New AMR System Improves Efficiency, Conservation, Customer Service And Revenue For Coeur d'Alene

The City of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, had been using a drive-by Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system to read all of its meters since 2010, but according to Rob Stark, utility supervisor for the City of Coeur d’Alene Water Department, it wasn’t realizing the full benefits with its existing system. The desire for increased savings, more accurate measurement and customer service improvements, supported by more sophisticated data analysis and leak detection features, spurred the city’s quest for a new AMR partner.

After a thorough review of options, Coeur d’Alene selected a Badger Meter AMR solution because of its strong track record and advanced features, as well as the company’s stellar customer service. It includes Badger Meter Recordall® meters with Absolute Digital Encoder (ADE) registers, along with ORION® CE radio frequency endpoints. Additional components of the new system include a Panasonic® Toughbook® laptop for meter reading, ORION® Trimble handheld computer and ReadCenter® Data software. After changing out about 30 percent of its endpoints, Coeur d’Alene is already seeing benefits of improved efficiency and customer service as well as increased revenue.