This will allow the city to more accurately measure the amount of water its customers are consuming—and increase the amount the city bills for water use each month. The new system will also allow the city to better uncover water leaks in the system as the fixed-network discovers unexpected water use spikes. Madison officials can also rely on the fixed-network system to measure the impact of their water conservation measures; the network can determine if consumers are actually using less water after the city targets their communities with conservation messages and programs. Piper says that the city had the choice to upgrade to an AMR system. But officials decided that if the city was going to move to a new technology, it should invest in the more advanced AMI fixed-network for water will help the City of Madison Water Utility bring its metering system to the next level by enabling the automation of reads and other advanced metering capabilities,” said Paula Billingham, Itron regional vice president and managing director for North America, Water, in a written statement. “At Itron, it is our priority to deliver solutions that help our customers achieve their business goals. We are excited to do just that for Madison Water Utility,” adds Billingham. Cities must often justify upgrades with proper ROI data. MAKING THE DECISION Parks, from Neptune, says that his company can help utilities make a detailed ROI analysis of the savings and payback period that an upgraded AMR or AMI system would provide them. Neptune offers its AMR/AMI Advisor solution. With this technology, the City of Madison will move from a six-month water-meter billing cycle to a more costeffective one-month cycle. “We decided to skip over the end of last century’s technology and go with a fixed-network system,” says Piper. The city began rolling out the system on a limited basis in late July. But even though there isn’t any official data yet on its impact, Piper is looking forward to an increase in water revenues and a reduction in water loss throughout the system. “We think this system will have a positive impact on our water budget,” says Piper. “That’s why we went with the fixednetwork AMI system. We wanted to see that high return on investment.” Officials with Itron also say that they expect Madison to realize financial savings from its investment. “Itron’s AMI solution 14 WATER EFFICIENCY WWW.WATEREFFICIENCY.NET software that allows utilities to plug in the variables of their operation and their costs. The software then determines an estimate of the utilities’ annual cost savings and revenue increases. “This gives them a good look at the impact of AMR/AMI technology,” says Parks. “We’ve seen a lot of our customers use this to determine that, yes, they will see significant savings and revenue increases by installing the right AMR/AMI system.” Parks, though, says that each utility needs to look at its own needs before making the decision to upgrade to new automated metering technology. Some systems may work better for larger utilities in urban areas, for instance, but might not be as effective for utilities serving a smaller, rural area. “In this industry, there is always some technology that generates a lot of buzz,” says Parks. “Right now, there is a ton of buzz over fixed-network infrastructures. They are right for some utilities—for some utilities they make a lot of sense. But for others, a mobile or a combination of a mobile and fixed-network deployment makes more sense.” What does a utility have to consider when deciding what upgrades its needs? Parks recommends that utilities look at their demographics and service areas, and at the terrain that they have to cover. “Utilities are all unique,” says Parks. “One system can’t meet all the needs of all the utilities out there. Utilities don’t have to get caught up in the latest technology phase if that particular technology doesn’t make sense for them. Utilities should base their decisions on what technology best addresses their needs and meets their budgets and financial objectives.” NEPTUNE TECHNOLOGY GROUP “Training does have to be done to teach staff members how to best serve the customers with this data. But once that’s done, I often hear people say that if we took their system away from them, they wouldn’t know what to do.”