Enhancing Water Conservation Through Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) At EBMUD

Located east of San Francisco, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) receives water primarily from Sierra snow melt and, like many western water agencies, faces challenges with water supply during drought years. One of the tools that EBMUD uses in its conservation portfolio is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Though EBMUD does not have a fully deployed AMI system, they have used their limited installations in a manner to maximize leak detection notifications.

EBMUD had been investigating the potential uses of AMI for more than a decade before implementing a limited fixed network in 2011. In 2018, EBMUD began partnering with Sensus to provide endpoints, analytics, and automated outreach. Since then, the utility has been able to help a number of large users, including schools, casinos, and office buildings, to identify leaks and excess usage customers didn’t know they had. As a result, the utility has been able to reduce consumption by several hundred thousand gallons of water per day, obtain better water management, and assist with leak repairs.