Bluefield Research has called Australia an “epicentre of digital water innovation”, paving the way for a $US17.4 billion ($24.25 billion) market opportunity through to 2036.

“Australia’s water utilities stand at the global forefront of advanced water management, a position forged by the Millennium Drought (2001–2010) and sharpened by two decades of hard-won operational experience,” Bluefield said.

The water market analyst has seen Australia introduce a “proliferation of digital technologies” such as smart meters, network monitoring, and AI-enabled analytics, which it believes will see digital solutions expenditure grow from $US958.6 million in 2026 to $US2.4 billion in 2036.

“Decades of infrastructure investment have established network and plant management as the market’s largest segment at 43 per cent, but the momentum is shifting,” Bluefield senior analyst Leigh Ramsey said.

“Metering and customer management, at 32 per cent and accelerating, reflects where utilities are placing their bets, with digital tools that directly drive water efficiency and customer engagement.”

Bluefield said Australia’s landscape for digital deployment was “structurally unique” with 16 urban utilities serving 82 per cent of the population, and Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane accounting for 40 per cent of the total digital market value.

Urban utilities are setting the benchmark for others to follow, Bluefield believes.

“The clearest expression of that momentum is smart metering,” Bluefield said. “Sydney Water and South East Water have committed to full-scale rollouts covering nearly 30 per cent of the national population, and 15 of the top 20 utilities have active pilots underway representing a further 46 per cent of Australians.”

Foundational solutions such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), geographic information systems (GIS), and network monitoring are now be complemented by AI-enabled analytics to enable predictive, data-driven decision making over reactive processes.

It comes as utilities are under increasing pressure to streamline operations.

“Non-revenue water at major urban utilities has risen 25 per cent in five years, and with capital expenditures up 83 per cent over the past decade, utilities are under intense pressure to demonstrate that digital investment delivers measurable efficiency gains,” Ramsey said.

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