This paper describes technology evaluation, selection, implementation, and post construction community relations in a project initially considered impossible, considering the diversity across the depth of Texas. However, the staff effectively scaled all barriers in the information technology, radio frequency, and water utility construction industry. The success of this project is attributable to the integration of operators, engineers, and information technologists in a high-tech environment. They came together to compete a Texas deep high-tech automatic meter reading (AMR) technology project in an unprecedented record time by selecting the best return on investment (ROI) at the lowest life-cycle cost to transition diverse utilities from manual to automatic meter reading”. Daniel Christodoss, PhD, PE. www.enprovise.net or www.cleanwater4.us call: 817-894-1357
Cross Flow or Tangential Flow Membrane Filtration (TFF) to Enable High Solids...
Fastest Automatic Water Meter Reading Application at Diverse Utilities and Terrains Across Texas
1. From Manual to
Automated Meter Reading (AMR)
2011 Implementation of a High-Tech
Automatic Water Meter Reading
Application in Unprecedented Record
Time at Diversified Water Utilities
Across Texas
Daniel Christodoss, Ph.D., P.E.
Asset Manager and Texas Utilities East Design & Construction Manager
Water Sustainability Session I Presentation at the 15TH Annual Energy Utility and
Environmental Conference, Phoenix, AZ, Jan 30 TO Feb 1 2012
2. Presentation Outline
Diversified Water Utilities & Why
AMR?
Hazards to Meter Reader
Manual Meter Drawbacks
Automatic RF Meters
AMR Benefits & Desired Features
Vendor Evaluation and Objective
Project Tracking & Completion
3. Texas Utilities-Southwest Water Company
106 Water and 15 Wastewater plants
(conventional and membrane)
27 MGD Groundwater: 249 wells & 7
MGD Surfacewater ~ 40,000 customers
Plants near: San Antonio, Austin,
Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Tyler,
Livingston, Sherman and Tenkiller, OK
33 Counties: Prairies and Lakes, Piney
Woods, Gulf Coast, South Texas Plains
and Hill Country
4. Diversified Sherman
Utilities Map
• 38,319 Manual Meters
• 3.5 Billion Gallons of Water
Metered Annually
• $18M revenue from water
consumption
• Annual Meter Reader Salary
$800,000 (22 meter readers)
•Data Entry Operators Annual
Salary $250,000 (5 operators)
•Transportation $117,000 (9
vehicles)
•CHALLENGES:
•Topography
•Distance
•Alleys/backyards
•Hazards
6. Meter Reading Hazards @ TXUG (OTSH)
Dogs, Electric Fences, Guns….
Attempted Robbery and Shooting of a
meter reader in Lakeland, FL: Aug, 2009
Homeowner opened fire on meter
reader, Dallas, TX: 2009
“The Rottweiler doesn't bite”!
7. Manual Metering Drawbacks
Laborious (back injuries, trips, falls)
Transcription Errors
Biological and Physical Hazards
High O&M (labor, gas, disputes)
No consumption history
Cannot detect customer leaks
Water Theft Undeterred
High meter reader turnover
8. Texas Utilities-Southwest Water Company
106 Water and 15 Wastewater plants
(conventional and membrane)
27 MGD Groundwater: 249 wells & 7
MGD Surfacewater ~ 40,000 customers
Plants near: San Antonio, Austin,
Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Tyler,
Livingston, Sherman and Tenkiller, OK
33 Counties: Prairies and Lakes, Piney
Woods, Gulf Coast, South Texas Plains
and Hill Country
9. Diversified Sherman
Utilities Map
• 38,319 Manual Meters
• 3.5 Billion Gallons of Water
Metered Annually
• $18M revenue from water
consumption
• Annual Meter Reader Salary
$800,000 (22 meter readers)
•Data Entry Operators Annual
Salary $250,000 (5 operators)
•Transportation $117,000 (9
vehicles)
•CHALLENGES:
•Topography
•Distance
•Alleys/backyards
•Hazards
10. Texas Utilities-Southwest Water Company
106 Water and 15 Wastewater plants
(conventional and membrane)
27 MGD Groundwater: 249 wells & 7
MGD Surfacewater ~ 40,000 customers
Plants near: San Antonio, Austin,
Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Tyler,
Livingston, Sherman and Tenkiller, OK
33 Counties: Prairies and Lakes, Piney
Woods, Gulf Coast, South Texas Plains
and Hill Country
11. Diversified Sherman
Utilities Map
• 38,319 Manual Meters
• 3.5 Billion Gallons of Water
Metered Annually
• $18M revenue from water
consumption
• Annual Meter Reader Salary
$800,000 (22 meter readers)
•Data Entry Operators Annual
Salary $250,000 (5 operators)
•Transportation $117,000 (9
vehicles)
•CHALLENGES:
•Topography
•Distance
•Alleys/backyards
•Hazards
12. Manual Metering Drawbacks
Laborious (back injuries, trips, falls)
Transcription Errors
Biological and Physical Hazards
High O&M (labor, gas, disputes)
No consumption history
Cannot detect customer leaks
Water Theft Undeterred
High meter reader turnover
14. Meter Reading Hazards @ TXUG (OTSH)
Dogs, Electric Fences, Guns….
