Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - November 2005
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Advanced water meter reading technology results in rural efficiency
By Darlene McNichol
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| PC9800 Handheld Computer
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The Rural Municipality of
Macdonald, Manitoba, faced
challenges that are similar to
those faced by many rural
communities across Canada. The six
villages that make up Macdonald cover
25 by 18 miles, a distance that is comparable
to the City of Winnipeg. With
limited resources, Macdonald was
faced with managing 1,750 water meter
accounts over this massive area. Of
these accounts, 1,100 are urban, 650
are rural, located outside of the communities,
and their overall meter population
continues to grow.
Macdonald wanted to find a solution
that would improve water meter
reading efficiencies over this widely
distributed area. The existing water
meter infrastructure was onerous as
90% of the water meters required
inside access to the home to obtain a
reading. The remaining 10% of the
meter population had remotes installed
outside the residence. Due to the rural
setting, inefficiencies in collecting the
reading data forced the Municipality to
abandon the idea of implementing a
completely remote system.
Macdonald was forced to resort to a
system whereby all 1,750 accounts
were required to telephone in their
meter reading to the Municipality
every quarter. Accuracy and reliability
were of great concern.
Of the 1,750 accounts required to
call in their readings, only some 60%
responded; estimate bills were as
high as 40%. Readings were
called in to a dedicated answering
machine with the majority
coming in during the few
days prior to the due date.
Three to four days were dedicated
to listening and recording
readings. All of this data then
had to be entered electronically, estimates
determined where needed, followed
by printing the bills. This entire
process took up three weeks of time
and it put tremendous demands on
municipal personnel.
The Municipality had one person
assigned to utility work. During this peak
time, three or more other municipal personnel
had to interrupt their duties to
assist, which included answering time
consuming customer calls. During the
month after the bills were sent out, a
minimum of 15% of the accounts called
the Municipality with reading, billing
and estimate
questions.
Most
calls required
further work such
as billing adjustments.
This post
billing process would
easily require two
weeks of dedicated
resources.
In moving forward
with a solution, Macdonald
had several issues to address: older
meters were losing revenue due to
decreasing accuracy; and new housing
growth was on the rise causing personnel
resources to be stretched. All of
these factors created the need to investigate
solutions to improve reading
efficiencies and improve data integrity.
In the summer of 2004, Macdonald
moved ahead to implement Neptune
Technology Group’s R900 Radio
Frequency Automatic Meter Reading (RF AMR) Solution. RF AMR technology
was the optimum solution to
achieve the Municipality’s goals.
Neptune offered a single-source solution
including supply and installation
of the automatic meter reading system
(R900 meter interface units, water
meters, and PC9800 handheld computers),
system implementation, and
turnkey project management.
The project was overseen by
Neptune’s Service Division. All 1,750
meters were equipped with an R900
radio frequency meter interface unit
(RF MIU). In addition 900 of the
meters were replaced due to accuracy
and migration issues. The
Municipality selected a walk-by system
using Neptune’s PC9800 handheld
system to read the meters. The R900
MIU transmits a radio frequency reading,
which is automatically collected
by the DAP9800 handheld computer.
Benefits and Results
The investment in RF AMR technology
has dramatically reduced the
number of hours required to read the
meters. A large portion of the readings
can now be collected by the meter reader
from street level without having to
exit the vehicle. Macdonald now enjoys
a read success rate of greater than 99%.
For example, during their last read
cycle, all but one read was collected in
one pass! During any reading cycle a
Utility can factor in temporary obstacles,
such as vehicles, as a cause for not
achieving 100%. According to Tom
Raine, C.A.O. for Macdonald, there has
been an enormous improvement in
billing efficiencies with the implementation
of RF AMR.
The previous billing cycle took
approximately 5 weeks which included
the time to collect and process the readings,
the actual billing process, and
customer calls. Today, a single meter
reader can obtain all of the urban reads
in one day and all of the rural reads in
3-4 days. With the rapid downloading
of the meter readings from the
DAP9800 handheld systems, in a single
day the Municipality can import the
readings and print the bills for distribution.
Post billing calls have declined
dramatically with only 12 general
inquiry calls during the last cycle. The
utility is pleased to report that not a single
billing adjustment was required.
Overall, the reading and billing
cycle is now 89% more efficient with a
reduction in resource hours required
from 380 hours to 40 hours.
The Municipality has achieved its
goals of increasing meter reading efficiencies
and improving data integrity.
Utility personnel now have more time
to focus on other productive services. A
key benefit resulting from increased
data integrity is the Municipality’s ability
to conduct water audits, pinpoint
leaks, and control unaccounted for
water. As water treatment costs will
continue to increase, the Municipality
can now use the reading data to audit
water production more closely against
overall usage.
All of these benefits allow the
Municipality to provide proactive,
accurate, and timely services to its
water customers.
Darlene McNichol is with
Neptune Technology Group,
e-mail: dmcnichol@neptunetg.com
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