
	July 2008

Embedded Energy and Non-Revenue Water Loss: Dollars Down the Drain

According to a recent study by the Alliance for Water Efficiency, 19 percent of the electric energy load in California is dedicated to the delivery and return of water. What’s more, 33 percent of a typical city’s budget goes toward water pumping alone. From supplying, treating and conveying water to consumers to collecting, re-treating and distributing wastewater back into the system, water utilities are paying more and more just to deliver their product to market.

In addition to soaring distribution costs, some estimates put water

loss through leaks in delivery system pipes at almost 6 billion gallons per day in the U.S. Utilities are paying to deliver product that never reaches their customers—resulting in non-revenue (and non-recoverable) water loss that directly impacts the bottom line. You pay to treat it and pump it out, but never see a return on those costs.

Water that does reach consumers can still pose a problem—a single leaky fixture at home can waste up to 90 thousand gallons per month. Leaks within a home or business lead to unnecessary consumption and higher-than-expected bills for customers.The water lost to in-home leaks also adds pumping and treatment costs during the wastewater cycle.

As demand for clean, reliable water continues to grow, so does the strain on our nation’s energy grid. Like all electricity consumers, water utilities can be subject to peak rate pricing from their provider at various times of the day. With smarter usage and time-based rate programs, water utilities can encourage customers to reduce usage during peak electrical rate periods, lowering the rate to which distribution pumps run and the amount of electricity required to run the pumps. This can help water utilities limit their exposure to high electricity rates.

In order to better serve their customers, water utilities are searching for ways to effectively manage water throughout the distribution chain and customer usage. Water SaveSource™ by Itron is an advanced metering solution providing the latest in fixed network technology, meter data management software and patented leak detection capability. Water SaveSource helps utilities:

Effectively collect and manage water consumption, tamper and leak data.

Detect in-home leaks to notify consumers of potential problems and save them money on lost water.

Detect distribution system leaks to help reduce non-revenue water loss.

Reduce the embedded energy costs needed to deliver water to consumers.

To know more about Water SaveSource and how embedded energy costs and water loss are a drain on your bottom line, please contact Peter Sanburn.

Listening for Leaks

Underground are miles of water distribution lines. Anywhere along those lines money may be spilling out through pinhole size leaks all the way up to large leaks. Itron’s MLOG radio acoustic leak sensor technology detects those leaks and reduces non-revenue water losses and associated operational costs.

Up to 30 percent of water pumped through distribution systems is lost to leaks. That means that 30 percent of a water provider’s asset is seeping into the ground, not to mention the cost to pump and treat that water. If distribution leaks become major events, they can cause liability issues and service disruptions. System leaks were once considered a cost of doing business. That is no longer the case as managing water becomes as important operationally as reducing costs.

MLOG radio leak detection is a low-cost network of intelligent sensors that are permanently deployed throughout a distribution system. They acoustically monitor for system leaks 365 days a year. Each night, during a four hour quiet period, the MLOG sensors listen for, record and analyze sound patterns in their environment, detecting new, evolving and pre-existing leaks automatically and stores the reading in memory. The readings are collected by a receiver either during normal monthly field visits for meter data collection, during walk-by or drive-by collections, or can be read independently. Once back at the utility the MLOG receiver downloads the current readings into advanced analytical software.

Changes in the level and frequency of pipe sounds from each sensor are analyzed and a leak index is created. The software displays a detailed analysis of potential leaks along with a detailed GIS map of the service area, locating each leak. Flexible reports facilitate management of each MLOG device, leak pinpointing and leak investigation to expedite and streamline leak repairs. An expanding database of historical information allows water providers to track assets, account for lost water and guide maintenance of their water pipeline network.

With up to 30 percent of assets seeping away, water providers can no longer ignore the business implications that distribution leaks may cause. MLOG radio, a low-cost solution to identify leaks for mitigation, is simple to deploy and operate. For more information on how MLOG radio can help plug possible leaks in your distribution system, contact Doug Soltero, product marketing manager, at 509 891-3575, or e-mail doug.soltero@itron.com

Suffolk County Water Authority Chooses Itron for Automated Meter Reading Project

Itron has announced that Suffolk County Water Authority (SCWA) has signed a contract for deployment of Itron’s mobile automated meter reading (AMR) system. The efficiencies gained by using Itron's AMR technology will enable SCWA to collect accurate meter reads more frequently and enhance its relationships with customers.

