Automatic Meter Reading has transformed the way today’s utilities conduct business. Its benefits reach far beyond the meter reading shop into the customer service call center, the engineer’s office and across the entire operation.
The degree of transformation is largely contingent on the amount of data provided by the system in question.AMR technologies which provide only reading and tamper information are undeniably beneficial to utilities in many ways.They address issues of reader safety, reduce reading personnel needs and expedite data collection.However, they cannot match the enterprise-wide benefits of more advanced AMR technologies.
Advanced Systems
"Advanced" AMR refers to those systems capable of providing various types of interval usage data along with the current reading.Many systems allow users to define the length of the intervals recorded, based on the application and utility being collected.Fifteen-minute intervals are generally regarded as both meaningful and sufficiently precise for most residential applications, however shorter (and longer) intervals can also be used.
Advanced AMR encompasses systems that deliver data over fixed networks (broadband, cellular, RF and WiFi) as well as systems in which the interval data is stored at the meter interface unit.The ability to provide such data allows the benefits of AMR to be felt beyond the meter reading operation and throughout the entire utility.
One of the first places the value of advanced AMR is experienced is on the utility’s "front lines," customer service.Billing disputes and turn-on/turn-offs comprise a large portion of the calls in any given day, both of which can be significantly impacted by the information delivered by an advanced AMR system. AMR can also offer solutions to many of the unusual requests customer service is asked to handle.
"By implementing a comprehensive advanced AMR system to collect readings from our electric, gas and water meters, we can maximize our resources, streamline processes and enhance customer service," said Bill Gaguski, IS Director for the City of Lawrenceville, Georgia. "Interval data is a feature that is taking our customer service and system management to the next level.For the first time, we’ll have detailed usage information available from every meter. We can resolve customer billing disputes, detect theft, find leaks and undersized meters, study peak demand and a hundred other things now that we have the data."
Settling Billing Disputes
The first step in settling a billing dispute is generally to re-read the meter; in order to determine if an inaccurate manual reading was the source of the high bill.However, this rarely provides satisfying closure for the customer. This is because most handheld computers immediately alert the reader when readings fall outside expected ranges and allow them to be checked and reentered.If it is discovered that a reading was correct after all, the utility and customer are at a stalemate: the usage is correct and no one has the story behind it. The utility often grants the customer a one-time credit as a measure of good faith, even though the entire bill may be completely legitimate.Enter advanced AMR.
The same scenario plays out quite differently if the utility is using an advanced AMR system. When the complaint is registered, the utility will be able to consult the usage profile for that customer’s meter during the period in question. Periods of high usage are quickly identified when viewing daily/hourly bar charts. When one considers times, dates and amounts, it is quite easy for the trained professional to see the difference between a general pattern of wasteful energy use and an electric furnace working overtime during a bitter cold snap. Walking a customer through an analysis of their usage normally leads to a more satisfying resolution that can also save the utility from losing money to an unnecessary service credit.
Eliminating Off-cycle Reads
Move-in/move-out reads are inherently inefficient and, in college towns and other heavily transient areas, incredibly time-consuming.Advanced AMR makes it possible to leave normal reading operations undisturbed. Instead of sending a reader on a specific day, to read the meter before the next tenant or homeowner arrives, customer service can simply consult the historical usage profile and quickly determine the usage as of that particular day.This can be done long after new tenants have moved in and started using the utilities. It also ensures a customer’s consumption history is captured and not be affected by anything that happens after their move. Thus, meter reading retains the efficiency of uninterrupted normal operations and the customer gets an accurate final bill.
The Good, the Bad and the "Other"
Customer service personnel are often called to deal with "special" situations. An advanced AMR system can equip them with the tools to address these issues, which can run the gamut - from the typical to the outrageous.One recent example involved a utility that was able to submit a customer profile as an evidentiary exhibit for a lawsuit between a homeowner and a contractor.It proved compelling enough that the contractor chose to settle out of court.
Catching utility thieves is difficult at best.But any law enforcement professional will tell you that historical data showing past behaviors is a great place to start. Profile data can often make it possible to establish a pattern of theft which can make it much easier for utility and law enforcement personnel to catch or prevent.A fairly common scenario has discovered and stopped construction crews from using live but unbilled utilities in areas of new construction.
Another unusual instance involvedenvironmental abuse and illegal dumping by a food processing company in North Texas. An observant worker at the utility noted from the usage profile that the company was using a tremendous amount of water around 3 a.m. several times per week. The utility discovered that the company was flushing its grease traps into the municipal water system, a violation of both local and federal environmental regulations. The company was warned and has complied with the law ever since.
"Our advanced AMR system is a great processing tool for providing detailed information for our customer base," added Gaguski.It also helps us resolve specific metering problems, and analyze utility usage whether it be gas, electric, or water."
