C2Logix featured in National Rural Water Association article - April 2011
Ergs, Joules & Such
Notes On Energy Savings for the Rural Water Community and Maybe Others
I indicated in last month’s issue that this month I wanted to talk about meter management and that’s still the plan, although I haven’t been able to get as much info as I had hoped. Long term readers may remember that back in the March, 2009 issue I mentioned the possibility of savings through optimization of meter routes and with today’s gas prices, it seems to me that needs revisiting. All of us in the rural water business know that many of our rural systems have many miles of water line necessitating many miles of driving to read meters. It seemed to me that with the current explosion of GIS technology, software might be available to analyze a distribution system to give the optimal path to use for minimum driving miles necessary to reach all meters. Turns out there is and I’ll give you a little information in the following bullets along with some related facts from a brief literature review.
v First, what does the literature have about this subject? Very little it turns out. I did find one article in AWWA (Beinlien, etal, route Restructuring Reduces Meter-Reading Costs, Journal AWWA, Vol 90, Issue 4) written way back in 1998 and these authors concluded:
o Over 20 % reduction in reading costs are possible
o Back then meter reading was calculated to cost about $1.00/meter
o In today’s dollars that would be about $1.40
o Restructuring in one system resulted in an increase in meters read per day from 224 to 307
v Now, what about current software? Several possibilities are listed on the internet and I talked at length to a representative of one, C2Logix. Historically, they have dealt more with larger utilities and their software prices are accordingly relatively high. However, they are trying to move aggressively into smaller size system markets and offer an inexpensive subscription service for $34/month that may be worth investigating or will do a system analysis for a price - $2,000 to $5,000+ depending on number of routes. Their experience has been similar to that reported in the earlier work referenced above – 10 to 25% savings. The link to their web site is http://www.c2logix.com/
v The final piece of meter route management is automated meter reading and, of course, if you can afford telemetered meter readings to a central office, the whole issue of route travel becomes moot.
v My whole point with this discussion – If you are concerned about the high costs of your operation, Maybe it’s time to carefully examine your meter reading practices and costs.
v And, speaking of high gas costs…
o Amy Poehler suggests that when you go on vacation this summer, it may be cheaper to mail your car.
o And Leno says, “If it gets any higher, Californians may start walking!”
John E. Regnier, NRWA
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