On Wed 27th Aug 2025, members heard from Peter Blackburn & Tony Mirrabella from Central Highlands Water (CHW), about the new digital water metering system which is to be rolled out across the Central Highlands region over the next 3 years.
Central Highlands Water supply water (from 15 supply systems) & wastewater services (from 13 waste systems) to a region covering approximately 1,400 square kilometres of Victoria, serving the local government areas of Ballarat, Central Goldfields, Golden Plains, Hepburn, Pyrenees, Northern Grampians, Moorabool, and Corangamite.
The area houses approx. 184,000 people with 75,000 of CHW ‘s old analogue water meters, which are to be upgraded to digital meters at no cost to customers, commencing from 1st September in Ballarat. CHW will be partnering with SUEZ Group & New Plumbing Solutions to rollout the upgrade, which should only take 15-20 mins for each meter swap-over.
Tony detailed the benefits of the new digital water meters as;
- Better at identifying leaks
- Greater bill insights for better consumption tracking
- Automated meter reading – more accurate and better customer privacy
- Moving – A simpler process to manage water account when moving
We learnt that the new meters will still have an analogue dial which can be manually read, but as the new meters have a digital top with a battery that will last for 10 years, with 15 to 20 years lifespan expected in most cases, manual reading shouldn’t be required. The new digital meters have been designed to signal CHW when their battery is getting low.
The new meters will record water usage every hour and only connect to CHW’s electronic data logging service to upload details once a day via 5G telecommunications. A great use of current technology to improve a service used by absolutely everyone in the region.
Many thanks Tony & Peter, members thoroughly enjoyed your presentation.
