PLANO , Texas — February 5, 2007 — Executives with Datamatic have announced that its Asia Pacific division has landed a contract that will revolutionize the way that Wide Bay Water in Hervey Bay, Queensland collects its water usage data. Working in colloboration with the water corporation and the Australian government, Datamatic is installing an advanced automated meter reading system that will use sanitation vehicles to gather data from 20,000 meters during their collection cycle. Headed by Michael Kenyon, Datamatic Asia Pacific Pty Ltd. serves utilities in the region that want to increase monitoring, data collection and control of water, gas and electric power distribution. Datamatic has been a leading supplier of flexible data collection solutions since 1980.
“Utilities are seeking innovative ways to slash their expenses, leverage their resources and increase services while often wrestling with swelling populations,” said Datamatic President and CEO Ken Kercher. “Working with our US based engineering team, Mike Kenyon discovered a unique way to help Wide Bay Water slash the time and money it takes to collect data, improve conservation efforts and enhance its customer service. This is multi-tasking at its finest.”
Located about 160 miles northwest of Brisbane, Hervey Bay is experiencing a population boom as Australians migrate to the picturesque town from various metropolitan areas. The Wide Bay Water Company’s current infrastructure is not designed to handle the forecasted growth and when combined with unseasonable dry periods, has brought new pressures to the water utility.
“Currently, it takes about four weeks to collect data and we did it every four months,” stated Tim Waldron, CEO of Wide Bay Water. “By installing 20,000 FIREFLY units and attaching their state-of-the-art hand held units to a fleet of sanitation vehicles, we can gather the previous week’s usage data in less than a day, at no appreciable change in cost. That data can be downloaded and analyzed for usage patterns, capital improvement planning and conservation efforts using Datamatic’s ProfilePLUS software. We’re going to turn garbage into gold by mining this valuable information.
For over a quarter century, Datamatic has provided meter reading and field data collection solutions to water, natural gas and electric utilities. The heart of the system is the FIREFLY® Meter Interface Units that archive consumption data at user-definable intervals. Data is extracted for conversion into a graph, spreadsheet or other meaningful format using Datamatic’s patented ProfilePLUS® software.
“We’ll work closely with the utility and government during a three phase installation over the next twelve months,” stated Mr. Kenyon, Datamatic Asia Pacific Managing Director. “When we’re finished, Wide Bay Water will be able to manage its growth, control the allocation of water and keep costs down. The return on investment for this project will be immediate and we believe this will be a model for other municipalities not only in Australia, but also across the globe.”
Implementation of the Wide Bay program began in September 2006.
