Operating disparate metering and meter-reading systems was especially challenging as the city grew. Eagle Mountain was determined to get ahead of these challenges by undergoing a phased, multi-year overhaul of its metering system.
“Replacing our entire system is an enormous project, and we don’t want to burden our residents,” said Straw. “Whenever there’s an issue with one of our current meters we don’t bother fixing it the way we used to. We just go in and replace it with one of the new ones and that takes care of the issue.”
Currently, the city anticipates having all its meters replaced with the new smart meters by 2023.
“We’re scaling at our own pace, but we’ve set an ambitious timeline and right now we’re on track to hit that,” said Straw.
Reaping the Rewards
Even at this stage of deployment, Eagle Mountain is seeing considerable benefits from the new technology. The new meter reading system has been effective at reducing the time spent collecting data, allowing technicians to focus their time on what’s really important — helping customers.
“A process that used to take two technicians two days can now be done with just one technician in the same amount of time,” said Straw. “We’re hoping that with a little more fine-tuning we can get that down to one technician collecting all the meter data in just a single day.”
The new smart meters enable efficient billing and provide the city with better information to answer customers’ questions about issues with their water usage.
“The meters themselves will hold 30–45 days of data, and we’ve had to use that where people are questioning their water consumption,” said Straw. “One of the capabilities we really like is that even if internet access goes down, we can locally go grab that information without internet, so we’re still pulling data even without connectivity.”
Leak detection continues to be one of the biggest challenges that Eagle Mountain faces with day-to-day customer service, and it’s an area where the new meters have been especially helpful.
“We had one resident who called us with a concern about his bill and said he walked through the whole yard and couldn’t find any leaks. We pulled up the data and saw one day where there was a spike in consumption, and the customer said, ‘That’s the day my fountain blew up.’ Turned out he had a fountain that had frozen and that created a leak, which resulted in a loss of more than 30,000 gallons of water.”
Learning from the Past and Soaring into the Future
Deploying a new metering and meter-reading system has been a significant undertaking for Eagle Mountain. And while it’s one that the team has tackled head on, it has also taught the utility some important lessons.
“The biggest thing utilities need to have with a project like this is patience, especially when you’re testing a new technology,” said Straw. “There are always going to be challenges that come up through the deployment process, but be patient and stick to your plan and you’ll start seeing the benefits.”
Straw also recommends working with a vendor that will be there to answer the call when challenges arise.
“The help we’ve gotten from our customer service reps has been invaluable, just top-notch support,” he said. “We’re a relatively small customer by their standards and they’ve gone above and beyond our expectations. We feel like whenever we contact them we’re being given top priority.”
As Straw looks to the future, he and the Eagle Mountain team are dreaming big. In the coming years they anticipate making a full transition to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which will eliminate the need for drive-by meter reads altogether and automate the process of data collection over an advanced, two-way communication network. With the city projected to grow to 120,000 residents by 2040, the team is confident that each new step will better equip them to meet the challenges of today’s growth while preparing for what’s next.
“We’re at the point of no return,” said Straw. “When all is said and done we’re expecting to be one of the largest cities in Utah, and we think the investments we make in technology now are going to pay off for years to come.” WW
About the Author: Dan Pinney is the global director of water marketing for Sensus. Pinney has 27 years of experience in the global water industry with leadership roles in operations and development at Sensus. He attended the University of Florida, majoring in electrical engineering.
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