Mueller Systems: Chillicothe Municipal Utilities Improves Customer Service, Operational Efficiencies With The Mi.Net™ System

CMU was in the process of replacing more than 4,000 outdated water and electric meters when it determined that the project also presented an ideal opportunity to implement a system wide advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network. CMU had been considering adding a two-way AMI system for its water and electric services to help improve customer service and operational efficiency in ways that would bolster its water and electric infrastructure to help meet future service demands.

CMU selected the Mi.Net Mueller Infrastructure Network for Utilities™, a two-way AMI system developed by Mueller Systems that fully automates the meter reading-to-billing process and links meters, distribution sites and control devices in a single data network. The system’s major components work together to completely automate the process of accurately determining how much electricity or water a customer uses—for any period of time—and allows the provider to accurately bill the customer for that usage.

The Mi.Net System uses transceivers on metering devices— known as Mi.Nodes—to gather and pass usage data via radio frequency to an area data collection module, known as Mi.Hub. This gateway collects and uploads the usage data to Mi.Host— The Mi.Net System’s master data management (MDM) software— where it is then relayed via general packet radio service (GPRS) or other backhaul options to CMU’s server and its third party billing software.