Metering systems, often referred to as the lifeblood or cash box of water utilities, have advanced far beyond being a network of devices used almost exclusively to provide data from which to generate bills. In fact, today’s metering systems are so advanced they have become an important and smart tool for modernizing and optimizing water utility operations.
Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) has elevated the capabilities of metering systems so that they even assist homeowners and business owners in finding leaks in their infrastructure.
Leading up to the last few years, however, the upfront investment of a major system upgrade to AMI has been cost-prohibitive to all but the largest water utilities. This made it difficult for small and medium-sized communities to realize these benefits and future-proof their operations.
One of the solutions to this conundrum lies in working with pre-existing partners, which can help small and medium sized communities implement new technology without undue financial difficulty. The experience of the Town of Pembroke, N.C., is a case in point.
Named 2017 Small Town of the Year, Pembroke is home to approximately 3,200 residents. Its water system consists of three wells, two water treatment plants, and four elevated storage tanks. It services the water needs of approximately 1,400 homeowners and businesses that include the community at large and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. The town also provides water for several Lumbee Tribe Housing Developments and the Tribal Government Complex.
Pembroke had long relied on its public works staff to share the responsibility for reading its water meters. According to Town Manager Tyler W. Thomas, this process included manual reads once a month, then entering the readings into a handheld device, and taking this information back to the office. A bill would then be generated.
However, relying on its lean public works staff to read meters placed a burden on the town’s resources.
“Meter reading essentially shut down public works for at least two and sometimes three days, as the majority of our staff would be tied up doing this task,” Thomas says. “Additionally, meter reading was not our only shared responsibility, so having so much staff time devoted to reading meters caused issues in our ability to address in a timely manner other things in town that needed attention.”
Moreover, meter reading was not a job that attracted new talent to replace employees who were retiring or moving on to other opportunities.
“Meter reading was probably the least pleasurable activity that our workforce had to perform,” Thomas says. “It might be 100 degrees, or it might be 20 degrees. They still had to get out there.”
Beyond the workforce issues, the town’s aging metering system and water infrastructure also impacted customer service. Old meters were getting stuck or not reading correctly and, on some occasions, human error came into play with manual readings.
“This meant that to get things right we had to send people out to [perform] rereads,” Thomas says. “We were devoting a lot of time to meter reading — and not just the initial read. We also knew that our old system was contributing to non-revenue water losses. We knew that we had an issue with our old system, and it was something that we wanted to address, but we just hadn’t been approached with the possibility of addressing these problems collectively in a turnkey manner.”
Upgrade, Modernize, and Future-Proof
The Town of Pembroke has a longstanding relationship with Advanced Solutions, now a part of Veolia North America. A developer of services that make AMI asset management programs affordable, Advanced Solutions has been supplying asset management services for the town’s water storage tanks.
After conferring with his colleagues, Thomas made the decision to replace the old metering system with smart meters and an AMI system that would modernize the metering network with state-of-the-art hardware and software. Through a turnkey asset management program, Advanced Solutions would take responsibility for the planning, installation, and ongoing maintenance of the AMI network and all its assets.
Installation. The first step is to design and install a customized AMI system. The turnkey installation of smart water meters can help maximize the utility’s revenue through accurate meter readings and billing. Pembroke’s AMI system is constructed in a way that it can grow as the town does, with additional infrastructure and meters as needed.
Integration. Advanced Solutions then integrates the AMI software and billing systems, supplying a cloud-based meter data management system for data storage and analysis.
System management. Over the life of the system, metering data is analyzed on a daily basis to guarantee system performance.
Long-term maintenance. Advanced Solutions provides a 15-year warranty and maintenance of the entire system. This includes proactive, ongoing preventative and corrective maintenance of the AMI network and equipment.
Advanced Solutions spreads the initial deployment cost of the AMI system over many years. This provides the utility with a predictable annual cost — usually a monthly fee per smart meter — that allows for easy planning and budgeting. The company also provides a single point of contact and responsibility for the full asset management program, which streamlines the process and provides operational peace of mind.
Choosing the Right Partner
Pembroke’s ongoing relationship with Advanced Solutions was just one of the factors influencing the decision to implement an asset management program.
“Having that relationship is important; it gives you confidence and comfort that they will perform as well in this new service area as with the other asset management program they have been doing for us for many years,” says Thomas. “But a lot of the decision came down to their expertise and the way that they structured the solution.”
“We were very pleased with the subject matter expertise that the company and team possess and brought throughout the whole experience,” he adds. “They managed the entire metering project, from the replacement and procurement of the infrastructure to the integration with our billing software. Their project management team oversaw and kept us apprised of what was taking place.”
An Array of Benefits
Thomas reports that Pembroke is already seeing benefits from the metering asset management program.
“From both morale and productivity standpoints, it has been very helpful to our public works department to not be obligated to read meters and keep up with consumption in the way that we had done historically,” Thomas says. “From the financial standpoint, we believe that this program will also help generate additional revenue for the town.”
In the future, Pembroke utilities can grow the system, adding more meters as needed to accommodate for future growth while continuing to reap the benefits of improvements to customer service.
“Billing issues were probably the biggest complaint that we had before we initiated all of this. Today, I would say that complaints are fewer and farther between,” he says. “And we can be proactive: When we detect that a customer has a problem, we can notify them almost instantaneously. That goes a long way with our customers.” WW
Published in WaterWorld magazine, August 2022.
