Texas city to enhance billing system with smart water meters

Metering.com 12 AUGUST 2016

The US city of Cedar Park in Texas state announced that it will kickstart its project to install smart water meters in September throughout to the first quarter of 2017.

The Texas city will replace its existing 22,000 water meters with the new smart meters to enhance its water billing as well as help consumers to save water and money.

The new metering system is expected to help in lowering operational expenses through a reduction in water leakages and theft. In addition, the system will help Cedar City to do away with expenses associated with the traditional manual meter reading.

The project will costs $5.19 million and will allow consumers to view their usage data via an online platform updated every four hours.

Lyle Grimes, a councillor in Cedar City, said the smart water meters “… not only allow more transparency on the city side but also on the customer side. It allows them so see their usage and make adjustments.”

The project will replace the city’s remote radio-read system which meter readers used to collect meter data on a monthly basis as they drive by water meters. [Smart water meters: US cities curb non-technical losses].

Smart water meters in the US

The US city of Berea in Ohio also partnered with metering solutions company Badger Meter and metering firm NECO for the rollout of a smart water meters project.

Under the programme, the city will install some 4,000 Badger water meters with assistance from NECO to reduce non-revenue water through accurate water billing and leak detections.

Commenting on the programme, Cyril Kleem, mayor of Berea city said: “Some meters in the city are 50 years old, they need to be replaced.”

The new system will allow the city water department to communicate with its consumers remotely on a daily basis unlike in the existing system whereby the city carried out meter reads on a quarterly basis.

“This will be more efficient for the Water Department,” added the mayor. [Smart water meters: US city agrees to rollout of 34,000 units]

The programme comes into existence following the approval of a $1.7m loan from the Ohio Water Development Authority for the city to upgrade its metering system.