AMR Pilot Program Nearing Completion
PLANO,
Texas – July 22, 2008 – Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District
(PAWSD) in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, has commenced its project to
install Datamatic’s advanced MOSAIC Automated Meter Reading system
throughout its service territory. Datamatic has been a leading utility
technology partner since 1980 and supports 500 customers worldwide.
These Datamatic technicians will be hard at work in our service area for the next two months.
Set
high in the San Juan Mountains, 300 miles southwest of Denver, PAWSD’s
service territory encompasses over 76 square miles and receives more
than 100” of snow each year. This makes accessing the water meter
nearly impossible and has made it necessary for PAWSD to estimate bills
for its 4,800 residential water customers nearly half the year.
Customer
Service Manager Lisa Dermody said, “We’ve never been able to read our
residential meters during the winter. So every spring, we’ve had five
months of estimated billings to reconcile against that first reading we
take in April. This means there are hundreds of bills to adjust,
credits to issue and customer calls to handle. But MOSAIC will allow us
to bill from actual usage, year-round - eliminating that entire
‘catch-up period’ and the additional time spent by staff dealing with
the issues caused by estimating customer bills.
Dermody
continued, “Spring is also when we start finding all of the leaks that
have started over the winter. We’re in an area prone to droughts and
we’re extremely conservation-conscious. So, we’ve never been
comfortable with the fact that leaks could go on for months before we’d
know about them. Treated water gets wasted and customers have to pay
for it. But our MOSAIC system will notify us of leaks quickly. We’re
really excited about that. It’s good for the environment and good for
our customers.”
MOSAIC
is a “mesh” network. This means that all FIREFLY Meter Interface Units
(FF) also function as repeaters for the transmissions of other
neighboring FFs. Data is transmitted – or “hopped” – from FF to FF
toward a gateway, similar to the way someone might jump from rock to
rock to cross a river. Transmissions follow any path necessary to
efficiently navigate the network; circumventing environmental obstacles
along the way. Should any path become unavailable, the network
“self-heals” and dynamically routes data via an alternate path.
“MOSAIC’s
self-healing mesh capabilities was another key to our decision. It’s
ideal for our service territory. We have mountains, dense forests and
heavy snow. Getting line-of-sight between all of our meters and one or
more towers was going to be difficult – and very expensive. Thankfully,
MOSAIC doesn’t require that. The FIREFLYs use each other to hop around
obstacles.
“We’re
also investigating the possibility of implementing MOSAIC’s Permalog
Acoustic Leak Detection and Remote Shutoff Valve capabilities in the
future.” Dermody said.
“All
utilities face challenges unique to their geography and climate,'' said
Rich Sanders, Datamatic Vice President of Business Development. “We’re
thrilled to partner with PAWSD and that MOSAIC is such a decisive
solution to their long-standing billing, conservation and deployment
challenges.”
“Using
a conservative Return on Investment model, we expect the system to pay
for itself in less than three years and to give us positive cash flow
of $5-6 million over the life of the system. From an economic
standpoint, it’s an excellent decision for us.” Dermody concluded.
System installation is expected to be completed by October.
About Datamatic, Ltd.
Datamatic
is a leader in utility data collection solutions. The company’s
innovative ideas virtually created an industry when it installed the
first electronic meter reading system in 1980. For nearly a quarter of
a century, Datamatic has been at the forefront in the design,
implementation and support of advanced utility meter reading and field
data collection solutions for water, gas and electric utilities.
Additional information about Datamatic is available by calling Scott
Black at (214) 520-3430 or on the Web at www.datamatic.com.
