This technology is quickly approaching the end of its useful life—utilities are seeing an increasing rate of battery failures, and vendors are investing fewer research and development dollars in this space. For utilities that rely on manual meter reading, labor costs continue to increase, and the manual process of reading meters and entering data is error-prone—which can result in inaccurate bills being sent to customers.
This information is helpful to customers because it can help them conserve water and manage the size of their bill. It’s also helpful to the utility, as it can help them proactively notify customers of leaks, reduce operational costs of meter reading, and enforce conservation goals or mandates.
Infrastructure and program costs
Unclear understanding of benefits
Technological uncertainty
Limited support from city councils/regulators
2-MINute TAKEDOWN
Many water utilities implemented automated meter reading (AMR) systems 15 years ago.
Water utilities are increasingly deploying advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which transmits hourly water consumption data.
Water utilities have been slow to adopt AMI due to:
West Monroe developed and refined a proven approach for water AMI deployments. This methodology positions water utilities for a successful program from initial AMI viability assessment through mass deployment and benefit realization.
Impacts to employee roles and job classifications
Concerns about radio frequency emissions
and safety
Highly publicized issues related to other water utility’s AMI deployments
