Advanced Metering Infrastructure
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) provides numerous benefits to water utilities. AMI improves a utility’s ability to collect frequent and accurate water usage data to improve billing, leak detection, and water resource management.
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AMI for Utilities
The types of water meters used by utilities have evolved over time. Older technology required that utilities send meter readers to individual sites (such as homes) to physically read meters. As the technology changed, meters that allowed for automated meter reading (AMR) became more prevalent. This provided some savings to utilities as meter readers could collect data by, for example, simply driving their truck down a street and remotely getting data from meters as they passed by. This made it possible for utilities to reduce the staff time needed to read all meters and bill more frequently.
As water utilities look to replace older water meters, another option has emerged. AMI meters provide for remote collection of water use data - in real time. This supports more frequent billing, but more importantly also allows a utility to quickly identify excessive water use that could be the result of leaks.
The emergence of AMI provides utilities with a real opportunity, but it can also be a challenge to determine how to manage the data collected and how to make that data useful to the utility customers. An AWWA water conservation committee conducted a study on AMI implementation and produced a useful guide for utilities on how they could use their AMI portals to increase customer engagement for water conservation .
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Increasing consumer benefits & engagement in AMI-based conservation programs (2022, 114pp, PDF)
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Increasing consumer benefits & engagement in AMI-based conservation programs: Guidebook for Practitioners (2022, 25pp, PDF)
AMI for Facility Managers
AMI can benefit commercial and institutional facilities too! AMI offers frequent (e.g., hourly) water usage data that can be monitored to understand consumption patterns, identify leaks before the bill comes, and improve overall facility water management. Many utilities offer customer portals that allow easy access to water use data.
WaterSense developed a guide to help commercial and institutional facility managers and business owners understand the benefits of AMI. The guide provides helpful tips on how to access, understand, and optimize the use of water consumption data to improve water management. The guide also includes case studies of businesses that have successfully used AMI data to reduce water consumption and operating costs.