Smart Metering For Water Utilities

By Oracle Utilities

In today's global water industry, Smart Metering generally indicates the presence of one or more of the following

• Interval meters that measure consumption during specific time periods and communicate it to the utility at least daily. While in the electric industry, those intervals can be as short as every 15 minutes, water intervals are generally an hour or longer.
• A communications channel that permits the utility, at a minimum, to obtain meter reads on demand, to ascertain whether water has recently been flowing through the meter and onto the premises, and to issue commands to the meter to perform specific tasks such as disconnecting or restricting water flow.
• The Smart Metering term in the water industry may also include:
• An on-premises display easily read by customers. These can help customers check for leaks, reduce consumption, and monitor compliance with local restrictions.
• A stand-alone data collection and processing software, such as a meter data management application. This isolates the existing billing system from the increasing meter data volumes that smart metering introduces.

Smart Metering is more than mere Automatic Meter Reading (AMR). In AMR, meters communicate their monthly or daily consumption totals to a central collector using one of a number of different communications techniques, such as radio signals, power-line communications, or satellite reads. In other words, they do nothing more than replace house-to-house meter readers with some sort of centralized collection. Smart Metering uses more robust communications channels controlled from a central point and readily available on demand. It accommodates interval data collection and facilitates delivery of a wide variety of services, such as remote disconnects and checks to ensure that service is currently available.