Rakaia's new water meters struggle with wi-fi reception

A quarter of the new water meters installed in Rakaia, Canterbury, can't get wi-fi reception.

As Ashburton District Council works to fix leaks across the district, its water meter rollout in Rakaia is facing its own tech challenges.

The meters being installed in Rakaia send data by wi-fi every 30 minutes, while the 1,213 meters installed in Methven in 2022 are electronically read every three months.

Council water services manager Ulrich Glasner spoke about the wi-fi reception issues during the council's three water committee meeting on Wednesday.

Of the 175 meters installed, only 76% (133) have reception, he said.

"Intellihub is providing us with new meters, and the additional 170 still need to be installed.

"They are hopefully then able to address the issue with low reception".

The digital metering company Intellihub is supplying the council with around 350 meters in Rakaia and gathering data for 12 months.

The trial in Rakaia will help to determine what meters the council will roll out in Ashburton, which the council's water services delivery plan indicates will be in 2027/28.

"If we are going to a full rollout, we need better reception than 76%," Glasner said.

The ones that are working are doing the job, allowing the council to alert private property owners to leaks.

Glasner said one of the leaks they came across was a property using around 230 litres per half-an-hour.

The property owner couldn't isolate the problem so the council installed a temporary restrictor until they could reduce the water loss, he said.

The council will soon have the systems in place "to get an understanding of what private households are using and where water losses are sitting on our side".

Ashburton District records an average water loss of 597 litres per connection per day across its networks, putting it fourth-highest nationally according to a recent report from regulator Taumata Arowai.

"We are not comfortable with these results, and we want to do better," council asset manager Andy Guthrie told the committee.

The report shows Ashburton's average supply per connection each day is 1,482L, and the average residential water use per connection per day is 787L.

He said the council is working to address the problems.

The main solution is introducing water meters to identify possible leaks in the network.

A $1 million water meter trial in Methven, started in 2021, has been monitoring water loss, pinpointing leaks, and improving asset management.

The focus has now moved to Rakaia.

Meters are currently used for volume monitoring and leak detection as the council has not committed to using water meters for volumetric charging ratepayers, but there have been suggestions the Government could make it a mandatory practice.

If that becomes the case, Glasner said the council needs much better than 76% effectiveness.

"We need to have something in the 95-plus per cent from a receiving perspective."