“Automated meter reading is a key part of our strategy to enhance customer service and maximize operating efficiency,” said Stephen Jones, the CEO of SCWA. “Itron is our meter technology provider and we will look to them to help us move into AMR, as we rely on their expertise to help us install, operate and maintain our system as efficiently as possible.”

Located in New York state, SCWA plans to initially target Eastern Long Island for automation, which includes 21,000 SCWA customers in Montauk and the Hamptons, with subsequent rollouts to the 353,000 meters in the rest of its service territory.

In addition to reducing handheld meter reading, meter shop and back office costs, bill complaint calls to the customer call center will be reduced with the deployment. Security, both for meter readers and customers will also be improved by eliminating the need to access the meter on the customer’s premise. AMR will establish a firm database from which to examine a revised peak/non-peak rate structure. SCWA estimates that over 100,000 acres within its service territory are suburban green turf lawns under automatic irrigation.

Itron mobile AMR systems, key to the ChoiceConnect™ AMR data collection suite, use a vehicle equipped with a portable radio transceiver and computer to gather consumption and tamper data from electricity, gas and water radio-based endpoints.

“Suffolk County Water Authority is an excellent example of a water utility that wants to further improve operations and enhance customer service in the most cost-effective manner possible,” said Lou Gust, vice president of water sales. “Suffolk County Water Authority focuses on these measures and has been recognized for high customer approval ratings. We value highly our long-term relationship with Suffolk County Water Authority and look forward to commencing work on this important project.”

Route Optimization: Itron’s Answer to High Fuel Prices

Enter ‘four day work week’ into your computer’s Web search engine and you’ll likely find a substantial number of stories related to the nation’s high gasoline prices. In our personal lives, we’re carefully planning our daily errands before getting in our cars, looking for the most efficient way to get from point A to B. In an attempt to reduce gasoline consumption, businesses and individuals are seeking alternatives to escape pain at the pump.

Though for many utilities, responsiveness to customers is required

seven days a week and cutting back to a four-day week, or making fewer stops along the way, may not be feasible. Customer service for electric, gas and water utilities also requires large fleets of vehicles, making rising gas prices an even larger concern. For energy providers, through use of the ChoiceConnect™ suite of automated meter reading (AMR) products, and Water SaveSource™ for water providers, Itron is offering utilities several strategies to beat high gas prices—a benefit not only to the bottom line, but also to the environment and the future.

Through partnership with RouteSmart Technologies, a software provider specializing in route optimization solutions for complex, high-density utility industry routing applications, Itron helps solve a wide range of fleet and personnel routing challenges.

“Itron recognizes the need to reduce expenditures by streamlining daily operations,” said Rich Layton, Itron product manager. “With this goal in mind Itron has partnered with RouteSmart Technologies to provide system solutions that allow utilities to optimize route processing and minimize drive time. This not only saves employee time, but can reduce gasoline consumption which is more important than ever before.”

Combining RouteSmart’s GIS-based technology with Itron ChoiceConnect solutions enables utilities to quickly, easily and regularly reroute their fleets based on up-to-the-moment changes in service area. It also helps to sequence meters in read order and convert traditional walk/drive routes to AMR.

ChoiceConnect also offers the ability to migrate from handheld and mobile reading systems up to the advanced functionality of a fixed network when deploying high-powered electricity and gas endpoints. The ChoiceConnect Fixed Network significantly reduces the number of meter readers, vehicles in the field and associated fuel costs, as well as providing utilities with interval data collection, outage detection and restoration notification capabilities.

For water utilities, the Water SaveSource network works in much the same way, eliminating the gasoline costs associated with collecting meter reads from the field and also providing accurate consumption reads and tamper alerts for improved revenue assurance.

For more information about route optimization and how Itron can help, please contact Peter Sanburn.