Source: SENSUS
RALEIGH, NC, APRIL 20, 2018 -- Nestled in the rolling hills of northern West Virginia, collegiate life reigns supreme in the City of Fairmont. As with any college town, residential turnover is the norm, with the constant move-ins and move-outs straining the city's water utility resources.
"We serve many rental properties and apartments, so there's a lot to manage in terms of monitoring customer usage and handling inactive accounts," said Mark Moore, utility controller, City of Fairmont Utilities.
The utility knew it needed a better system to monitor its 14,500 water meters and turned to Sensus, a Xylem brand, to put plans for a smart water system into action. After a thorough evaluation process, the utility determined that the Sensus AMI solution possessed all the capabilities they needed to tackle non-revenue water and meet customer needs.
City of Fairmont Utilities initially installed 6,500 Sensus water meters covering its two largest routes along with commercial meters, with the intention to roll out the full solution over a five-year period. However, the benefits were realized so quickly the utility decided to shorten the implementation.
"We went in and installed the rest of the meters right off the bat," said Moore.
The City of Fairmont Utilities AMI solution included 14,500 Sensus iPERL® residential meters, and a combined 200 OMNI™ Compound (C²) and OMNI™ Turbo (T²) commercial meters. The utility bolstered its deployment with Sensus FieldLogic™ and Regional Network Interface (RNI)™ software, delivered via the Sensus Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. Finally, the Sensus FlexNet® communication network and Sensus Analytics served as the backbone of the utility's smart water network, enabling Moore and his team to remotely monitor water usage and increase billing accuracy.
Since launching, City of Fairmont Utilities has achieved more than 99 percent accuracy in its meter readings while saving $30,000 a year by reducing non-revenue water, improving billing accuracy and enhancing overall system performance. Additionally, the utility has notified nearly 3,000 customers of leaks or issues with continuous usage since deployment, helping customers reduce excess water consumption by an average of 25 million gallons per year.
"With time saved on meter readings and billing, we've diverted those staff resources to an ongoing data and meter testing program," said David Sago, utility manager, City of Fairmont Utilities. "This initiative will help us ensure accuracy and great customer service for years to come.
