Georgia utility reduces non-revenue water with Sensus iPERL meters

The City of Dallas, Georgia, discovered that nearly 20 percent of the city’s total water supplied was being lost. To reduce non-revenue water, the city upgraded its metering infrastructure to Sensus iPERL® meters, which can capture previously unmeasured low flow. In just four months in one subdivision, the city detected an additional 600,000 gallons of billable water.

Just 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, the City of Dallas, Georgia, has water infrastructure that includes 3,700 water connections across 38 miles of water line. The water utility strives to provide superior service for the city’s 14,000 residents.

“We’ve built high standards for our services based on the city’s tradition of community and growth,” said City of Dallas Billing Clerk Amber Whisner.

Real and apparent water loss of 31.3 million gallons

After analyzing annual water loss audits for the city, Whisner and her team discovered significant issues around non-revenue water. In 2014, real and apparent water loss accounted for 31.3 million gallons – nearly 20 percent of the city’s total water supplied for the year – which meant lost revenue for the city.

“We discovered that a large percentage of our water was simply being lost, so it was a problem we couldn’t ignore,” said Whisner. “When you’re a paid utility that purchases its water from the county, every drop counts.”

The audit results spurred Whisner and her team to create a robust water loss and control program. As part of the program, the city decided to replace its existing water meters with a system that could more efficiently identify issues to help minimize non-revenue water.

Upgrading water meters to Sensus iPERL

They replaced approximately 320 meters in one subdivision – and chose Sensus iPERL residential water meters for the project. Offering low-flow accuracy and high-flow durability, the iPERL uses innovative magnetic technology to capture previously unmeasured low flow. City of Dallas employees believed that the meters would provide consumption data far beyond what they were currently experiencing.

“The iPERL water meter picked up flow data we never had before,” said Whisner. “The meters could register the smallest bit of water usage for activities like the flushing of toilets or the washing of hands.”

Water meters provide quick return on investment

The results of the city’s initial iPERL deployment were immediate and quickly translated into real savings. In just four months, the city billed for an additional 600,000 gallons of water in the subdivision thanks to the Sensus meters.

“Within four months, we had gained back more than $12,000 from our initial investment in the Sensus solution thanks to the revenue it helped generate,” said Whisner.

The benefits go well beyond water conservation for the city. The new meters also proactively improved customer interactions.

“We can now call the customer and tell them they have a leak before the bill is ever mailed to their house,” said Whisner.

Deploying advanced metering infrastructure

Based on the success of the Sensus rollout in just one subdivision, the utility is now deploying a full Sensus advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution across its entire service area. As part of this solution, the city is implementing the two-way FlexNet® communication network so that staff can remotely monitor water usage and increase billing accuracy. So far, the city has completed deployment of approximately 2,100 meters, with installation of an additional 800 meters currently underway.

“We’re at a point now where the Sensus solution has already paid for itself,” said Whisner. “When we add AMI, we’ll be able to further increase efficiency and proactively serve our customer with insights from real-time data.”