NSW Murray-Darling Basin
Sustaining the Basin – Metering
2. Southern Valleys Metering Project - Meters,
telemetry and accuracy
May 2015
Southern Valleys Metering Project
The Southern Valleys Metering Project involves
installing approximately 700 new regulated,
unregulated and groundwater meters across the
Murrumbidgee, Murray and Lower-Darling valleys.
The new water meters will be fitted with telemetry to
provide real-time water usage data.
Accurate, real-time metering is crucial to good water
management and important for fairness and equity
amongst our customers. For landholders and
irrigators this will mean improved water security and
delivery, with opportunities for better service.
Electromagnetic flow meters
Electromagnetic flow meters (also known as
magflow meters) will be used on pipe or closed
conduit systems due to their accuracy and their
comparatively low maintenance. They do not cause
flow restrictions as there are no moving parts.
The magflow meters are also generally less
susceptible to sand and vegetation contamination
than mechanical meters which have been the
predominant meter type in use across regional
NSW. In some situations non-electromagnetic
meters may be used where site conditions dictate
this requirement or it is more cost efficient to do so.
The on-site meter display will show customers their
extraction (or pump) rate and the total water volume
extracted since installation.
Telemetry
Meter readings are recorded every 15 minutes and
the telemetry will transmit meter data to databases
hourly, daily or weekly, allowing meter readings to
be accessed remotely.
NSW State Priority Project
Funded by the Australian Government’s Sustalnable
Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Program
through the NSW Sustaining the Basin Program
WaterNSW is currently consulting with our
Customer Service Committees, looking at improved
ways of assisting customers to leverage the use of
this technology with their farm irrigation systems.
Accuracy
New meters are factory tested to ensure they satisfy
national and NSW standards prior to installation.
Each meter is issued was a certificate of calibration.
The National Metering Standards have strict
accuracy requirements of ± 2.5% under laboratory
test conditions and ± 5% under field conditions.
Compliant meters typically operate within these
accuracies.
During the initial ‘pilot’ metering project, 120 of the
500 new meters were installed into the same
pipeline as the existing mechanical meters to
assess accuracy.
Key findings are provided
overleaf.
The results of this study were independently
analysed*. The study found that old meters have a
large error and both over and under read and there
is presently significant inequity where some
customers are receiving up to 70% more water than
they are entitled, while others are receiving 70%
less.
In a separate study, Thiess Hydrographic Services
were engaged to independently field test eight
Magflow meters that customers claimed were
“reading more than my old meter”. The Thiess test
rig demonstrated that all eight new meters were well
within the national metering accuracy standards of ±
5% under field conditions.
www.statewater.com.au/meteringproject
1300 662 077
Figure 1: Distribution of meter error for dual metering sites
Important information provided by dual meter analysis of 120 sites showed:
•
•
•
Current installed meters have a large variation of recorded use
More than half of the meters are recording over or under the required accuracy parameters
The current self-owned meter fleet is not an equitable arrangement
Figure 2: Theiss Hydrographic Services Testing images
*RMCG Independent Verification and Assessment of Actual Water Savings Achieved by the NSW Metering Scheme Murray Pilot Project June 2014.
NSW State Priority Project
Funded by the Australian Government’s Sustalnable
Rural Water Use and Infrastructure Program
through the NSW Sustaining the Basin Program
www.statewater.com.au/meteringproject
1300 662 077