North Ogden City, Utah, has installed a drive-by automatic meter reading system that includes an automated mapping feature that allows readers to look at a map and immediately see if a meter reading was registered.
North Ogden is located on a shelf along the beautiful Wasatch Mountain Front - less than an hours drive from Salt Lake City. Serving a population of approximately 15,000, the system has 4200 service connections with 96 commercial accounts. Average daily usage is one million gallons and the system has been growing at a consistent 9-10 percent yearly for the past six years or more.
Upgrading the water metering system was one item on a list of public works projects drafted over 6 years ago while Dennis Shupe was serving as the City Administrator. Shupe has since retired after 34 years of service. His successor, John Hendrickson, is an enthusiastic supporter of the new system.
According to Bill Goss, North Ogden Water System Supervisor, "We were convinced early on in the planning stages that Sensus was the best choice for us. Approximately 92-93 percent of the existing meters were Rockwell, which I might add had operated successfully with some of the older models dating back to the mid-1950s. So the conversion to Sensus became a very logical and easy decision."
To help Goss and his staff present their proposal to City Council, Rick Meryhew of Mountain State Supply worked closely with Ardell Dobson, Sensus District manager. They developed a formal Financial Benefits Analysis that was written in easy-to-understand dollars and cents language. In addition, they placed several Sensus RadioRead Meter Transceiver Units (MXU's) throughout the town and invited Council members to drive around to observe the entire locating and reading process displayed right on the computer screens in the vehicles.
Reading water meters had become a sensitive issue for the Water Authority. Due to the harsh environment, North Ogden houses its meters in cast iron, locking-lid pits. Manually reading the meters took 60 man hours. Today, total time spent reading meters is 6 hours.
The system features the Sensus RadioRead AMR with AutoVuRegistered. This fully automated system enables personnel to take readings directly from a vehicle and to view the meters on a VXU mapping package. The assortment of Sensus meters installed at various service connections include: 5/8 through 1 inch SRIIs; 1_ through 2 inch SRs; Series "W" Turbo Meters and SRH Compound Meters.
Meryhew worked with an independent contractor to change out all residential and commercial meters. Installation began on April 2, 1998, and was completed in four months.
Physical placement on lots was changed from typically in the center of the lot to the property line. This avoided conflicts with driveways and structures and allowed doubling up of meters. The Sensus RadioRead MXU is capable of reading two meters so this trims equipment costs. If an installation has more than two meters in close proximity, the MultiReadRegistered Port Expander can be used to handle the reading task economically.
The Proof Is In The Performance
Goss said he is pleased with the system. The information presented in the Financial Benefits Analysis was accurate and has paralleled or exceeded the results that the municipality was anticipating.
After installation there was a 6 percent increase in revenue which stabilized to a consistent 3 percent for 1999. Through the use of telemetry controls and the new meters dropped to 30 percent and then to just 9 percent in 1999.
Shelly Robison, Utility Billing Analyst, is equally enthusiastic about the improvements. She said manual adjustments in billing and estimating have been practically eliminated. Entry work that used to take two to three days to complete is now accomplished in less than an hour.
Robison's advice to billing managers from other utilities is not to not have false expectations, "The RadioRead system is a tremendous tool. But nothing's perfect. You must devote time to training and familiarizing yourself with the system. You'll see monthly improvements in efficiency. It all doesn't happen overnight."