Salisbury-Rowan Utilities in Salisbury, N.C. prides itself on providing excellent customer service. While its commercial and industrial customers comprise just 15 percent of total customer accounts, they generate 65 percent of the utility’s monthly billed volume. That’s why, when it came time to select a new meter reading solution, the ability to receive data-driven analytics to better understand, monitor and manage its operations was a top priority for the utility’s leadership team.
The manual bi-monthly collection of readings from each meter was no small challenge—or expense—for Davie County Public Utilities. Oftentimes, meters in its water system were separated by a half-mile or more, and covering the routes could take a driver and a meter reader as many as 50 days.
For the Village of Lombard’s Water Division, consistently delivering high-quality tap water to the community’s nearly 44,000 residents and the businesses serving them was once quite a juggling act: constantly fixing old, temperamental analyzers; feeding reagents into the old analyzers; and staying ahead of callers complaining about “musty” water tastes and odors. Not today.
The city of Yakima services approximately 19,000 accounts within 27 square miles in the Yakima Valley. Frequent droughts, above average water loss and inaccurate meters prompted the city to search for a vendor who could provide a turnkey solution complete with a quality product line. The selected vendor also needed to have an endpoint that could withstand the extreme conditions experienced inside their meter pits including high humidity and varying temperatures.
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 biggest flood in decades roared through the Village of Johnson City, NY, one day in September 2011, and the water department lost everything, including their office, which was submerged in several feet of water. Working with Neptune Technology Group, Johnson City began installation of its new Neptune meters, along with E-Coder®)R900i™ combination solid state absolute encoder/RF meter interface units.
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.
Berkeley County Water & Sanitation (BCWS) has moved from manual meter reads to remote readings that happen with the push of a button. The result? Massive amounts of data but no clear view into how to use it to benefit its more than 24,000 customers and better plan for tomorrow.
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
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.
Advancements targeting the challenges related to a flooded meter pit environment have occurred slowly over the years, with limited success.
Most recently, Frankfort Village officials decided to replace its water and electric meters and implement an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network to increase the operational efficiencies of its water and electric infrastructure in ways that would help improve employee safety, water and energy conservation and customer service while also reducing operational costs.
Revenue for water utilities is circling the drain. Most commercial water meters can stand up to the high water flow of commercial water customers, but these same meters often have a hard time measuring low water flows and retaining accurate meter reads over time and continuous flow conditions. Grocery stores, for example, do not pay for the scant amount of water used for produce misters because it passes through many commercial water meters without detection. These low flows add up to big dollars and are forcing water utilities to take a hard look at the accuracy of their meter fleet.
Most Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) systems installed in utilities use radio frequency (RF) communication.
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.
Municipalities that supply water, electricity or gas – or any combination of the three services – need innovative ways to optimize their operations. The Mi.Net® Mueller Infrastructure Network for utilities meets that need.
The STAR® Network DCU II enhances your AMI network by providing reliable and flexible two-way communication for electric, water, and gas meters.
The BEACON® Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) traditional fixed network solution from Badger Meter combines the power of the intuitive, cloud-based BEACON AMA software with proven ORION® Fixed Network (SE) endpoint and network gateway transceiver technology to provide utility management with hourly interval metering data to better manage their utility and resources.
The Aclara STAR® Network 3300 water MTU delivers two-way communication and a time-synchronized network to provide a utility with a snapshot of system water consumption at a single point in time.
Using the mobileRDM application, workers can push a button to receive status information, read the meter, connect or disconnect service and run diagnostics.
Reducing costs and increasing customer satisfaction are goals of most utility companies today. These two goals don't logically work together but with Customer Care solutions from Aclara... they can.
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.
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.
In a time of pervasive drought throughout the Western United States, combined with the relatively newfound ability to account for every ounce of water treated and distributed, it’s no surprise that huge emphasis has been placed on smart, data-savvy metering.
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.
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.
BEACON Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) combines the power of an intuitive software suite driven by ORION AMI technology to transform meter reading data into meaningful information that optimizes your utility management.
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.
