The City of Winslow will begin its water meter replacement project this month. At the recent meeting of the Winslow Rotary Club, Ferguson Waterworks gave a presentation. Specialist Jordan Miller spoke on behalf of the company.
The contract for Ferguson Waterworks is $1 million. The City of Winslow will pay that fee from a bond issue that was sold, as well as $300,000 from the budgeted water fund. Ferguson is the hardware supplier, while Mueller Systems, LLC will manufacture, support, and provide software for the new meters at a fee of $23,000 a year for the next 20 years. That money will come from Winslow’s water funds. Ferguson is responsible for over 200 million water meters and transmitters nationwide. According to Miller, within that number, Ferguson experiences less than three percent equipment failure nationwide per year.
The new meters will replace approximately 2,800 older models in Winslow. According to Winslow Finance Director Elias Jouen, “Seventy five percent of the meters in town are over 20 years old.” These old meters have led to multiple issues in Winslow including inaccurate readings and water loss. Miller said, “Industry standards for meter systems is about 20 years, but I can say every water condition is different.” The replacing of the meters in Winslow will begin April 23 and will be completed July 24. Information on the schedule of the project is available on the City of Winslow’s website or by visiting City Hall located at 21 N. Williamson Ave.
Miller explained the benefits to the new system including a reduction in man power needed to monitor the meters, the elimination of human error in reading meters, a smaller amount of water loss for residents and cost savings for the city and residents.
As presented in Miller’s PowerPoint presentation, the system is referred to as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), “a metering system that records consumer consumption and provides frequent transmission of this data over a communication network to a central collection point for analysis and control.”
Though city employees will no longer need to read the meters at the curb, no jobs will be lost in the change over. Public Works Director Tim Westover said, “Right now, we are utilizing our workers and they are walking three routes in the city. We (with this system) won’t have to go out and individually read the meters,” he said, adding that there were no plans to cut any positions. “We won’t need ‘meter readers,’ but we will need water employees.”
The automated and radio transmitted information from the meters will be relayed to the city water department. From there, information is monitored for billing and for patterns of usage. Miller explained, “Each meter has a radio attached to it, it then transmits the read, as well as tamper alerts, data alerts and any other data that we can capture.” The transmission of data will likely eliminate the instance of human error in billing. “The city will actually be able to pull up an hourly consumption graph and show you every hour of every day and how much water you were using so that they can talk with you as to why you might have a spike in your water usage,” said Miller.
Preventing water loss is another benefit to the AMI, as it can be costly to consumers as well as the city and has environmental implications. “The system that Winslow is deploying can go as far as the consumer. They will go on to a consumer portal and set up their email address or their phone number for text alerts. When the meter detects a large leak, it will send an alert not only to city hall, but also to the consumer. It is a proactive approach, rather than a reactive approach.” The system is able to detect small leaks as well and collects data pertaining to usage patterns. “I would say 80 percent of water loss that happens happens right at the meter, before it goes in to the house. Meters are now as accurate as an eighth of a gallon per minute, so they are capturing everything down to trickles of water.” He said, “Unaccounted for water loss is coming from the water meter. When you deploy a system like this, we have seen water loss drop to under three percent.” Jouen added, “We can’t really tell you how much water we are losing, and it’s a nationwide effort to conserve water, with this system we will know.”
The efficiency of the system also includes remote shut off capabilities much like electric companies currently use. According to City Finance Director Elias Jouen, not all of the new meters will house the automatic shut off software, but addresses with a history of late payment will be equipped. “We do about 240 shut offs a year,” Jouen said. Miller explained the cost associated with those shut offs using the old system, “It takes the city to roll out a truck, they go out and turn off the water. With this system, you can turn it off with the touch of a button. Turning off service costs the city money, 200 shut-offs a year can result in about $2.4 million in savings over the 20 years this technology is guaranteed.”
“It’s not so much about making our job easier,” Jouen said, “it is going to be better for our customers.” There will be a letter included in Winslow utility bills this month explaining what is expected of residents during the switch. “Ferguson Water Works will need access to your property to perform the work, which typically takes about 30 minutes,” it reads, “The water meter area will need to remain clear of obstruction and accessible to the installer between April 30 and July 31 to allow Ferguson Water Works to perform all necessary installation and field calibation activites for the new water meters.” Residents are asked to watch for the letter as well as notices hung from their doorknobs as the project gets closer. Miller said, “The City of Winslow has made a great investment, and everyone will see a benefit from it.”
