If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Fix It
A Whitepaper on AMI Analytics for Water Utilities
Harnessing Aclara Advanced Analytics for Water Balancing, Meter Trending and Meter Right-Sizing Water utility managers today face a conundrum. The American Water Works Association (AWWA) recommends a water utility strive for non-revenue water loss at 10-15 percent, but managers know that many systems lose as much as 50 percent. Discovering where these losses occur is difficult. There’s plenty of data out there explaining the scope of non-revenue water (NRW) loss that can account for more than $2.6 billion in lost revenues for U.S. water utilities each year. Figures from the AWWA show a complex combination of unmetered or unbilled consumption factors, along with an array of meter misread issues, or pure leakage, creating this problem. Yet assessing the exact combination of these factors, and deciding how to deploy time and resources to fix which set of problems is inherently unclear. But two things are clear. One, every water utility understands the issue and is looking for solutions. And two, any water utility with an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) communications network may already have the tools to mitigate the impact of unauthorized consumption, unbilled unmetered consumption, meter inaccuracy, and leakage. ... This white paper will explore how water utilities with planned or deployed AMI systems can leverage the data on their systems in combination with Aclara analytic tools to: • Significantly improve insight into the problem and derive solutions to water balancing, • Get more accurate meter trending information to improve meter accuracy and meter asset management, • Harness data to improve meter reading by checking and fixing meter right-sizing, and • Use enhanced AMI-based data to improve meter operations and ROI, and recapture lost revenue from non-revenue water use. Get More From AMI Data Today, AMI is as much about getting the data you need to power new applications and services as it is about meter reading. It’s about using data-driven information to leverage your AMI investment to improve existing services and to manage your water distribution network. It’s about data that’s easy to access and analytics that provide insight about resources and revenues. Aclara’s STAR_ prestige ™ , which is based on industry-leading FATHOM ™ meter data management and analytics software, is a hosted solution that leverages the information – and investment – of a water company’s advanced metering infrastructure. With complete web-based visibility across the entire distribution system, utilities have a new level of information and control over their resources, assets, and revenue. Utilities gain new insights via the STAR_ prestige network management dashboard, which provides geospatial status and alarm conditions for both meter transmission units (MTUs) and data collector units (DCUs), as well as installation and manage - ment reports and network queries. STAR _ prestige advanced distribution and meter analytics lets water utilities maintain complete visibility, end-to-end, across the distribution network with web-based analytic tools that help determine water balances, meter trends, and meter right-sizing. Water Balancing How to recover the millions of dollars in non-revenue water lost is a challenge every water utility faces. Both authorized and unauthorized consumption, apparent loses through theft or meter-reading inaccuracy, and real loss from distribution mains right up to end-point hook-ups contribute to the loss between the pump and the user – both commercial and industrial. By collecting hourly data at multiple metering points along the network – from production points such as wells or bulk water supplies, to key points along the distribution, to the end-user meters – water utility operations teams can pin-point problems at a single meter or trends across thousands of units.
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