The city of Laredo, Texas, had been walking to read its 67,543 water meters – 59,138 residential and 8,405 commercial accounts – using a manual method that took up to ten staff on the streets nearly an entire month to read to meet a monthly billing schedule. With the dawn of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems, the City began their search for the right metering solution for the department’s needs.
Water utility operators are increasingly challenged by scrutiny and regulation on disinfection by-product (DBP) levels while trying to manage ever increasing coagulant costs in a tight budget environment.
When the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) implemented a STAR® network system to read meters for its nine million customers, it never expected that the benefits of the system would extend beyond simple meter reading.
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.
Web-based software services, more commonly called cloud computing or Software as a Service (SaaS), are being implemented globally by users in virtually all types of organizations.
A Municipal Water Plant in the Southeast United States treats and supplies potable water to a large metropolitan area. Part of the process requires accurate flow measurement of the water from individual pumps to the main distribution system. Part of the process requires accurate flow measurement of the water from individual pumps to the main distribution system.
The 37 million gallon per day William B. Cater Water Treatment plant serves City of Santa Barbara with the majority of its drinking water while also supplying treated water to the districts of Montecito Water, Carpinteria Valley Water, Goleta Water, and La Cumbre Water.
Communities around the world are facing a growing storm. Complex challenges including water scarcity, changing demographics, extreme weather patterns, and aging or overly stressed infrastructure are colliding to threaten critical water, energy, transport, enterprise and health networks. The water industry is in the eye of the storm.
Jericho Water District (JWD) is one of the largest water districts in New York, serving 58,000 people through 18,604 residential and commercial service connections on Long Island.
The HR-E LCD encoder has a 9-digit Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) to show consumption, flow and alarm information. The display automatically toggles between 9-digit and 6-digit consumption, rate of flow and meter model.
Advancements targeting the challenges related to a flooded meter pit environment have occurred slowly over the years, with limited success.
Today’s data driven utilities are paving the way for smart water systems through their use of location intelligence. Location influences all aspects of managing water — from protecting a sustainable supply to delivering safe drinking water. At Esri’s upcoming User Conference, which brings together more than 18,000 geographic information system (GIS) professionals from across the globe, utility companies will gather together to share successes and best practices regarding the myriad ways instituting spatial analytics technology has benefited their operations.
In the Spring of 2018, Matchpoint was contracted by the City of Arlington to provide UAV-Based Leak Detection after onsite leaks proved to be evasive and difficult to locate using traditional leak detection methods. At that point, Arlington enlisted Matchpoint’s UAV services to locate the leak in a less traditional, but innovative new way — using the UAV to analyze RGB and thermal imagery.
When Waterworks District 3 of Beauregard Parish, La., began to research new water meters to replace its aging system, it didn’t take long to decide that the BEACON AMA managed solution was the right fit.
iPERL® (North America) smart water meters offer unparalleled, low-flow accuracy with high-flow durability. They use innovative magnetic technology to capture previously unmeasured low flow. iPERL meters increase your returns while maximizing your operational efficiency. And that can help you drive additional revenue.
Several years ago, Mueller began a journey to develop a user friendly and cost-effective technology to continuously and remotely monitor pressure at any point within a potable water distribution system. The technology involves threading a sensor onto a corporation valve to transmit pressure readings. The pressure sensor, typically installed two (2) per District Metering Area (DMA), reports at user-defined intervals via cellular service and a Mueller-hosted secure web server. Beginning with pressure monitoring, Mueller has created a communications backbone that utilities can integrate into its monitoring systems or use as a stand-alone monitoring platform. This technology is currently available in North America.
Positive displacement water meter with Sensus® Electronic Register+™.
Sensus accuSTREAM meters consist of three basic components: maincase, measuring chamber and sealed register. Maincases (including the bottom plate) are made of composite material with externally-threaded spuds. Registers are housed in a bonnet of synthetic polymer. Measuring chambers are of Rocksyn®, a corrosion-resistant, tailored thermoplastic material formulated for long-term performance and especially suitable for aggressive water conditions. The accuSTREAM can be installed horizontally.
Using the latest in Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) design science, our engineers crushed existing performance benchmarks largely left untouched by other manufacturers for more than a century.
Built on a century of water metering experience, the ORION® product family has provided utilities comprehensive Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) for interval meter reading and data capture using both one-way and two-way communications.
The FieldLogic™ Hand-held Device (HHD) is a reliable, flexible electronic device used to collect and store meter readings and program SmartPoint® modules. You can upload pre-programmed route information from our PC-based FieldLogic software using Wi-Fi or the device’s Ethernet-enabled communications/charging stand as an interface. The unit comes with built-in capacity for expanded uses.
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.
You may be surrounded by data, but starved for insights. To go beyond basic meter reading and billing, your utility needs tools that provide a deeper understanding of the data you collect — that turn it into meaningful information for a smart water network.
Technology is on pace to reach a milestone of 26 billion devices connected through the Internet of Things (IoT) by the end of 2019. In the water industry, IoT capabilities are enabling utilities to leverage meter reading data collected via secure private cellular networks to satisfy multiple purposes — increasing its value exponentially. In this Water Talk interview, Kristie Anderson from Badger Meter discusses how advances in smart solutions, smart water, and smart city technology are delivering real-world benefits that seemed like futuristic promises just a few short years ago.
Smart water technology, which produces mountains of data, has the potential to improve water system operations and widely impact consumer habits. The latter, however, is only effective if the information is embraced by individuals. In this Water Talk interview, Ian McLeod, vice president of marketing for Master Meter, discusses how a newer method of connecting smart water solutions to a popular tech device will likely boost ratepayer engagement and lead to behavioral changes.
Finding new ways to capture and utilize data is important for utilities looking to improve operating efficiency and customer service. This interview with Frank Brooks and Dave Rubin from Aclara — a smart-infrastructure solutions partner for water, gas, and/or electric utilities — outlines ways to do both within a common infrastructure.
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.
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.
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.
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
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, now part of the Hubbell Power Systems family of brands, is a world-class supplier of smart infrastructure solutions (SIS) and services to more than 800 water, gas, and electric utilities globally. Aclara SIS offerings include smart meters and other field devices, advanced metering infrastructure and software and services that enable utilities to predict and respond to conditions, leverage their distribution networks effectively, and engage with their customers.
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.
