AMI in NYC
New York City upgrades water meters with cutting-edge AMI.
When New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) made the decision in 2005 to replace the 400,000 residential meters that had been installed between 1988 and 1997, it realized it was also the most advantageous time to install an advanced metering infrastructure along with new meters.
Such an infrastructure would solve a problem that had dogged the department for years—getting beyond the 85% meter read rate. A modern Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)/automatic meter reading (AMR) infrastructure would allow the water utility to improve collections, obtain better water use data, and qualitatively improve its credibility and customer service. Now, four years later, as the new water meters and AMI technology are being installed, they are already at a 98% read rate.
Coincidentally, as DEP began work on the project and wrote its business plan for its AMI project in 2006, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) designed and built a citywide wireless system called The New York City Wireless Network (NYCWiN), based on Gigahertz (GHz)-level frequency communications. The system has capabilities and capacity for improving wireless field communications for many city agencies, including data and graphics—exactly what the future AMI system needed.
Furthermore, DEP could install an AMI system’s data collector units next to the NYCWiN equipment DoITT installed on more than 400 rooftop and pole top locations that it had leased. The data collector units use Ethernet connections to NYCWiN to transmit the data collected from the AMI transmitters connected to the water meters back to a network control computer.
The NYC DEP released its request for proposals in May 2007 for a field pilot test, in which it selected two finalists’ technologies in September 2007. Aclara, part of the Utility Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies, was one of the finalists, and its STAR Network AMI system was selected in May 2008 for full implementation following the field pilot test.
The pilot was conducted in the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, NY, and Aclara’s pilot involved 200 meters in each location. It was designed to prove the STAR Network’s effectiveness in an urban environment, and demonstrated that its radio-based system, operating on 450- to 475-Megahertz (MHz) frequencies, could transmit readings from meters in a variety of locations, such as building basements and pits, or below-ground meter locations where homes or buildings have no basements.
DEP split the city into 12 contract areas and competitively bid contracts in the spring and summer of 2008, for contractors to replace the water meters and install the AMI transmitters. Installers began work in phases, starting in March 2009. Northrup Grumman was selected to install the rooftop data collector units, beginning in November 2008. It completed the job a year later.
DEP was concerned about properly organizing the installation work, maintaining quality of data inputs, providing contractors with timely feedback on the quality of their work, updating the billing system, and getting the contractors paid on time. It knew this could only be done with automation.
First, water meters were ordered with bar coded serial numbers to further avoid data entry errors for meter serial numbers. At the same time, Aclara’s AMI network transmitter programming and work order software used by the installers of Aclara equipment was redesigned. The Web-based application is called MITS and was designed by SVAM International, in partnership with Aclara and DEP.
MITS allows installers to download the property information, or specific properties for appointment-based routes, from DEP’s customer database into their handheld computers that they carry with them into the fields. They did not have to rely on manually entering information, nor did management have to worry about human errors. At the end of each workday, the completed work is uploaded into MITS; the data is then moved to the STAR Network control computers, DEP’s billing system, and MITS’s inventory and contractor payment modules.
MITS can also track inventory and acts as a central project management tool. Electronic packing lists from Aclara and meter manufacturers, Elster and Metron-Farnier, can be incorporated into the MITS database and can be matched with the serial numbers of the completed work uploaded by the installers each day. It can also compare the AMI transmission unit serial numbers reported installed with their “wake up” signals and subsequent reads received by the STAR network control computer.
Once this verification protocol proves the AMI transmitters are functioning, work can then be quickly approved for payment. Furthermore, each installer has a dashboard report from the MITS software informing him or her of the number of successes and failures from the previous day, along with the list of failures requiring corrective action.
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MITS software also allows installers to record and report the source of problems that prevent them from installing water meters and AMI transmitters, whether it be lack of access to a building, a vacant building, deteriorated plumbing, or something else. They can also report possible theft of service or properties that do not appear to be in DEP’s customer database.
Before the end of 2009, DEP hopes to provide customer access to meter readings, graphic displays of consumption, and downloaded data through its Web site integrated with information from the actual water/sewer bill.
Author's Bio: CA-based, Lyn Corum is a technical writer, specializing in energy topics.
