City of Melville, WA
Smart City, Smart Grid Project
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The Project
The City of Melville’s Smart City, Smart Grid project is a trailblazer in its approach to utilising technological innovations to enhance the city’s interaction with both its assets and its constituents experience Melville. The project is delivered in partnership with a local university and local business, and is a perfect example of Australian ingenuity put to work can realise a more sustainable, liveable, and productive environment.
The project has installed close to 300 ‘Smart’ Meters which connect the council over a Long Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN) network. The parameters measured are extensive, including power, water, environmental and much, much more. All data is captured in real-time and available on a powerful cloud platform accessible to the city staff via any web-enabled device. This one-stop-data-shop allows the council to effectively monitor, manage, and control their facilities in a sustainable manner that drives productivity.
This approach to building a smart city council is in a league of its own and sets the City of Melville aside as a locality that is living and breathing its values of sustainability. By gaining access to this vast dataset, the council is optimising their facilities’ operations, effectively making them more productive at a lower cost and lower carbon footprint. Additionally, the council is able to better understand their spaces, and how each is being used by their constituents. This in turn drives informed decision making and a better visitor and resident experience.
The project is continually being bolstered by new and innovative technologies. Examples include real-time video data analytics of closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage to better understand traffic patterns on a busy highway, and commissioning a ‘Smart Buoy’ to gain valuable insight into a wetland environment.
Some of the key sustainable outcomes of the project include:
- reduced Carbon footprint
- progressing Melville towards net zero
- enhanced resident and visitor interaction and experience with the city through informed planning and management
- resource and operations optimisation of council infrastructure Improved reaction time to facility issues via real-time alerts and alarms
- increased data ownership and a single source for data analytics, visualisation, and management.
The Award Category
The award recognises local government projects which:
- utilise technological innovations or regulatory changes
- consider sustainability, liveability and productivity in investment strategies and planning
- address long-term infrastructure priorities and offer clear economic productivity benefits.
Australia’s infrastructure and transport systems make a positive impact by:
- connecting cities and regions in a way which supports population growth
- providing safe and efficient transport links and service delivery and
- strengthening and diversifying regional economic bases by better connecting industries to markets and customers.