Solving Non-Revenue Water Challenges

With 650 metering points, the town of Dexter, N.M., was billing customers based on consumption data from mechanical meters that were 20 to 30 years old. Their moving parts wore over time and the meters became less accurate. This led to meters not registering the complete water use, which hit Dexter in the pocket book.

In addition to the inaccuracies that were contributing to non-revenue water, the meters were manually read, which took three workers two days to read four meter books. The city was looking for a meter reading system to fight water loss and save time.

The town of Dexter, N.M., installed a Kamstrup AMR meter reading solution and increased its efficiency.

With a Kamstrup AMR meter reading solution, the town increased its efficiency. The meter locations are plotted on Google Maps and the meters are read via drive-by. Since the new meters measure significantly lower flows than mechanical water meters, the utility is able to bill for every drop of water.

Once the new meters were installed, 40 to 50 percent of the meters had leak alarms. Now, utility personnel can notify customers of leaks and incidents, which helps the community save water and helps customers save money.

Smart metering sheds light on the distribution network and enables utilities to fight water loss and beat the leak — for the environment, the consumers and the bottom line. WW

Kamstrup serves clients around the world with innovative metering solutions for electricity, heat, cooling and water. To learn more, visit kamstrup.com.

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