PLANO, TX, Oct. 1, 2007 -- The town of Black Mountain, N.C., has awarded Datamatic a contract to fully automate its water meter reading operations. Under the contract, Datamatic will install a turnkey, drive-by system including 3,000 FIREFLY® Meter Interface Units. Datamatic has been a leading utility technology partner since 1980 and supports 500 customers worldwide.
"Utilities like Black Mountain are seeking ways to reduce costs, improve productivity and upgrade their customer service,' said Datamatic CEO Ken Kercher. "Datamatic has proven it can help them reach those goals with a robust, cost-effective solution, which is why we won this contract. We look forward to a successful installation and long term partnership with Black Mountain."
Called "the Front Porch of Western North Carolina," Black Mountain is cradled by mountains and surrounded with gorgeous views. Located just 15 miles east of Asheville, the town shares its primary water supply and some of its water system infrastructure with the city.
"Our extensive search for an AMR system included an open RFP and pilot program," said Black Mountain Assistant town manager Bo Ferguson. "Datamatic's AMR system was chosen because it can deliver substantial gains in reading efficiency at a reasonable cost. Since the FIREFLY MIU's can be retrofitted to our existing meters, we'll save a great deal of money on the initial installation and enjoy flexibility when purchasing meters in the future."
The system's ProfilePLUS™ datalogging capability was another key reason that Black Mountain selected Datamatic to fulfill its AMR system needs. Each FIREFLY MIU stores hour-by-hour consumption patterns for the previous 74 days. This data is invaluable for settling customer usage disputes, leak detection, system optimization, eliminating inefficient off-cycle reading, as well as right-sizing meters and distribution infrastructure.
"Having the capabilities offered by Datamatic's profiling software was important," added Ferguson. "It will give us the ability to detect leaks, resolve billing issues and predict demand once the installation is complete."
Installation of the Datamatic AMR system will begin in late 2007 and is scheduled to be completed by Summer 2008.
Datamatic is a leader in utility data collection solutions. For nearly a quarter of a century, Datamatic has been at the forefront in the design, implementation and support of advanced utility meter reading and field data collection solutions for water, gas and electric utilities.
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