Attempted Robbery and Shooting of a
meter reader in Lakeland, FL: Aug, 2009
Homeowner opened fire on meter
reader, Dallas, TX: 2009
“The Rottweiler doesn't bite”!
15. Benefits of AMR
Quick (data acquired remotely during drive by-5
days vs 4 hrs)
Meter data communicated by Radio Frequency—
no manual meter reading
No need to access the meter box during routine
drive by, except in unique situations
Lower O&M (labor and disputes)
1 hr Consumption history can be extracted to
respond to disputes
Can detect customer leaks and help identify water
theft
Lower meter reader turnover
Streamline high bill investigations
16. Automatic RF Meters
Quick Remote Safe Accurate Automated 1 hr
Consumption History + Vandal & Leak Alerts
ANTENNA
RADIO
BATTERIES
IMPELLER
17. RF used for everything else, why not for AMR
Technologies that depend on radio waves:
AM and FM radio broadcasts
Cordless phones
Garage door openers
Radio-controlled toys
Television broadcasts
Cell phones
GPS receivers
Satellite communications
Police radios
Wireless clocks
Radar and microwave ovens
Communication and navigation satellites Guglielmo Marconi
Modern aviation built the 1st Radio
Wireless Internet access Transmitter in 1895
Radio waves are electromagnetic, part of the light spectrum and
travel at a speed of 186,282 miles per second—the speed of light
18. Automatic Meters (win-win situation)
Promotes Water Conservation & Remote Secure Data Acquisition
Remote Access
5.5 month consumption
history stored in the
meter for dispute
resolution
19. Benefits of AMR
Quick (data acquired remotely during drive by-5
days vs 4 hrs)
Meter data communicated by Radio Frequency—
no manual meter reading
No need to access the meter box during routine
drive by, except in unique situations
Lower O&M (labor and disputes)
1 hr Consumption history can be extracted to
respond to disputes
Can detect customer leaks and help identify water
theft
Lower meter reader turnover
Streamline high bill investigations
20. Desired AMR Features
Read remotely under submerged conditions
Integrate continuous leak detection and
retrievable consumption history
Use vandal deterrent technologies in
unlicensed frequency
Be one-piece, integrated unit with no exposed
wiring to look similar to a manual meter
Fixed network AMI preferred, but Mobile AMR
considered in analysis
21. Technologies Evaluated
Four AMR Technologies
1. Walk-by with Handheld
2. Drive-by with Laptop
3. AMR: One way Fixed network
1. Periodic Data Transmission one way
from Meter to SWWC
4. AMI: Two way Fixed network
1. Data-Reports Transmission to SWWC
2. SWWC commands to meter
25. Technologies Evaluated
Four AMR Technologies
1. Walk-by with Handheld
2. Drive-by with Laptop
3. AMR: One way Fixed network
1. Periodic Data Transmission one way
from Meter to SWWC
4. AMI: Two way Fixed network
1. Data-Reports Transmission to SWWC
2. SWWC commands to meter
26. Vendor Evaluation for Automatic RF Meters
Evaluation Criteria to Rank 8 AMR Vendors:
Compatibility with existing water meters
Low flow accuracy
Strength of transmission signal
Encapsulated one-piece vandal deterrent module
Financial Stability of the Company
FCC License
Material & Workmanship Deficiency + AWWA
Accuracy Warranty
Battery life expectancy
Hourly 6 month Consumption history
Data transmission in submerged conditions
Last 15 year performance in Texas
Meter register malfunction due to silt in water
27. AMR / AMI Project
Objective: Find one vendor
who can supply and install TX
wide in 6 months, an accurate
automatic water meter, and a
reliable RF frequency network
system, which provides the best
return on Investment, for the
lowest life-cycle cost
28. Evaluation Process
Technology Research
Preliminary Selection
Vendor Technology Presentations
Detailed Evaluation and Ranking
Field visits to working systems/demos
Meetings with clients
Final Evaluation and Ranking
RFP, Bid Review, Vendor Proposal
Presentation, and Award
36. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chuck Profilet, P.E., Vice President and
Managing Director
Ed Taussig, Finance Director
Ryan Quigley, Director of Operations
Gary Rose, Director of Operations
Doug Connor, District Manager
David Garrett, IT Project Manager
George Freitag, Rate Manager
Shawn Sharkey, P.E. Project Engineer
Janice Hayes, Community Relations Manager
37. Updated Contact Information
Daniel Christodoss is currently at
Enprovise Solutions, Inc. and can be
reached at (817) 894-1357 or by
email at danielc@enprovise.net
Web Address1: www.enprovise.net
Web Address2: www.cleanwater4.us
Web Address3: www.prowebserv.com
Thanks and have a great day!
