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ensure
their ability to deliver water to meet future consumer needs.
Understanding who is using how much water and when the water
is used becomes an important capability when faced with resource
constraints. When advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems
are combined with analytic software applications, such as
Water SaveSource™ from Itron, water providers are able
to slice and dice meter information like never before, generating
reports such as daily consumption analysis, hourly trending,
usage comparative analysis, leak analysis and district metering
studies.
To produce
these advanced reports and understand where water is being
used, it is vital to note the amount of water used and the
time of usage. Intensifying water resource management challenges
mean that water providers now need to collect a lot more data
than they did in the past. It is still common for utilities
to collect a meter reading every four months or even to estimate
consumption to generate a quarterly water bill. Even managing
a monthly consumption read for billing pales in comparison
to collecting the granular data required for accurate data
logging, a necessary capability to truly understand customer
usage patterns. With AMI systems, water providers are able
to collect meter reads every day, every hour, or even every
15 minutes if desired. This amount of meter data is invaluable
to understanding and managing customer usage, supporting conservation
and increasing operational efficiencies.
While
large amounts of granular data enable utilities to better
define and manage usage, a new question arises. How is the
mountain of data managed? It is one thing for a water provider
with 50,000 customers to manage 50,000 monthly reads and pass
the data to their customer information/billing system. With
an advanced fixed network or AMI system, the utility needs
to consider the implications of managing hourly interval data
for every customer, or the approximately 36 million reads
a month. It is clear that a robust meter data management system
(MDM) is required.
"The
water industry has a history of being slow to move on technology,"
says Darron Poulsen, customer service manager for the Cucamonga
Valley Water District. Cucamonga is installing Itron Enterprise
Edition™ MDM to manage the data coming in from the Water
SaveSource network there.
"But
I am beginning to see that MDM is on people's radar now—everybody
knows we have to do this, but there is a bit of trepidation
to get out there first. It is going to happen."
Itron,
the leader in meter data management software, has developed
MDM software specifically for the water industry. Leveraging
years of MDM expertise in the energy industry, Itron integrated
the same robust database structure and powerful query tools
with specific water criteria and a friendly, intuitive user
interface to generate in-depth analysis and reports concerning
water consumption. The MDM system has also been designed with
the level of IT resources cities and municipal utilities have
in place to ensure simplified implementation, operation and
maintenance for the long term. With unrivaled scalability,
the Itron MDM software easily stores and manages the millions
of data points that AMI water systems collect. Access to the
data across the utility, and storage of such data in a single
repository, enables various parties to leverage the data for
specific needs, from the meter shop, customer service, engineering,
finance and managerial staff.
Itron
MDM software runs the large amounts of data that's collected
and brought up through Water SaveSource through a series of
smart applications. Some of the smart applications are trending
analysis, either hourly or daily, to help manage compliance
with conservation programs and profiling study programs; time-of-use
billing for usage behavior modification; comparative analysis
of usage patterns and district metering for leak detection.
These applications can be applied to one meter or customer,
or they can be aggregated over the entire meter base, enabling
system-wide analysis. Custom analysis and reports can be written
for specific attributes, depending on the providers requirements.
The prime
example of an MDM application is water conservation management.
Conservation can be achieved by either shifting flow or reducing
consumption. A water provider may want to shift outdoor usage
from high-evaporation periods to cooler times in the day to
increase effectiveness of use. After creating a baseline of
usage and implementing the program, the utility is able to
use MDM applications to compare water usage, either by grouping
or other variables, to determine the program's effectiveness.
Watering on even or odd days is a familiar type of conservation
program and one that can be easily monitored for effectiveness
and compliance with MDM software.
Time-based
rates can influence consumption behavior for conservation
needs and help to displace peak flows and optimize electricity
consumption. To run hourly meter data against distinct hourly
rates for billing requires the robust and discrete processing
capabilities found in MDM software. When rate programs are
synchronized with energy suppliers' peak pricing programs,
water providers can benefit by a reduction in pumping needs
and subsequent electricity required to run the pumps. This
can lower their exposure to high energy costs associated with
peak pricing periods.
"Conservation
is vital and MDM is the key, with the quickest way to make
an impact on our resources," said Poulsen. "What
we ultimately envision is the ability for the customer to
see their usage information and respond. When the customer
calls us, we will have all the granular data right in front
of us instead of guessing."
In addition
to conservation efforts, Poulsen says MDM also improves customer
service. Customer service representatives investigating a
high-bill complaint can easily review the customer's detailed
consumption and identify specific usage over a period of time.
The questioned usage can also be compared against the average
for all customers or against an aggregate of neighborhood
usage to determine any variance. The utility has a baseline
for each customer.
System
engineers benefit from MDM software with the ability to right-size
meters and optimize utilization of field assets. By collecting
and analyzing meter reads utilities can determine if the meter
is over- or under-utilized.
A powerful
aspect to the Itron MDM software is its storage capacity.
The database is able to store hourly data from every customer
meter for up to 10 years. This affords the water provider
the ability to perform historical review and analysis on consumption
and usage patterns to help manage supply issues against changes
in usage and resource planning.
Much of
the discussion around AMI systems is the collection and communication
technology. While collecting the data and the communication
network are the basis of these advanced metering systems,
it is the intelligence in the software that converts the AMI
data into valuable and actionable knowledge that water providers
can use to help manage water usage and resources. Without
MDM software, the collected meter data is little more than
a mountain of unmanageable data. The time to climb that mountain
and make the data manageable and meaningful is now.
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