WRWA Presentation

Gresham Municipal Utilities

Journey to Fixed-Base Water and Electric MeteringArt Bahr – Utility Manager and Administrator

Eric VanLaanen & Kelly L. Olson, P.E.



What are they?• Positive Displacement Meters (Circa

1950)• Mechanical Electric Meters (Circa 1950-

1980) • Service Connections• Cash Registers! We were due for a

Replacement


Evolution of Meter Reading at GMU• Customer Phoned In or Dropped Readings Off• Meter Tickets Hung on Doors• Meter Reader Read the Meter in the

Basement each quarter• Meter Reader Read an Outside Reader

Monthly• Meter Reader used a Touch Pad to Read each

Month• Automated Meter Reading Maintains the

Reading for Whenever Needed


Long Journeys Require Careful PlanningThe GMU AMR Timeline

2006 – The Idea Starts - $$$ 2008 – Idea is Revisited -Research and Education Begin 2009 – Village Board and Committees are Educated on

the Idea and its Benefits 2010 – GMU Began Visiting Other Utilities to See AMR

Uses and Technologies 2011 – Visioning Starts 2012 – GMU Requests On-Site Demonstrations by

Vendors 2013 – AMR Request for Proposal is Developed 2014 – Installation Begins 2015 – AMR System is Commissioned

Nearly a

Decade!


The Path We Chose

Research Educate Justify Samplin

gVisionin

g

Request for

Proposal

Scoring of

Proposals

PSC Approv

alPurchas

e Install

Our most important considerations.

Our vendors most important considerations.


Our RFP Required Input from ALL! Visioning –

Included the whole team Meter Technicians – both water and electric Management Accounting Billing Village Board and Committees Supplier / Vendor IT Personnel


Decisions We Had to Make Meter Types – Water and Electric Location of Manufacturer Metering Communication Technologies Rate Case Decisions Availability of Outside Support Staff and Local Supplier Our Experiences With Each Vendor References of Each Vendor Technical Training Required to Operate and Install the System Our Staff’s Comfort Level with the Technology Project Management Responsibilities Technologies Used to Maintain the Data Software Compatibilities Support and Maintenance Costs Did We Want to Be Industry Mavericks or Use Proven Technologies


The One DocumentThat Tied It All Together

“Gresham Municipal Utilities Request for Proposal to Purchase and Install Automated Meter Systems for Its Water, Sewer, and Electric Utilities”

The one document that summarized our decisions.

The What, Who, Where, and When.

The Specifications

The Legal Guide Used to Generate Our Suppliers Contract.


The RFP Basics Who – Provides, Installs, Tests, Trains, Supports, Manages the Project,

Data Management, Coordinates Third Party Software (Billing). What – Equipment Type, Quantities, Computing Environment, Options -

GIS, Outage Management, Alarm and Alert Notification, Customer Portals, and Data Logging.

Where – On-Site Training, Local Service Territory. When – Equipment Arrivals, Length of Installation, Commissioning,

Substantial Completion, Training. Transparency - Develop a fair method of scoring your received

proposals, and communicate your means as to the process you will use. Set firm deadlines for: Questioning, Receiving, Scoring, and Responding. The received proposals should give you a complete cost to attain the

Vision your team agreed on. (10-year payback)


Writing The RFP We did not use a lawyer or an engineer.

There are plenty of templates available on line. Surfing pays off! Make sure you have permission to use them. The site will say if it’s okay.

Customize for your needs Don’t Plagiarize!

The RFP is meant to give each proposer an equal opportunity to give you what you want, based on

your vision and your goals.


Writing The RFP

Create a way for each Vendor to guarantee compliance or justify “why not”.

We used a Compliance Table, in which every paragraph needed to be verified.


GMU’s Vision Fixed Base System RF Based Technologies with FCC Licensed Frequency Support from Staff Based within the Wisconsin/Mid-Western U.S. Magnetic Technology Residential Water Metering Internet Based Web Services Hosted by the Vendor Reading Data is Secured and Maintained Off Site All Forms of Metering Available Thru AMR Provider Capable of Meeting PSC Rate Case Compatibility with our present billing/accounting software Friendly / Easy to Use Software Interfaces Technologies That Matched Our Staff Comfort Levels Free up and Specialist’s Time for More Important Duties = GREATER EFFICIENCY! Metering Alarms and Notifications GIS Mapping Rate Payer Benefits – Conservation and Rate Plan Options Record and Maintain Data to Aid in Investigations


Gresham Municipal Utilities Propagation Study


Gresham Municipal Utilities - Installation We did the installation in-house. (We did look at the cost of contracting it out.)

HD Supply trained our staff on what needed to be programmed, and rented additional units to push the installations along.

Started with water. 2 people dedicated full-time to the installs. Created customer awareness. Sent letters with the bills. Able to coordinate almost all in normal work hours. Total Duration about 4 months.

Started electric. Conducted small test-batch first. 3 lineman dedicated full-time for installs. Prior notification for power outage was important! If situations required, we bypassed

service. Total Duration about 3 months.


Gresham Municipal UtilitiesTraining

Sensus conducted 3-days of detailed training at GMU. Training was tailored to positions / meter readers / lineman / billing / customer

clerk and administration. Sensus also provides on-line training.


Gresham Municipal UtilitiesSoftware Integration

Involved Parties: GMU, Billing System Provider, IT Services, Meter Vendor. Most of the integration was accomplished on-line. Integration was tailored to billing clerk and administration.


Gresham Municipal UtilitiesTesting of System

Involved Parties: Billing System, IT Services, and Meter Vendor. Most was conducted on-line, real-time. Field verification of readings. Because of clarified RFP requirements, we had minimal “tweaking”.


Gresham Municipal UtilitiesSensus Logic Website


GMU – Sensus Device Manager


Lessons Learned (From Utility) Internal communication within office for integration. Importance of integration of customer numbers. We needed to tie the address

to the meter ID#. Took time for our staff to get acquainted to the system. Patience and slower pace at times were benefits.


Lessons Learned (From Vendor) Regular interval for project management calls. Switched from monthly to bi-

weekly. Maintaining good communication with Manufacturer. Assigning accountability for follow-up and answers. Anticipating lead times, specific to the First Article of electric meters.


Additional Benefits That We Gained Cross-Connection Service Inspections = Efficiency of man-hours Identifying voltage loss at ends of lines = Speeding up the troubleshooting

process Discontinued Use of Sprinkling Meters = Eased billing complications Replaced Inaccurate and Aged Meters = Increase revenue for water and electric PSC Investigations More Efficient = Time to investigate now is less Offer New Rate Options = Greater customer service Reduction of Workplace Injury = Safer for staff and Workers Compensation Issues Identification of Customer Leaks = Conservation of resources Accountability for Customers = Real conversations based on real data Reduction of lost service revenues = Water and Electric


Super Fun Extra Benefits That We Gained Incorrect plumbing - bypassing water meters. Customers turning water back on after being

disconnected for non-payment. Meters hadn’t recorded usage in years. 7 leaking laterals in one mobile home park! (15,000

gpd!) 1 home with leaking lateral (10,000 gpd!) Hot Socket Alarms = Saved 2 houses from burning! Kids at school turned on all showers after a basketball

game, and left. “OFF” switch at large power customer – bypassing

electric meter!


Our AMI Team


QUESTIONS??? [email protected]

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WRWA Presentation