Editor's Notes
Here’s a profile of TX Utilties in relation to distribution of our systems and the $s we spend annually on manual meter reading. Hazards are high and challenges abound from hill country in the regions of Austin, San Antonio and Granbury to low meter density neighborhoods in hard to access backyard alleys all across the DFW and Houston regions. We spend about $1 million annually on the meter reading program, but there are hazards and challenges that could trend to a higher value.
We require our meter readers to risk their lives by having to walk through overgrown vegetation which is a habitat for wild animals. This is an incident that occurred just a few weeks back in Granbury and represents a typical problem we face daily, all across Texas.
We require our meter readers to risk their lives by having to walk through overgrown vegetation which is a habitat for wild animals. This is an incident that occurred just a few weeks back in Granbury and represents a typical problem we face daily, all across Texas.
Here’s a profile of TX Utilties in relation to distribution of our systems and the $s we spend annually on manual meter reading. Hazards are high and challenges abound from hill country in the regions of Austin, San Antonio and Granbury to low meter density neighborhoods in hard to access backyard alleys all across the DFW and Houston regions. We spend about $1 million annually on the meter reading program, but there are hazards and challenges that could trend to a higher value.
Here’s a profile of TX Utilties in relation to distribution of our systems and the $s we spend annually on manual meter reading. Hazards are high and challenges abound from hill country in the regions of Austin, San Antonio and Granbury to low meter density neighborhoods in hard to access backyard alleys all across the DFW and Houston regions. We spend about $1 million annually on the meter reading program, but there are hazards and challenges that could trend to a higher value.
We require our meter readers to risk their lives by having to walk through overgrown vegetation which is a habitat for wild animals. This is an incident that occurred just a few weeks back in Granbury and represents a typical problem we face daily, all across Texas.
We require our meter readers to risk their lives by having to walk through overgrown vegetation which is a habitat for wild animals. This is an incident that occurred just a few weeks back in Granbury and represents a typical problem we face daily, all across Texas.
We’ll show the spread of our water and wastewater systems across TX and highlight the challenges we face currently in our manual meter reading program with a photograph of a typical biological hazard which our meter readers face routinely. Next we’ll talk about the first step in our automatic meter reading project, evaluating the vendors and various technologies to address our current challenges. Update on vendor technical presentations, a short discussion of how the various technologies work and technology issues or limitations we have to address before implementation. We have generated a list of our preferred AMR features. Finally we’ll show our schedule which includes an RFP and Pilot prior to vendor selection.
Highlighted in this slide are some of the AMR features we would like to see in the selected technology. Itron and Datamatic are the only ones that have all the features reflected on this slide. Next we will highlight our schedule.
We have been open to fully automated as well as partially automated technologies because in reality we may find that the fixed network is not compatible with all of our systems spread out throughout the state. Our systems are diverse. Some with significant changes in elevation in the hill country region and some with low meter density in a rural environment. Therefore, a combination of technologies may be more feasible than a one size fits all approach.
We have been open to fully automated as well as partially automated technologies because in reality we may find that the fixed network is not compatible with all of our systems spread out throughout the state. Our systems are diverse. Some with significant changes in elevation in the hill country region and some with low meter density in a rural environment. Therefore, a combination of technologies may be more feasible than a one size fits all approach.
In our transition to automatic meter reading, we want to: Get accurate consumption data across the typical flow ranges. Install completely automated fixed networks to eliminate travel for meter reading, and Select technology that provides the best return on investment
In our transition to automatic meter reading, we want to: Get accurate consumption data across the typical flow ranges. Install completely automated fixed networks to eliminate travel for meter reading, and Select technology that provides the best return on investment