West Slope Water District is located west of Portland in Washington County and provides water to a population of around 10,300 residents. Being a relatively small water district, with only three field personnel, finding ways to improve operational efficiencies is vital to ensuring the water distribution system continues to run smoothly.
West Slope installed an Automated Meter Reading (AMR) Systems a few years ago. AMR Systems consist of a water meter, radio transmitter, radio receiver, and reading software. The solution that West Slope installed had the meter and radio transmitter combined, so the radio transmitter was integrated within the meter itself.
Faster Meter Readings
Over the past few years, West Slope has been replacing old meters when they fail with the Mueller Systems® modular AMR System. The AMR migratable radio antenna is separate from the register, connected via an industry standard inline Nicor connector. It is installed high in the meter pit, above most, if not all, water that may be in the meter box. This placement ensures a stronger signal for meter reads. These new Mueller Systems radios provide efficient, long-range two-way communication. LoRa—short for long range- -is resistant to most interference in the 900 MHz band ensuring readings is reliable. This allows utilities to drive every other street and drive at the posted speed limit. To address the tough weather conditions and rugged outdoor environment, the meter enclosure has multiple layers of protection, including factory potting, to meet the industry standard warranty period.
Daniel Gridinar, Operations Manager for West Slope Water District, was instrumental in upgrading the District’s water meter reading program. “When adjusting for the number of meters read, the new Modular AMR system is over three times faster than the older meters, which is a significant time saving that enables our crews to attend to other tasks. The new radios are also easier to install and being modular means we can more easily maintain our AMR system,” concluded Gridinar.
The Mueller Systems AMR comes with EZ Reader™ Software – an easy-to-use local software that manages data collection for the entire route. The EZ Reader application is capable of interfacing with any billing system, including custom developed systems. This streamlines the process of data collection to data action, reducing the potential for human error from manual data entry.
Daniel Gridinar
Operations Manager, West Slope Water District
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