Pine Harbour Water is responsible for supplying water to a growing residential community in Auckland, New Zealand. With 500 household connections currently in place and long-term plans to scale up to 5,000 over the next decade, the utility has adopted a forward-looking approach to infrastructure management.
Although relatively small in scale, Pine Harbour Water is held to the same Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules (DWQAR) under the Water Services Act 2021 as the country’s largest suppliers, such as Watercare. This creates both a challenge and a responsibility: to deliver safe, reliable, and sustainable water services with fewer resources but the same high expectations.
The water supply is drawn from a distinctive aquifer system, which is more like a flowing underground river than a static reservoir. This unique characteristic requires careful management to minimise wastage. By metering the supply and comparing usage against production, Pine Harbour Water maintains best practice by monitoring and minimising its water losses.
The organisation is committed to environmental responsibility, operational efficiency, and resilience — ensuring sustainable growth for the community it serves.
As the number of households in Pine Harbour expanded, the existing manual meter reading process became increasingly unsustainable. Manual readings were labour-intensive, prone to human error, and, like most manual systems, could only provide a snapshot of consumption once a month. This made it difficult to identify leaks or anomalies in real time and limited the ability to manage customer billing accurately.
Pine Harbour Water partnered with ADR to implement a LoRa smart metering solution. The project involved replacing manual meters with Axioma ultrasonic smart meters, supported by gateways to ensure full network coverage. Data is now collected automatically, streamed in real time, and integrated directly with the billing and accounting system.
By transitioning to a cloud-connected solution, Pine Harbour Water has established a scalable foundation that will support future growth and enable more proactive water management.
The utility faced several challenges with its legacy system:
ADR worked closely with Pine Harbour Water to deliver a smart metering system designed for resilience, scalability, and efficiency. Key features of the solution included:
The initiative was designed around clear operational and strategic goals:
Although Pine Harbour Water is in the early stages of rollout, the project has already delivered significant operational benefits:
While immediate cost savings are modest at the current scale of 500 households, Pine Harbour Water is positioning itself for significant benefits as connections grow. The long-term impact of the project will include:
Simon Male of Pine Harbour Water highlighted the positive working relationship with ADR:
ADR have been very good. No matter who we deal with, they have been proactive and responsive. As a relatively small business, we value being able to pick up the phone and get straight through to someone who can help. If an issue cannot be fixed immediately, we know it is being worked on. So far, so good
Bruce Franks, Sales & Development at ADR, added:
It was a pleasure working with such an engaged customer—one that truly values the reliability of the latest ultrasonic meter technology and the accuracy of the data it delivers. Pine Harbour Water maintains a high standard for water quality on behalf of its consumers, and the water balance feature plays a vital role in supporting this. It helps quickly identify abnormal behaviour such as backflow, burst pipes, or network losses. As we know, if water can leak from a network, that same network can also draw in groundwater—and potentially harmful contaminants. This capability provides them with real peace of mind.
If you are attending the IWA-ASPIRE & Water New Zealand Conference & Expo 2025, taking place next week from 29 September – 3 October at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre and the Christchurch Town Hall, visit the ADR All Waters Team stands 62-64 to learn more about this meter technology, water balance and the visualisation tools on offer
The same LoRa smart metering technology and Axioma ultrasonic meters used at Pine Harbour are also delivering measurable results in Rarotonga. Discover how ADR worked with To Tatou Vai to modernise water management across the island, improving billing accuracy, leak detection, and long-term sustainability
From small networks to large-scale utilities, ADR’s smart metering solutions provide the tools you need to deliver safe, efficient, and sustainable water services. Whether your goal is improving customer satisfaction, building resilience, or future-proofing infrastructure, we can help.
Get in touch with our team today to start your journey towards smarter water management.
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