The Public Works Utilities of Billings, Montana, began their partnership with Neptune Technology back in the 1950s and was an early adopter of Neptune’s ARB® absolute encoder meter reading technology in the 1960s.
After deployment of an AMI system that didn’t work properly, initially forcing them to manually read meters, Highland Village was in need of a new vendor and product they could count on. Enter Badger Meter and the BEACON® AMA managed solution, with ORION® Cellular endpoints.
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.
The primary goal of public or privately owned utilities has always been to cost-effectively and efficiently deliver electricity, gas, and water to consumers. However, utilities today cope with added pressures. They are being asked to do more with less, contending with smaller workforces and less capital expenditures while at the same time trying to prevent assets from becoming obsolete. By Aclara
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the largest public water utility in North America, serving more than 800,000 customers and nine million residents.
In January 2014, the city of Meadows Place, Texas, became the first city in Fort Bend County to fully convert to an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) fixed-network system. At the same time, the city also implemented a complete meter change-out for its 1,600 customers. Both projects represent large initiatives for the self-proclaimed “little city” with a population of 4,600 citizens.
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 it wasn’t realizing the full benefits with its existing system. A Badger Meter AMR solution was chosen based on its strong track record for increased savings, more accurate measurement, and customer service improvements, supported by sophisticated data analysis and leak detection features. With the new system, the city now sees greater revenue, reduced water loss, and improved efficiency.
A suburban township in the upper Midwest U.S. buys their drinking water from a major municipal water district. The municipality has many customers and has implemented contracts with each of its wholesale customers that limit the peak flows and the time of day in which they may occur. If the wholesale customer exceeds the limit, they are assessed significant surcharges.
Situated along the Arkansas River and Lake Dardanelle in the heart of the Arkansas River Valley, Russellville, Arkansas is known for having plentiful amounts of high quality, fresh water.
Public Utility District No. 1 of Skagit County (Skagit PUD) in Washington state was at a crossroads, facing a number of challenges related to its meter reading system. Because the utility was using a touch-read/visual-read system, it was highly dependent on its water meter readers’ acquired route knowledge. Two of the PUD’s three meter readers were planning to retire soon, and it would take at least a year to hire and train new employees to fill their experienced shoes. At the same time, the community was growing at a steady pace, and a significant number of its existing meters were reaching the end of their useful lifecycle.
Advancements targeting the challenges related to a flooded meter pit environment have occurred slowly over the years, with limited success.
For many years, ultrasonic metering has been utilized for large scale liquid and gas measurement. However, it is a relatively new technology for small meter applications — particularly those designed for potable water.
Begun in 1882 as a station along the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas (MKT or Katy) Railroad, Hewitt, Texas encompasses 6.86 square miles south of Waco.
Leakage is one of the primary concerns for water utilities worldwide, yet North American investment in water loss has, historically, not addressed the problem with sufficient urgency or expertise. Slowly, the regulatory lag to efficiently control leakage is beginning to shift, however.
Maximize your revenue stream across a wide range of small commercial applications with our Intermediate MS Multi-Jets and capture low flow readings where turbine meters fall short.
As the sentinels of your vital fire protection systems, Recordall Fire Series Meters (FSMA) and Assemblies (FSAA) from Badger Meter are ideal for dedicated and multi-use fire service applications.
The Integral HOT ROD™ is a high performance, transmitter designed for mobile AMR.
EcoMaster represents Master Meter’s latest innovation in the science of material design and construction.
The BEACON® Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) managed solution from Badger Meter brings a new level of utility-optimizing information to light. The BEACON AMA managed solution combines the power of the intuitive BEACON AMA software suite with proven ORION® Cellular/Fixed Network technology to provide utility management with greater visibility and control.
420 RDM enables utilities to remotely manage water services through the Mi.Net® Mueller Infrastructure Network for Utilities--Mueller Systems' fixed 2-way AMI system--or from the safety of their vehicles.
The 3300 water MTU supports up to 8-digit registers and delivers time-stamped reads on a time-synchronized network, allowing for advanced water distribution management.
The LoRa Alliance is a non-profit association of members who are collaborating together to drive the adoption of a communication protocol that offers long range, long battery life and open architecture. For water utilities specifically, the LoRa wide area network (WAN) would allow devices from multiple manufacturers to be able to communicate with each other across long distances.
With ever more sophisticated metering systems and software, utilities are racing to gain data-driven insights about their network beyond the traditional consumption metrics for billing purposes. As Christine Scorza, Senior Director of Product Management Software for Aclara explains in this Water Online interview, revenue assurance, leak detection, and even meter right-sizing have all become possible beyond billing with the advancement of sensors, big data storage and analytics in the water industry.
