Commissioners Court Meeting

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Meeting Date:	05/22/2017
Beacon AMA Cellular Pilot / Starter Kit (25 units)
Submitted for:	Adrian Montemayor	Submitted By:	Rose Flores
Department:	Water Utilities

Subject:

Discussion and possible action to approve a pilot project to National Meter and Automation, Inc. in an amount of $8,581.00 for implementation and evaluation of a automated water meter reading project to include Twenty Five (25) cellular meters reading for Rio Bravo and El Cenizo. [Account #7220-7280-001-474501 (Construction in progress)]

Issue: We have reached a point where theft of water consumption and services requires additional effort. Meter reading effort on a monthly basis requires over 250 employee hours with a average of $2,800 per month. Physical reading of meters contains multiple error in reading and keypunching leading to customer billing conflicts.

Solution: Acquisition or remote meter reading where reads and uploading to our billing system would take place without human error, and reads can all be obtained within 1 hour. Implementation will also provide within 24 hours notice of unauthorized water use, meter tampering. Service for customers is enhanced through meter consumption applications available at no additional cost where customer can view and evaluate their own water usage.

Result: Reduced water loss and regain unrealized revenue, with improved service to customer.

Background:

Unauthorized water consumption and theft of service has long been a difficult task to identify and prevent in our water system. It is difficult to calculate the loss of revenue due to this activity; however, due to discovery of recent cases of theft of services it is safe to say these losses are well within the tens of thousands of dollars annually. In addition, our methods of locking out inactive or suspended accounts has proven to be cut or broken off.

These losses greatly affect no only the departments ability to maintain a viable system with the appropriate funds, but also burdens the majority of our customers that regularly and effectively pay for their share of services, by requireing increased rates earlier than necessary due to theft of services.

Our direction as included in the approved Capital Improvement Plan is to identify a service where we can accurately and effectively obtain meter reads without reader error, provide a means to identify unauthorized use, and improve customer service.

We feel this is a possible solution to this effort and would like to examine the effectiveness of the cellular technology before investment in a full system.

Previous Court Action:

Fiscal Impact

Budget Account Number:	722-7280-001-474501
Funding Source:	2016 Bond Series
Balance:	NA
Financial Impact:
Construction in Progress

Attachments
Automatic Meter Reading