MiWater portal to monitor your water consumption and set up leak notifications.
Smart Meter Factsheets
- What is a Smart Meter? (PDF, 3.4 MB)
- How to read your smart water meter (PDF, 825.6 KB)
- How to access the MiWater portal (PDF, 2.2 MB)
- Smart Water Meter Leak Alerts (PDF, 391.6 KB)
Smart Meter FAQs
What is a smart meter and how does it work?
A smart water meter is an integrated meter with smart technology that automatically records water used on your property as water flows through the meter. The integrated V200HT smart meter is manufactured by Honeywell, Australia’s largest supplier of water meters.
The smart water meter can be either an integrated V200HT meter or a standard meter with an Automatic Meter Reader (AMR or ‘tag’) device. Unlike standard water meters, a smart meter can send water consumption readings to a secure online portal once an hour.
Smart meters are powered by a battery that lasts for 15 years, so data transmission can continue in the event of a power outage and have double the lifespan of current standard meters.
There are more than 75 Council and Water utilities across Australia that have installed smart meters including: Hinchinbrook Shire Council, Cassowary Coast Regional Council, Douglas Shire Council and Mareeba Shire Council. Mackay Regional Council has had smart meters for over 10 years across its entire LGA.
What does the smart meter look like?
Customers in our smart meter network will receive one of the devices shown below:
- An integrated smart water meter (V200HT) that replaces the existing standard water meter and has a digital display and radio transmitter that collects hourly consumption data.
- An Automatic Meter Reader (AMR or tag) device that attaches to a standard meter and transmits the consumption data from the meter. AMR’s or ‘tags’ are installed on larger water meters used for commercial properties, schools and sporting fields. AMR’s can also be attached to standard residential meters where it is unsuitable for an integrated meter to be installed.
These different types of smart meters all transmit the same type of water consumption information and offer the same benefits.
What are the benefits of having a smart meter?
The smart water meter captures your water use on an hourly basis and transmits this data to Townsville City Council’s online portal daily. This data is accessible to property owners via the MiWater portal and gives you a more detailed understanding of your water usage patterns and helps you identify any changes to your water use.
By registering in the MiWater online portal, residents can:
- detect potential leaks early by registering in the online MiWater portal and setting up leak alerts
- set high water consumption alerts (day or week)
- receive Monthly Consumption Email Reports
- develop strategies to reduce their water usage
- check their water consumption hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.
Smart water meters enable Council to:
- respond more effectively to water consumption enquiries
- identify peak and off-peak water usage times and assist with managing pumping and infrastructure to reduce costs when less water is required
- Access water meters for quarterly consumption reads remotely (removing access issues due to locks gates and dogs)
Who is responsible for maintenance of the smart meter?
Water meters are part of Council’s water supply infrastructure and Council is responsible for replacing damaged meters.
If you notice that your smart meter is damaged or the meter itself is leaking, please contact the Customer Experience Team on 13 48 10 or via email at enquiries@townsville.qld.gov.au.
How is my personal data collected?
A secure log-in and password is created for property owners when they register for the online MiWater portal, allowing access to the water consumption data for their property. Taggle Systems closely monitors the security of the system.
When a property is sold, any associated MiWater registration for the previous owner is deactivated.
Please note: Property owners are eligible to register in the MiWater portal provided they are the registered owner of the property.
Tenants have the option to register in the portal, provided the property owner is already registered. Registration approval for tenants is at the discretion of the property owners.
How is the water usage data transmitted from the smart meter? Is it safe and secure?
The data from the smart water meter is transmitted as an encrypted radio signal. The smart meter sends through hourly consumption reads to the secure online portal every hour and records a meter reading once a day.
There are 33 Taggle Network Receivers located across the city covering 97% of Townsville. Council is working to resolve several small blackspot pockets across the network with the installation of additional receivers to boost coverage in specific areas.
The radio signal transmitted from smart meters is very small; it is 30 times weaker than the signal transmitted by your mobile phone. The radio technology is super low power and is very safe with respect to electromagnetic field (EMF). The smart meters transmission is only active for half a second once every hour, while mobile phones, home WIFI and microwaves are significantly higher and transmitting constantly while in use.
Will Townsville City Council use this data to notify me if I have a leak on my property?
Leak detection within a private property is the responsibility of the property owner. Townsville City Council does not routinely notify property owners when the smart meter detects a potential water leak inside their property boundary.
All property owners with a smart meter installed on their property are strongly encouraged to register in the online MiWater portal and set up leak notifications to ensure they receive early alerts for any potential leaks. To register, please go to the Townsville MiWater portal and click on 'Sign Up Now!'.
Registering in MiWater and setting up leak alerts and high consumption alerts can assist with preventing excess water charges and water wastage.
How does the smart water meter know there is a potential leak on my property?
The smart meter recognises that there is a potential water leak when there has been a continuous flow of water through the meter over a 48-hour period. This means that at no point during that timeframe has the consumption level dropped to zero. This would indicate there is a potential leak somewhere within the property boundary.
Note: commercial properties that have continuous water consumption will display continuous consumption as a potential leak so it is up to individual property owners to monitor their consumption & determine what is legitimate water consumption.
The smart meter is unable to locate where a leak is on a property or whether the leak is one leak or multiple. The meter simply detects that there is a continuous flow of water through the meter and cannot identify if the leak is a dripping tap, a concealed leak or a combination of both.
Not all water leaks are easy to identify like a leaking toilet or a dripping tap. Depending on the location and size of the leak, a licenced plumber may need to be engaged to assist in locating & repairing the leak.
For further information visit the water leaks and detecting leaks at home page.
Can I ‘opt out’ of having a smart meter installed?
Property owners are not able to ‘opt out’ of having a smart water meter installed or their water meter replaced. The water meter is part of Council's water supply infrastructure and as the asset owner, Council determines what type of water meter is installed.
Under section 37 of the Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008, Council has authority to appoint persons to enter a property to read, check, maintain or replace a water meter.
When will I get a smart meter?
Council is currently undertaking a yearly smart meter rollout program of residential water meters on a suburb-by-suburb basis. Resident notification letters will be issued to residents when their area is due to have the meters replaced.
Council is also replacing existing water meters with smart meters as part of Council's routine maintenance program.
All new residential and commercial water meter connections are smart water meters.
Property owners are unable to request a smart meter installation although owners have the option to purchase a smart meter through a Request for Quotation process if they wish to have a smart meter installed (at their cost) prior to the scheduled replacement. Property owners wishing to purchase a smart meter installation can contact the Customer Experience Team on 13 48 10 or via email on enquiries@townsville.qld.gov.au.
