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Entura to deliver data management solution to Australia’s oldest irrigation scheme

August 11, 2016

Specialist power and water consulting firm Entura has been engaged by The Renmark Irrigation Trust (RIT) to deliver telemetry technology that will enable better data collection and management from over 800 water meters in South Australia.

Founded in 1893, RIT is Australia’s oldest irrigation scheme. It supplies irrigation water pumped from the Murray River to over 550 farming properties, covering more than 4,500 hectares of horticultural land.

The new system will significantly improve customer experience and drive operational efficiencies, eliminating the need for contractors to manually read the meters.

“We recognise the importance of good irrigation delivery and on‐farm practices through the use of efficient delivery infrastructure systems and efficient water use, monitoring and management techniques,” said RIT General Manager, Barry Schier.

“The new telemetry system provided by Entura will capture water use data from individual mag flow water meters utilising RS232 protocol throughout our scheme and integrate that data with our existing billing and water orderings systems.”

“Our customers will be able to access information concerning their daily water use and remaining water allocation via the internet, giving them greater oversight of their water use patterns and providing more flexibility for water trading.”

Upon implementation, RIT will take ownership of the entire system so that it can operate and maintain it with little or no external assistance. Entura will support the required knowledge transfer and capability development through its training division, the Entura clean energy and water institute.

Financial support for the RIT project was provided via a grant received under Round 2 of the Irrigation Industry Improvement Program (3IP) which forms part of the South Australian River Murray Sustainability (SARMS) Program funded by the Australian Government and administered by Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA).

“We’re pleased to be partnering with RIT to deliver a data collection and management system that will allow them to just concentrate on the data itself, and use it to manage risks and get the best out of their operations,” said Entura’s Business Development Manager for Water.

Entura works with customers across the Asia-Pacific region and Africa to help them improve the safety and performance of their dams, irrigation schemes, pipelines and pumping stations and to deliver innovative data monitoring, management and analysis solutions.

As part of Hydro Tasmania, Australia’s largest water manager, Entura is backed by more than 100 years of planning, building, managing and maintaining water assets.