Meter and Infrastructure Resizing and Planning
Operational efficiency can be greatly compromised by improperly-sized infrastructure and meters. Advanced AMR turns even thesimplest residential electric, gas and water meters into sophisticated data recorders capable of delivering demand and interval usage data, which in turn can be used to perform load studies over any portion of the distribution system.
Meter right-sizing involves examining usage and determining if it approaches the rated capacity of the meter. In cases where it does, replacement with the next larger size often will show that customer’s usage was higher than with the old meter.This is because undersized meters often cannot capture usage in excess of their rated capacities. One city began this kind of analysis and found a large portion of their meters to be undersized. Replacing the undersized meters with larger ones netted the utility nearly $2.5 million per year of previously lost revenues.
Transformers can be similarly evaluated by analyzing the aggregated usage patterns for all services attached to them. By noting these aggregated totals, peak loads can be accurately determined along with estimates as to the unit’s probability of failure. Transformers found to be close to, or routinely exceeding their rated capacities can be replaced. This kind of proactive resizing can prevent outages, unhappy customers and can save utilities money. Analyses of this kind can also be of great help in infrastructure planning and maintenance.
"Having an advanced AMR endpoint that is meter independent, that is, compatible with virtually any meter, adds another dimension of value to the equation," commented Scott Durham, Vice President of Sales for Datamatic Energy Systems."As undersized meters are discovered, it gives the utility unlimited replacement options.Without the constraints of proprietary AMR and able to choose any meter to replace those that need it, utilities are placed in a much more powerful position."
Summary
The advent and widespread proliferation of automatic meter reading has proved to be one of the most significant technological advances for utilities in the last 20 years. As AMR technologies have matured, so have the diversity and depth of its applications across utility operations. Technologies able to provide detailed interval usage profiles such as advanced AMR, are undoubtedly leading the way delivering the broadest value to today’s utility operations.
About the Author
With over 15 years business and sales management experience, Michael Caranfa has successfully managed and run sales, marketing and business development groups within technology, telecommunications, engineering and outsourcing organizations. As Director of Business Development for sDatamatic Energy Systems, Michael is responsible for providing focus and guidance for Datamatic’s gas and electric strategies as well as increasing the Company’s revenue and strengthening its customer base. The former United States Army Airborne Ranger served in the Persian Gulf War and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for actions in combat.Currently a captain with the Texas Army National Guard, he is a company commander with the 3rd Battalion, 144th Infantry.
Michael can be reached for comments or questions via email at mikec@datamatic.com.
The degree of transformation is largely contingent on the amount of data provided by the system in question.AMR technologies which provide only reading and tamper information are undeniably beneficial to utilities in many ways.They address issues of reader safety, reduce reading personnel needs and expedite data collection.However, they cannot match the enterprise-wide benefits of more advanced AMR technologies.
Advanced Systems
"Advanced" AMR refers to those systems capable of providing various types of interval usage data along with the current reading.Many systems allow users to define the length of the intervals recorded, based on the application and utility being collected.Fifteen-minute intervals are generally regarded as both meaningful and sufficiently precise for most residential applications, however shorter (and longer) intervals can also be used.
Advanced AMR encompasses systems that deliver data over fixed networks (broadband, cellular, RF and WiFi) as well as systems in which the interval data is stored at the meter interface unit.The ability to provide such data allows the benefits of AMR to be felt beyond the meter reading operation and throughout the entire utility.
One of the first places the value of advanced AMR is experienced is on the utility’s "front lines," customer service.Billing disputes and turn-on/turn-offs comprise a large portion of the calls in any given day, both of which can be significantly impacted by the information delivered by an advanced AMR system. AMR can also offer solutions to many of the unusual requests customer service is asked to handle.
"By implementing a comprehensive advanced AMR system to collect readings from our electric, gas and water meters, we can maximize our resources, streamline processes and enhance customer service," said Bill Gaguski, IS Director for the City of Lawrenceville, Georgia. "Interval data is a feature that is taking our customer service and system management to the next level.For the first time, we’ll have detailed usage information available from every meter. We can resolve customer billing disputes, detect theft, find leaks and undersized meters, study peak demand and a hundred other things now that we have the data."
Settling Billing Disputes
The first step in settling a billing dispute is generally to re-read the meter; in order to determine if an inaccurate manual reading was the source of the high bill.However, this rarely provides satisfying closure for the customer. This is because most handheld computers immediately alert the reader when readings fall outside expected ranges and allow them to be checked and reentered.If it is discovered that a reading was correct after all, the utility and customer are at a stalemate: the usage is correct and no one has the story behind it. The utility often grants the customer a one-time credit as a measure of good faith, even though the entire bill may be completely legitimate.Enter advanced AMR.
