City Prepares for the Future with AMR

Situated in a valley at a bend in the Minnesota River some 75 miles southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the city of Mankato, MN, is home to 35,000 residents, five colleges and universities, and serves as an annual summer destination for the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, who make the campus of Minnesota State University at Mankato their training camp.

Mankato is also home to a new AMR system and the staff at the Mankato Public Works Department is excited about the benefits the technology will bring to the utility and its water customers.

The city of Mankato has been something of a pacesetter when it comes to improving meter-reading operations. In his 30-plus years with the Mankato's Public Works Department, George Rosati has seen meter reading evolve from an inefficient, paper-intensive exercise with meter readers walking from house to house and manually recording water consumption to a model of high-tech automated efficiency.

"I've always liked to think that Mankato has been a little bit ahead of the curve when it comes to providing drinking water services," said Rosati, the city's Public Works Director. "In the 1970s, we were one of the first municipalities I knew of to install remote meter registers on the outside of our customers homes. This enabled our meter readers to collect reads from our indoor meters regardless of whether the customer was home or not."

In the early 1980s, Rosati oversaw the implementation of a handheld electronic meter reading system to boost operational efficiency by removing the paperwork from the meter reading equation and sparing his staff the chore of data re-entry and manual billing. The combination of electronic meter reading and remote registers also allowed the city's meters readers to read each of its 8,000-plus indoor water meters every month rather than reading only one-third of the meters and estimating the remaining two-thirds.

Despite these incremental advancements over the years, the technology wasn't keeping up with the city's needs. Mankato's meter readers still needed to visit every residence and business throughout the city, and the city's aging meters and registers were wearing out and under-recording water usage. Random testing of water meters revealed that the Public Works Department was collecting an average of only 83 cents for every dollar's worth of water delivered to Mankato residents.

"We're not a tax-supported entity; we need to operate as a business," Rosati said. "We need to collect the revenue that is due and our customers need to know that their meter and their bill are accurate."

Meter accuracy, revenue assurance and customer service were not the only challenges facing the department. For years it had relied on contract meter readers to walk the routes and collect the meter reads. While the high turnover associated with the use of contract meter readers created some service problems and increased liability insurance costs for the department, the situation reached the point where the supply of capable contract meter readers all but evaporated in Mankato's labor market.

"As the economy developed in our area, getting people to do that sort of work became increasingly difficult," said Cindy Krone, the Mankato PWD' meter foreperson who oversees the meter reading operations.

To meet these challenges, the city of Mankato Public Works Department has begun installing an automatic meter reading system from Itron Inc. and its Minnesota-based distributor, Hydro Supply.

"It became very clear to us a few years ago that the future would be to obtain meter readings automatically," said Rosati. "It was also clear that the technology of choice for us would be radio-read."

In 1998, the Mankato Public Works Department made the decision to implement Itron automatic meter reading technology. Working through Hydro Supply, installation of the system began in 1999. Thus far, nearly half of Mankato's 8,800 water meters have been automated. The program also includes replacement of some 4,000 of the city's older water meters with new Badger meters. The ability of the Itron system to read meters from all leading manufacturers was an important factor in the city's choice of technology. The open-architecture system enables the department to select water meters based on price and functionality rather than AMR system compatibility.

Mankato Public Works Department staff is using Itron handheld computers equipped with portable radios to read the meters that have been automated thus far. Soon, the department is upgrading to an Itron DataPac mobile AMR system to boost meter reading efficiency.

"We'll be able to do in one day what it used to take us 21 days to complete," Rosati said.

While the department had initially planned to implement the system over a four-year period, Rosati said the city is moving toward a three-year installation timeline to realize greater value from the system earlier. That value has come in the form of reduced meter reading costs, improved operational efficiency, improved customer service and increased revenue from accurate usage measurement.

"The new system will simplify everything," said Krone. "In addition to solving our labor problem it will also improve our meter reading accuracy and increase accountability to our customers."

To ensure that installation of the system goes smoothly and to maintain strong customer support for automation technology, Mankato launched a comprehensive outreach campaign to the community to inform residents of the project, its benefits and the need for authorized installation crews to access their homes. The publicity campaign includes newspaper articles and advertisements, direct mail campaigns and a carefully thought out installation appointment plan to ensure that appointments take place on time, a high level of customer care and service is maintained, and the project continues on schedule.

"We're doing very well with the implementation program," Rosati said. "I anticipated many more problems than we've actually had. In over 4,000 installations so far, I think I've only received two phone calls about problems."

In fact, when the installer showed up at Rosati's home to install the new automated meter, Rosati didn't let on who he was. "The installation in my home went very smoothly and the guy was in and out of there in 10 minutes," he said.

As the city of Mankato moves toward 100 percent automation of its water meters, Rosati said he sees clear value in the system. In a time when privatization of water utilities is an increasing trend, municipalities can't afford to compromise when it comes to operational efficiency and customer service.

"We have to be efficient and we strive to achieve that in everything we do," Rosati said. "AMR technology is a key asset in making sure that we meet that objective."