Washington Municipal Utilities Enhances Water And Electric Infrastructure With Sensus Advanced Metering Infrastructure Solution

Indiana utility improves billing accuracy and enhances customer service

Located in Daviess County, Indiana, Washington is a small city that is poised for growth. An expansion of the heavily traveled I-69 highway has added new connections to the region between Evansville and Indianapolis, improving access to jobs, education and healthcare.

With the promise of commercial and residential growth, the city knew that its existing, aging utility infrastructure would no longer be enough to support the needs of its more than 11,000 residents.

“Our electric and water meters were old and needed replacing,” said Anita Ash, utility office manager at Washington Municipal Utilities (WMU). “We wanted to consolidate our system for reading the meters and billing our customers all onto one platform.”

WMU’s team recognized a need to upgrade its infrastructure and turned to Sensus, a Xylem brand. After visiting a neighboring utility to see their successful electric and water system deployment, WMU determined that the Sensus AMI solution was the right fit.

As part of its AMI solution, WMU deployed the Sensus FlexNet communication network and Sensus Analytics to securely collect and transmit customer usage data for more accurate and efficient billing. With the FlexNet system, staff can monitor usage and report issues to customers in near real time.

“When a customer calls in and wants to discuss their bill, we can bring it right up and go through their usage,” said Ash. “We give them data, which gives them greater understanding. That’s really important.”

Beyond customer service, WMU keeps finding new benefits to its AMI solution.

“We had three meter readers who no longer have to go out in trucks to read them manually, and can focus on more important tasks,” said Ash. “We can use the system to monitor power and water remotely, which saves time and resources.”

Read the case study to learn more about WMU’s deployment of its Sensus AMI system.

About Sensus
Sensus helps a wide range of public service providers—from utilities to cities to industrial complexes and campuses—do more with their infrastructure to improve quality of life in their communities. We enable our customers to reach farther through the application of technology and data-driven insights that deliver efficiency and responsiveness. We partner with them to anticipate and respond to evolving business needs with innovation in sensing and communications technologies, data analytics and services. For more information, visit sensus.com

About Xylem
Xylem (XYL) is a leading global water technology company committed to developing innovative technology solutions to the world’s water challenges. The Company’s products and services move, treat, analyze, monitor and return water to the environment in public utility, industrial, residential and commercial building services, and agricultural settings. With its October 2016 acquisition of Sensus, Xylem added smart metering, network technologies and advanced data analytics to its portfolio of solutions. The Company’s nearly 16,000 employees bring broad applications expertise with a strong focus on identifying comprehensive, sustainable solutions. Headquartered in Rye Brook, New York with 2015 revenue of $3.7B, Xylem does business in more than 150 countries through a number of market-leading product brands.

The name Xylem is derived from classical Greek and is the tissue that transports water in plants, highlighting the engineering efficiency of our water-centric business by linking it with the best water transportation of all—that which occurs in nature. For more information, visit www.xyleminc.com.