Based on this and other criteria, including the cost of installation, towers and other system components, the utility ultimately chose to deploy the FlexNet™ Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) communications system from Sensus.
Results of a pilot program justified the investment
To forecast the return on the required investment for deploying an AMI system, Santa Maria city officials requested that the water utility develop a pilot program to test the range, performance and results that the technology offers.
A pilot program–designed in part to challenge the reach of the proposed AMI communications network–successfully demonstrated savings of both water and money. To test the full extent of the system's range, water utility officials used one tower to read three reading books, or groups of meters typically read on a drive-by route, that were geographically disparate. The AMI system proved successful in uploading information from the meters to the utility for analysis.
The technology identified leaks in nearly three percent of the homes in the test area, equivalent to 2.5 acre-feet worth of leaks. Santa Maria officials credit earlier leak detection with saving nearly a half million gallons of water - and hundreds of dollars for customers - in the first 45 days of the pilot. This pilot proved influential in confirming the true cost and water savings advantages of running the AMI system, justifying the costs of initial implementation.
Moving toward full deployment
Based upon the pilot program's results, city officials estimate that its customers could save almost $100,000 annually from leak identification alone. In terms of water conservation, more than 86 million gallons of water could be saved in the first year after total deployment of the FlexNet system, which will reduce the amount of water the city must purchase from the state.
The AMI system will enable improved quality of customer service as representatives will be able to access accounts, locate leaks and in many cases identify the source of a leak instantly, from their desk, where they once had to schedule and conduct on-site analyses. Leak detection time will also be cut drastically from one month to a matter of days as new registers read every one cubic feet of water versus one hundred, providing information on an hourly basis. Customers have responded quickly to fix leaks identified on their property, saving money on their water utility bills.