January-February 2010
AMI in NYC
New York City upgrades water meters with cutting-edge AMI.
When New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) made the decision in 2005 to replace the 400,000 residential meters that had been installed between 1988 and 1997, it realized it was also the most advantageous time to install an advanced metering infrastructure along with new meters.
Such an infrastructure would solve a problem that had dogged the department for years—getting beyond the 85% meter read rate. A modern Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)/automatic meter reading (AMR) infrastructure would allow the water utility to improve collections, obtain better water use data, and qualitatively improve its credibility and customer service. Now, four years later, as the new water meters and AMI technology are being installed, they are already at a 98% read rate.
Coincidentally, as DEP began work on the project and wrote its business plan for its AMI project in 2006, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) designed and built a citywide wireless system called The New York City Wireless Network (NYCWiN), based on Gigahertz (GHz)-level frequency communications. The system has capabilities and capacity for improving wireless field communications for many city agencies, including data and graphics—exactly what the future AMI system needed.
Furthermore, DEP could install an AMI system’s data collector units next to the NYCWiN equipment DoITT installed on more than 400 rooftop and pole top locations that it had leased. The data collector units use Ethernet connections to NYCWiN to transmit the data collected from the AMI transmitters connected to the water meters back to a network control computer.
The NYC DEP released its request for proposals in May 2007 for a field pilot test, in which it selected two finalists’ technologies in September 2007. Aclara, part of the Utility Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies, was one of the finalists, and its STAR Network AMI system was selected in May 2008 for full implementation following the field pilot test.
The pilot was conducted in the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, NY, and Aclara’s pilot involved 200 meters in each location. It was designed to prove the STAR Network’s effectiveness in an urban environment, and demonstrated that its radio-based system, operating on 450- to 475-Megahertz (MHz) frequencies, could transmit readings from meters in a variety of locations, such as building basements and pits, or below-ground meter locations where homes or buildings have no basements.
DEP split the city into 12 contract areas and competitively bid contracts in the spring and summer of 2008, for contractors to replace the water meters and install the AMI transmitters. Installers began work in phases, starting in March 2009. Northrup Grumman was selected to install the rooftop data collector units, beginning in November 2008. It completed the job a year later.
DEP was concerned about properly organizing the installation work, maintaining quality of data inputs, providing contractors with timely feedback on the quality of their work, updating the billing system, and getting the contractors paid on time. It knew this could only be done with automation.
First, water meters were ordered with bar coded serial numbers to further avoid data entry errors for meter serial numbers. At the same time, Aclara’s AMI network transmitter programming and work order software used by the installers of Aclara equipment was redesigned. The Web-based application is called MITS and was designed by SVAM International, in partnership with Aclara and DEP.
MITS allows installers to download the property information, or specific properties for appointment-based routes, from DEP’s customer database into their handheld computers that they carry with them into the fields. They did not have to rely on manually entering information, nor did management have to worry about human errors. At the end of each workday, the completed work is uploaded into MITS; the data is then moved to the STAR Network control computers, DEP’s billing system, and MITS’s inventory and contractor payment modules.
MITS can also track inventory and acts as a central project management tool. Electronic packing lists from Aclara and meter manufacturers, Elster and Metron-Farnier, can be incorporated into the MITS database and can be matched with the serial numbers of the completed work uploaded by the installers each day. It can also compare the AMI transmission unit serial numbers reported installed with their “wake up” signals and subsequent reads received by the STAR network control computer.
Once this verification protocol proves the AMI transmitters are functioning, work can then be quickly approved for payment. Furthermore, each installer has a dashboard report from the MITS software informing him or her of the number of successes and failures from the previous day, along with the list of failures requiring corrective action.
MITS software also allows installers to record and report the source of problems that prevent them from installing water meters and AMI transmitters, whether it be lack of access to a building, a vacant building, deteriorated plumbing, or something else. They can also report possible theft of service or properties that do not appear to be in DEP’s customer database.
Before the end of 2009, DEP hopes to provide customer access to meter readings, graphic displays of consumption, and downloaded data through its Web site integrated with information from the actual water/sewer bill.