HP Pioneering Advanced Metering Infrastructure Solutions For Water Utilities
Detroit Water and Sewerage
Like the majority of suburban utilities, Detroit Water and Sewerage used to bill customers based on estimated meter readings. As a result, many customers disputed their bills – and the reliability of the related data was often at the heart of the discussions. Now, with our Advanced Meter Infrastructure Solution, the utility accesses accurate, real-time data for billing.
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A number of economic, social, political and market forces are pushing utilities to adopt a more intelligent approach to the generation and delivery of electricity, gas and water. Forward-looking utilities now see the need for more intelligent operating structures that combine the power of information technology with the emerging capabilities of environmental technology. The resulting Smart Grids will enable utilities to anticipate and eventually shape consumer demand.
While Smart Grid is typically thought of as a solution for electric utilities, a more intelligent approach to the management of water is critical to environmental sustainability. It is important to remember experts predict a global water shortage in the next century. With the expected exponential growth of the world population to 9 billion people by 2050, there will be ever increasing urgency to improve the management of earth’s clean water.
Smart Grid is not just a technology evolution, nor a fad in utility operations management. It’s a complete paradigm shift that will change utilities from top to bottom. To create this more intelligent utility model – described by some as Smart Power – utilities will need to master and leverage a new generation of embedded computing, advance metering infrastructure, data and integration technologies.
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Few utilities have or want to build the complex internal structures needed to plan and manage a Smart Grid environment. That is why many successful utilities have formed collaborative partnerships with “smart partners” capable of contributing the hardware, software, tools, automation and an advanced metering infrastructure needed to function in the coming smart utility environment.
Today, HP is at the forefront of providing best-in-class services and methodologies to help utilities build an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) that automates existing manual processes, reduces operational costs, improves data quality and equips organizations with the flexibility they needs to move into the future.
When Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), the third-largest water and sewer utility in the United States, wanted to automate meter readings and integrate meter data with its billing system and other applications, they turned to HP. Serving this 4 million+ customer base had become difficult with an 18-year-old water meter infrastructure. Manual meter reading and work order processes led to costly data entry errors, billing inaccuracies and even fraud.
HP helped DWSD build and implement one of the largest and most advanced fixed network-based Advanced Metering Infrastructure solutions for a water utility in North America. DWSD’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure now seamlessly integrates operations from the meter to the department’s core billing applications within a highly scalable, flexible service-oriented architecture. Meter accuracy has improved, while metering costs have gone down. Today, department staff can instantly access customer meter data from anywhere at any time and resolve issues in just one phone call. Meanwhile, best-in-class reporting and business intelligence have produced productivity gains of up to 15 percent.
Customer satisfaction has been greatly improved now that we can now resolve customer issues with one phone call. DWSD is able to verify billing records and pressures and flows within the system on a day-to-day basis. Customers now have instant access to consumption data and are mostly billed according to usage rather than estimates based on previous usage. This encourages customers to take an active role in responsible water consumption and enhances conservation awareness.
The emergence of the technologies, like advanced metering infrastructure, are making smart grids possible and enabling utilities to provide their customers with the information and control they need to actually change their behavior patterns, reduce usage and costs, and promote conservation. Learn more about how HP is pioneering the shift to smart utilities with the HP Advanced Meter Infrastructure Solution. See and read how Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has eliminated meter rereads, serves customers better and gives greater control of water use.