When Tools Converge to Help Cities Monitor their Entire Water System
When my past employer, the city of LaSalle, installed an automatic meter reading (AMR) system, I was excited about the technology and looked forward to improving the efficiency of our meter reading and water billing system. Some of the benefits included tracking and notifications to staff of customer leaks, immediate final reads, high/low water usage, and tampering alerts. Yet, as an engineer, I also planned on using the data for designing, monitoring, and operating our water system.
My vision had been to link the data to a digital map created from our GIS where dots represented meters. Colors and other indicators would tell us of real-time reads, flows, pressures, and all that good stuff allowing a visualization of how our system was functioning using real-time actual data. Unfortunately, once I saw the software and asked about the ability to extract data from the database, not only did the vendors seem surprised anyone would even want this information, they made it clear their system was designed for billing only. If we wanted to do anything more with the data, we would have to hire our own programmer and create our own setup.
As time went on, our provider began developing an interface that would allow customers to view their usage. However, the information provided was the same as what our billing staff received – still no movement to offer information for design or operational purposes.
And over the last couple years, I have not seen much movement in this direction by any vendor. That was until a few weeks ago. After spending the last year or so watching numerous presentations by AMR vendors, the primary differences I’ve seen between them seems to be the use of a mesh network versus a fixed network. Yet, at our last presentation given by Cooper Power Systems, I finally heard something that got my attention.
Cooper is a company with 180 years under their belt. Throughout their history, they’ve focused on serving the power industry. A year or two ago, they expanded into the AMR market with the purchase of Eka – a smart-grid startup offering meter reading services utilizing a wireless mesh network. Like other mesh networks, their system relies on a group of nodes to collect and channel reads to a central collector. However, this is where they begin to differ from traditional AMR vendors.
Because of their strong background in SCADA, Cooper views the central collection point as more than just a database transfer point. The company develops their main collector using their Yukon software allowing this system to provide many of the services normally only included in an MDM. I do realize adding software with some MDM features into the mix might not set them totally apart. After all an MDM is a standard option in other packages. But it does position them to take advantage of their innovative vision of expanding the AMR system to integrate or merge with a utility’s existing SCADA and GIS systems. With this setup, a city could have the ability to launch an AMR installation that truly monitors the entire water system—customers and utility delivery and treatment operations.
It was exciting to hear them describe a setup that converges with our GIS and SCADA allowing us to watch the operation of our utility. But even better, because this technology embeds intelligence, it can analyze operations and suggest changes in pipe sizes and locations to optimize operation. There are programs now that perform similar tasks, but they do not operate off real data and instead offer a snapshot of one point in time or analyze conditions based on a limited data set. With the system envisioned by Cooper, the analysis could be done on a 24x7x365 day-a-year basis providing us true insight into increasing efficiencies. And by including 3D immersive technology we could add another layer of understanding and visualization.
Unfortunately there’s no system I know of yet installed to operate in this manner. But after hearing Cooper’s presentation, I believe those of us in design and operation won’t have to wait long before we’re taking advantage of a true convergence of technologies.
By Pam Broviak, City Engineer/Assistant Director of Public Works at City of Geneva, Illinois.
About Pam Broviak
Pam Broviak is a City Engineer and Assistant Director of Public Works at the City of Geneva, Illinois. Pam is also a contributing blogger at Hanley Wood (Public Works Magazine) and at the Public Works Group blog. Follow Pam on Twitter.
All views expressed by me are my own and not those of The City of Geneva or of any person or organization affiliated or doing business with The City of Geneva.
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