Water utilities worldwide are embracing AMR, with thousands of projects complete, under way or in development. For example, more than 25% of water meters in the United States are now equipped with AMR. Many utilities are considering AMR in conjunction with installing meters on their unmetered customers. In recent years, AMR products have become more feature rich, more reliable and less costly. In addition to meter reading, utilities are realizing additional benefits from theft detection, outage monitoring, leak detection, daily real-time consumption analysis, and customer self-service.
Many of the utilities that have not yet undertaken AMR would like better tools for understanding and evaluating the technology, the investment decision and the numerous issues related to implementation and long-term management. Many of the utilities that have or are implementing AMR would like to better understand how to realize the greatest long-term benefits from their investment, and how to plan for the eventual replacement of their existing systems.
This research project will develop a set of best practices and guidance documents for AMR technology assessment, business case development, system procurement and implementation planning. It will also explore and attempt to quantify the benefits of AMR for customer service, conservation, and distribution system management. It will gather perspectives from a variety of utilities that have or are undertaking AMR, published literature and vendor information. The project involves:
• detailed case studies of AMR projects
• review of current and emerging technologies and applications
• pilots of AMR-based leak and backflow detectors
• assessment of the conservation potential of AMR
• developing a “toolkit” for AMR technology assessment
• developing a business case template
• identifying critical success factors for AMR implementation
• workshops to develop and solicit feedback on evaluation and planning tools