Aclara Technologies has been on a tear over the past 12 months. Acquiring General Electric’s meter business and the installation business Smart Grid Solutions. Rebranding the business and digging deeper into its customers’ needs to create metering solutions for the long run.
Historically, a mechanical water meter has lost accuracy over its life time as parts wear and its mechanics deteriorate. However, the new Sonata meter from Master Meter is a non-moving parts product utilizing ultrasonic flow measurement sensor technology to help reduce inaccurate water measurement.
Turning off water service for non-payment is one of the hardest parts of the job for utility workers. It can also be dangerous as agitated consumers can become verbally and sometimes physically abusive seeing their water service shut off. A new remotely-controlled meter helps remove workers from the chance of physical confrontation.
AMI solutions play an important role in the drought in the U.S. today. It gives the utilities the ability to collect very granular data about the consumption, as well as things that are going on in the distribution network. Joe Ball, Director of Solutions Marketing for Water with Itron, sat down with Water Online Radio to tell us more.
E-Series ultrasonic meters offer the latest in innovative electronic metering technology with the release of the new e-series ultrasonic plus with integrated shut-off valve. Offering all of the benefits of the original e-series meter, the ultrasonic plus features a patented flow restriction valve that supports open, closed, and partial closed settings. It allows water utilities to actuate the valve remotely to temporarily restrict water service safely and efficiently. Watch the full video to learn more.
Working with smart meters and sensors, the FlexNet® communication network securely transmits and receives water distribution data.
Every day you work to optimize your operations, protect quality, find innovative solutions, and reduce costs.
Water Meters|Automatic Meter Reading Systems|Fire Service Meters|Control Instrumentation
Maximize efficiencies. Enhance revenue. Improve customer service. Conserve precious natural resources. You can do it all with ARB® Utility Management Systems™ from Neptune. Since 1892, Neptune has provided utility metering systems that save time, money, and labor.
Mueller Water Products, Inc. manufactures and markets products and services that are used in the transmission and distribution of safe, clean drinking water and in water treatment facilities throughout North America.
Water Meter Manufacturer|National Chain of Distributors for Sales and Service|Award-Winning AMR Wireless RF Meters
Badger Meter is a leading manufacturer and marketer of flow measurement and control products, serving water utilities, municipalities and industrial customers worldwide. Measuring a variety of liquids, from potable water to oil and lubricants, to industrial processes, our products are known for their high degree of accuracy, long-lasting durability, and their ability to provide valuable and timely measurement information to our customers.
Aclara is a world-class supplier of smart infrastructure technologies to water, gas and electric utilities globally. Over 700 utilities in nine countries rely on proven Aclara solutions to connect with their customers. Visit us at www.Aclara.com and follow us on Twitter @AclaraSolutions.
ABOUT AMR, AMI & METERING
Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) is a system and process used to remotely collect water meter data without the physical presence of personnel at the reading point. The system can be configured to read multiple meters at exactly the same point in time such as midnight or at the end of every month. Automatic Meter Readers (AMR) also known as SMART Meters afford suppliers with a cost effective solution to meter reading. Automatic meter readers use a real time wireless communication network to connect digital water meters with a central management system. Digital water meters use ultrasonic measurement technology to provide precise meter readings. AMR is a key driver of efficiency for water utilities by lowering costs by optimizing maintenance interventions and lowering reading operations. An effective AMR system can only work if the water meter has a pulse out where a radio transmitter will be attached to it. Multiple meter readings will then be transmitted to a device called the repeater. Using GPRS the readings will be transmitted to a server. The data can then be obtained from the server for use. AMR devices incorporate smart image recognition technology (OCR – Optical Character Recognition), BPL (Broadband Power line) as well as PLC (Power line Communications) technologies.
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) are the systems beyond simply the meters that allow utility professionals to not only collect and analyze water usage, but also communicate back to metering devices, either on request or on a schedule. These systems include electronic/digital hardware and software providing continuously available remote communications. A typical AMI solution equips the customer with advanced solid state, electronic AMR meters that collect time-based data. These meters have the ability to transmit the collected data through commonly available fixed networks such as Broadband over Power Line (BPL), Power Line Communications (PLC), Fixed Radio Frequency (RF) networks, and public networks (e.g., landline, cellular, paging). The meter data are received by the AMI host system and sent to the Meter Data Management System (MDMS) that manages data storage and analysis to provide the information in useful form to the utility.
Utilities are turning toward advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems as part of larger “Smart Grid” initiatives. AMI extends current advanced meter reading (AMR) technology by providing two way meter communications, allowing commands to be sent toward the home for multiple purposes, including “time-of-use” pricing information, demand-response actions, or remote service disconnects.
