Water conservation is a significant and urgent priority for utilities across the United States. While water supplies once seemed unlimited, now communities are facing the reality of drastic shortages — especially on the West Coast. To combat waning water availability, many states are enacting water reduction mandates to promote conservation and help combat the shortage.
Household leaks and landscape irrigation account for a bulk of wasted water, so it’s critical that water utility customers get on board with conservation efforts.
Tools to Accomplish Water Conservation Goals
To support water reduction mandates and effectively conserve water, utilities and their customers first need to know how much water they are using. Analytics tools from Badger Meter — like BEACON® Software as a Service (SaaS) for utilities and the EyeOnWater® consumer engagement tool for customers — provide usage data in near real time. This information helps utilities identify leaks and understand how much water customers are using. Similarly, customers can use a smartphone app or portal to monitor their household water use in daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly consumption charts and take steps to reduce it.
When paired with cellular endpoints, 15-minute interval meter data is automatically communicated directly to BEACON. Utilities can then use this data to identify and monitor sources of excess water consumption and notify customers to take corrective actions as necessary.
BEACON provides utilities with powerful, yet easy-to-use tools to help with conservation efforts, including:
- Leak analytics — Identify continuous flow conditions that represent potential leaks.
- Reduction goal filters — Provide one-click access to accounts that met or failed to meet mandated water use reduction goals.
- Parity filters — Monitor usage based on whether a customer has an odd or even numbered street address.
- High/Low consumption filters — Count and select meters that had usage above or below the utility-defined thresholds of normal water use.
- Diurnal demand exports — Identify daily peak water demand cycles to manage the cost of purchasing and moving water.
- District Metering Area support — Monitor usage across the entire water distribution network, with the ability to compare between supply and demand meters to quantify non-revenue water.
Consumer engagement portals like EyeOnWater provide customers with access to their household’s individual water use. EyeOnWater presents water usage data in easy-to-understand consumption graphs so customers can monitor their water use and ensure it is trending downward.
More than just reporting water use, EyeOnWater also lets users set leak alerts with the option to receive notifications via email and/or SMS text to be alerted in near real time. With tools like these, customers can take responsibility for their water usage, make changes to reduce it, and monitor their improvements all from a single source.
Every utility has unique operation goals and the same is true for conservation. Some utilities may have long-term conservation goals, while others are based on urgent needs. Whether a utility is looking to implement a water conservation plan or needs help accomplishing current goals, an investment in analytics tools may be just the ticket to make every drop count. WW
Badger Meter is exhibiting at ACE 22, booth 13079. Learn more at www.badgermeter.com.
Published in WaterWorld magazine, May 2022.
