Considering the invaluable service provided to the society by the water companies, it is imperative to ensure their sustainability. To achieve this objective, these organizations must be allowed to fulfill their mission with effectiveness and efficiency. Information and communication technologies are especially important tools in this pursuit of enhanced performance.
Located on Lake Michigan 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, Evanston was named in 1857 for one of the founders of renowned Northwestern University, which predated its surrounding municipality by a couple of years.
Clayton was plagued with exceptionally high non-revenue water rates in the 50 percent range. The city attributed the problem to leaks in its water system (parts of which have been in place the 1920s) that are exasperated by high pressure levels needed to pump water to more than 3200 service connections throughout Clayton’s mountainous terrain located 2200ft above sea level.
For the past 150 years, Sensus has brought water metrology products to market that have led the industry in technology, efficiency and accuracy. Today is no different as environmental regulations and sustainable technologies are key concerns for water utilities.
Once a small town not far from Cleveland, the City of Avon is now one of the fastest growing communities in northeast Ohio.
City Utilities of Springfield, MO, a multiservice utility delivering electricity, natural gas, and water services to more than 106,000 customers, needed a way to provide timely data about consumption and efficiency to customers across its three different service offerings. While existing technology offered visibility into gas and electricity consumption for the utility and its customers, the options for managing water usage were limited.
In California, water is precious, competition for water is fierce and conservation is critical. In the midst of the state’s worst drought to date, Governor Jerry Brown declared historic statewide mandatory water restrictions calling for a 25 percent reduction in water usage through February 2016.
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.
Since the early 1980s, the 900 MHz frequency band has been widely used for wireless communications in consumer, business, and municipal applications.
The Department of Water and Power (DWP) serves the City of Los Angeles and some small adjacent areas and is the one of the largest municipal utilities in the nation.
The City of Pompano Beach is a growing city of more than 101,000 residents.
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.
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.
Operational efficiency and conservation are increasing in focus among water utilities across the United States, however, they are especially important to Calimesa, Calif.-based South Mesa Water Company.
Within the Mi.Net System--Mueller Systems' fixed 2-way AMI system--the Mi.Host server collects data from and controls all Mi.Hub fixed-location, data collectors.
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.
Improve your accuracy ranges in schools, hospitals, retail centers and more with our OMNI™ Compound (C²) water meters. The most technologically advanced, large water meters on the market, OMNI C² meters provide longer service life than all other comparable meters. And you don’t have to be concerned about sustained flow rates because there are no restrictions, thanks to their continuous operating range. These meters are similar to our OMNI™ Turbo (T²) models, but OMNI C² meters have a wider flow range.
The 3G Mobile AMR solution provides most every benefit associated with fixed network — without the infrastructure — in a convenient cost-effective package.
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 Interpreter Universal AMR Register System unites your current meter infrastructure with a powerful voice by providing a simple, cost-effective smart AMR retrofit register design.
Using the mobileRDM application, workers can push a button to receive status information, read the meter, connect or disconnect service and run diagnostics.
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.
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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.