The same scenario plays out quite differently if the utility is using an advanced AMR system. When the complaint is registered, the utility will be able to consult the usage profile for that customer’s meter during the period in question. Periods of high usage are quickly identified when viewing daily/hourly bar charts. When one considers times, dates and amounts, it is quite easy for the trained professional to see the difference between a general pattern of wasteful energy use and an electric furnace working overtime during a bitter cold snap. Walking a customer through an analysis of their usage normally leads to a more satisfying resolution that can also save the utility from losing money to an unnecessary service credit.
Eliminating Off-cycle Reads
Move-in/move-out reads are inherently inefficient and, in college towns and other heavily transient areas, incredibly time-consuming.Advanced AMR makes it possible to leave normal reading operations undisturbed. Instead of sending a reader on a specific day, to read the meter before the next tenant or homeowner arrives, customer service can simply consult the historical usage profile and quickly determine the usage as of that particular day.This can be done long after new tenants have moved in and started using the utilities. It also ensures a customer’s consumption history is captured and not be affected by anything that happens after their move. Thus, meter reading retains the efficiency of uninterrupted normal operations and the customer gets an accurate final bill.
The Good, the Bad and the "Other"
Customer service personnel are often called to deal with "special" situations. An advanced AMR system can equip them with the tools to address these issues, which can run the gamut - from the typical to the outrageous.One recent example involved a utility that was able to submit a customer profile as an evidentiary exhibit for a lawsuit between a homeowner and a contractor.It proved compelling enough that the contractor chose to settle out of court.
Catching utility thieves is difficult at best.But any law enforcement professional will tell you that historical data showing past behaviors is a great place to start. Profile data can often make it possible to establish a pattern of theft which can make it much easier for utility and law enforcement personnel to catch or prevent.A fairly common scenario has discovered and stopped construction crews from using live but unbilled utilities in areas of new construction.
Another unusual instance involvedenvironmental abuse and illegal dumping by a food processing company in North Texas. An observant worker at the utility noted from the usage profile that the company was using a tremendous amount of water around 3 a.m. several times per week. The utility discovered that the company was flushing its grease traps into the municipal water system, a violation of both local and federal environmental regulations. The company was warned and has complied with the law ever since.
"Our advanced AMR system is a great processing tool for providing detailed information for our customer base," added Gaguski.It also helps us resolve specific metering problems, and analyze utility usage whether it be gas, electric, or water."
Meter and Infrastructure Resizing and Planning
Operational efficiency can be greatly compromised by improperly-sized infrastructure and meters. Advanced AMR turns even thesimplest residential electric, gas and water meters into sophisticated data recorders capable of delivering demand and interval usage data, which in turn can be used to perform load studies over any portion of the distribution system.
Meter right-sizing involves examining usage and determining if it approaches the rated capacity of the meter. In cases where it does, replacement with the next larger size often will show that customer’s usage was higher than with the old meter.This is because undersized meters often cannot capture usage in excess of their rated capacities. One city began this kind of analysis and found a large portion of their meters to be undersized. Replacing the undersized meters with larger ones netted the utility nearly $2.5 million per year of previously lost revenues.
Transformers can be similarly evaluated by analyzing the aggregated usage patterns for all services attached to them. By noting these aggregated totals, peak loads can be accurately determined along with estimates as to the unit’s probability of failure. Transformers found to be close to, or routinely exceeding their rated capacities can be replaced. This kind of proactive resizing can prevent outages, unhappy customers and can save utilities money. Analyses of this kind can also be of great help in infrastructure planning and maintenance.
"Having an advanced AMR endpoint that is meter independent, that is, compatible with virtually any meter, adds another dimension of value to the equation," commented Scott Durham, Vice President of Sales for Datamatic Energy Systems."As undersized meters are discovered, it gives the utility unlimited replacement options.Without the constraints of proprietary AMR and able to choose any meter to replace those that need it, utilities are placed in a much more powerful position."
Summary
The advent and widespread proliferation of automatic meter reading has proved to be one of the most significant technological advances for utilities in the last 20 years. As AMR technologies have matured, so have the diversity and depth of its applications across utility operations. Technologies able to provide detailed interval usage profiles such as advanced AMR, are undoubtedly leading the way delivering the broadest value to today’s utility operations.
About the Author
With over 15 years business and sales management experience, Michael Caranfa has successfully managed and run sales, marketing and business development groups within technology, telecommunications, engineering and outsourcing organizations. As Director of Business Development for sDatamatic Energy Systems, Michael is responsible for providing focus and guidance for Datamatic’s gas and electric strategies as well as increasing the Company’s revenue and strengthening its customer base. The former United States Army Airborne Ranger served in the Persian Gulf War and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for actions in combat.Currently a captain with the Texas Army National Guard, he is a company commander with the 3rd Battalion, 144th Infantry.
Michael can be reached for comments or questions via email at mikec@datamatic.com.
