Context
Sydney Water began exploring large-scale IoT in 2017 as part of its vision for a more digitally connected water utility. Meshed was engaged to deploy and manage LoRaWAN infrastructure, initially supporting an IoT Proof of Value project in the Liverpool area.
The network remained operational from 2017 to 2026, providing Sydney Water with a valuable real-world environment for testing low-power IoT technologies and demonstrating their potential across water, wastewater and environmental applications.
The Challenge
Sydney Water wanted to understand how IoT could provide more frequent, cost-effective data from distributed assets and help identify issues before they impacted customers or the environment.
The initial trial tested approximately 340 sensors across 15 sensor types and four LPWAN technologies, addressing use cases including sewer blockage and overflow detection, water pressure monitoring, valve position monitoring and smart metering of customer water consumption. The trial identified 18 sewer blockages that were cleared before customer or environmental impact, helped avert high-impact overflows and identified water-pressure anomalies.
The Solution
Meshed deployed LoRaWAN coverage across Liverpool, with gateways positioned following RF planning to maximise connectivity. The network was subsequently expanded into Western Sydney and the Wollongong region.
The infrastructure supported both public and private LoRaWAN applications, creating a shared platform for Sydney Water, councils, universities and other stakeholders. Nearly 1,000 environmental monitoring sensors were registered on the MeshedX Private Network Server during its operation.
By 2020, Sydney Water reported approximately 1,500 IoT devices deployed across its broader technology trials, including sewer level sensors and digital water meters, with plans for thousands more.
Outcomes
The project demonstrated tangible operational value as the network demonstrated that low-power, long-range IoT could operate securely and at scale across a major water utility, supporting smart water metering alongside asset and environmental monitoring.
Over almost nine years of operation, the Meshed LoRaWAN network provided an important testing ground for large-scale IoT, helping validate technologies, develop new operational use cases and establish a foundation for the future deployment of smart water metering at scale.
Those same foundations now carry production deployments elsewhere, including a Council-wide network on the NSW South Coast and a 2,000 meter rollout in the South West Slopes.
Proving something works at utility scale is slow, unglamorous, and the reason everything after it moves faster.
Reported in iTnews and Water Source.
