In 2010, Baltimore Gas & Electric, an investor-owned utility, put together a plan to implement an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meter reading system for 1.2 million electric customers and 640,000 gas customers. The price tag? A whopping $835 million that would inevitably be passed through to customers. The good news, the utility highlighted, was that the project could qualify for $200 million in ARRA stimulus funds.

It’s an understatement to say that BG&E got a little push back from its customers. Even the Maryland Public Service Commission said, “Whoa….not so fast.” Phil Carson, wrote in the Intelligent Utility Daily, that in order for BG&E to win approval, “Maryland regulators insisted that the utility establish clear customer value for its AMI project.” 1.

There is an excellent research study titled, Evaluation of California Weather-Based “Smart” Irrigation Controller Programs that discusses smart controllers, also known as ET (evapotranspiration) controllers, and how effective they are at conserving water. “Smart controllers are a new generation of irrigation controllers that utilize prevailing weather conditions, current and historic evapotranspiration, soil moisture levels, and other relevant factors to adapt water applications to meet the actual needs of plants,” the study noted.

The study analyzed a substantial amount of data for 2,294 smart controllers installed in Northern and Southern California. While this report is information-packed and lengthy (309 pages, document size = 4.73MB), the gist of the findings can be learned quickly from the Executive Summary.

There’s an informative report titled, “Water Budget-Based Rate Structures – Powerful Demand Management Tools” written by Peter Mayer of Aquacraft, Inc. that you can find here:  http://www.aquacraft.com/node/50. It provides a comprehensive explanation of water budgets and water budget-based rates, how they’re used, the benefits and challenges, and recommendations on how water providers can implement them successfully.

Here is a brief summary of some of the main points in the report:

Water providers around the country routinely communicate to their customers the amount of water that can be lost unnecessarily by small, continual water leaks that result from dripping faucets/showerheads, broken toilets, holes in a sprinkler system, etc.

The EPA’s WaterSense website estimates that “the amount of water leaked from U.S. homes could exceed more than 1 trillion gallons per year. That’s equivalent to the annual water use of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami combined.”

Other interesting leak facts from WaterSense:

• Leaks can account for, on average, 10,000 gallons of water wasted in the home every year, which is enough to fill a backyard swimming pool.

• 10% of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more per day.

The Truckee Meadows Water Authority documented a toilet leak that used 240,000 gallons in a single month.  That’s enough to fill 75 construction water trucks.