Advanced Metering Poised To Become Utilities' New Best Friend

Utility workers will remember a time when meter reading meant driving to a customer’s house, walking up to their meter and manually recording water use. Those days were replaced with the now standard use of walk- and drive-by meter readers. That standard, like its predecessor, is poised to be supplanted by the next wave in metering technology.

Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) was one of the most prevalent technologies at this year’s ACE convention. Several companies demonstrated just how powerful the technology - which can collect massive amounts of meter data remotely - really is.

Take, for example, Badger Meter’s Beacon SaaS.

“It’s taking that meter-reading data and making it much more intuitive and easy-to-access,” says Kristie Anderson, Marketing Manager with Badger Meter. “The utility logs in online using any web browser on to the website, and immediately access the latest and greatest information.”

Of the many advanced metering advantages enumerated by Anderson, the Beacon SaaS allows utilities to access patterns of water usage, identify leaks, and gauge system health. With the prevalent thinking being that utilities typically resist new technologies, Badger Meter opts to manage the software and infrastructure to create a user-friendly experience.

“We really feel like, by relieving that burden of the IT and infrastructure, we let utilities really focus on what they do best, which is delivering water,” Anderson says.

To hear more about the things AMI can offer, tune in to Anderson’s Water Online Radio ACE.15 interview below.