Credit: Photo 8231504 © Karen Graham | Dreamstime.com
TPG Telecom has won a 15-year contract with Victorian water utility Yarra Valley Water for the management of up to 1 million industrial internet of things (IoT) devices.
The publicly listed telco will deploy a device management platform across Yarra Valley Water's 20,000-kilometre pipe network over the next five to 10 years.
According to TPG, this will enable near real-time visibility and monitoring of significant issues, including leaks, water losses, sewer spills and major breaks across the network.
Specifically the IoT devices will act as digital water meters that measure water volume; water pressure sensors that flag network deficiencies and sewer level sensors that can track sewer flow and potential blockages.
Prior to the IoT deal, the water utility’s pipe network has been difficult to monitor underground, according to TPG Telecom, and placed the onus on customers to contact Yarra Valley Water about issues.
TPG declined to reveal the value of the 15-year deal.
“Internet of things devices present a significant opportunity for the water industry to gain better visibility of asset networks,” said Yarra Valley Water managing director Pat McCafferty.
“They will help us to detect leaks and minimise water wastage, which not only safeguards our precious resource but ultimately helps customers save money by reducing their usage.”
The platform is also able to automate emergency or planned maintenance jobs, which TPG claims improves response times, operational efficiency of the network and data visibility.
As a result, the telco also said this will reduce the work health and safety risk, as well as potential environmental impact, because there will no longer a need to deploy teams for technical site visits.
This is the latest tech support management deal for Yarra Valley Water, with it switching its Oracle support over to third party provider Rimini Street last month.
Under that arrangement, which is for an undetermined length of time and price point, Rimini Street will handle Yarra Valley Water’s Oracle software maintenance and support, providing it with a primary support engineer and a team of functional and technical engineers.
