The AquaHawk Blog

9 Ideas for Utility Billing and Customer Service Managers

How to Make Business Case for Investing in a Utility Customer Portal (PDF)

Introduction

Public trust in your utility happens when the service community believes that its interests are aligned with the interests of your organization. In order to earn and reinforce this trust, utilities have to continually demonstrate that serving customers is a commitment woven in to everything they do.

Service Connections: 9,600 | Population: 26,540 | Meter Reading System: Aclara AMI

Highlights

• Improved the City's ability to identify leaks and rapidly notify customers
• Reduced customer support calls
• Delivers useful data for managing the water system
• Gives customers more control over their water consumption.

The City of Woodland has released an easy-to-use online tool to help people and business owners better understand and manage their water use at a time when summer temperatures are rising.

This free service, AquaHawk Alerting, allows Woodland water customers to view their hourly water use, receive alerts when there is abnormal use on their account, and more, according to Jordan Power, city water conservation coordinator.

Read the full article here.

Service Connections: 21,524 | Population: 78,000 | Meter Reading System: Sensus FlexNet™ AMI

Highlights

• Dramatically reduced daily potable water use and irrigation consumption during 2014 resulting in a lower State mandated water conservation standard (12%) than other neighboring districts for 2015. Easily meeting that standard
• Reduced the number of accounts receiving excess usage penalties from 1009 to 65
• Implemented a consumer engagement solution and enrolled more than 7,675 accounts--nearly 40% of their customer base.

Kanye and the Dry, Dry West

Today I am turning my blog over to Todd Brehe, a product manager for AquaHawk alerting, who looks at certain kinds of California drought stories that show up in the mainstream media to see if they are presenting the problem in a meaningful light. Are multimillionaires who continue to water giant green lawns the gangstas here? What are the options for managing any property, whether those of the rich, famous, and paparazzi-hounded, or the average homeowner? Check out this comprehensive discussion, and I invite you, as always, to join the discourse by adding your comments at the end of his contribution.

Article Link...

Service Connections: 10,000 | Population: 30,000 | Meter Reading System: Aclara AMI

Highlights

• Implemented an automated past due notification program that reduced the number of customer shutoff visits by 30%
• Launched a community outreach program to meet State-mandated water conservation requirements
• Expanded the tools available to employees enabling them to perform day-to-day tasks more efficiently.

AquaHawk Alerting includes several capabilities that enable water utilities to meet drought reduction limits, manage water restrictions, and help customers better understand water budgets.

Support for Manual and AMR Systems

AquaHawk supports any type of meter reading system and read frequency. Depending on how frequently a water provider collects meter read data, however, dictates which AquaHawk capabilities are available to consumers and utility employees.

Two New Additions to AquaHawk Alerting Encourage Customers to Conserve Water

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, April 30, 2015 – California water utilities without AMI or "smart meter" systems can now offer customers new ways to help reduce water use, thanks to two enhancements to the AquaHawk Alerting™ Web-based portal.

"AquaHawk Alerting is the only solution available that empowers utilities with first- and second- generation metering equipment to provide some 'smart meter' capabilities to their clients," announced Bobby Lee, AmCoBi President. "Governor Brown mandated reductions from 8 to 36% for major California water suppliers. Utilities must encourage all their customers to save."

AmCoBi recently contributed an article to Water Efficiency Magazine describing eight best practices for water utilities implementing a customer portal solution. These practices include: planning your portal project, presenting actionable information…not just data, communicating proactively, and more.

Read the full article here.

Channel 5 KPIX in San Francisco recently featured a news story about Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) and their use of AquaHawk Alerting. AquaHawk integrates with the Sensus FlexNet smart water meter network DSRSD previously installed.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/video/10616298-east-bay-water-officials-install-smart-water-meters-to-help-conserve/

Service Connections: 19,000 | Population: 42,000 | Meter Reading System: Sensus FlexNet™ AMI

Highlights

•  Expand their online services
•  Enable customers to view their water usage and an estimate of their bill anytime during the billing cycle
•  Send proactive customer alerts when leaks or other issues are detected
•  Enable the water conservation team to perform their daily tasks more efficiently and drive better conservation results.

A Quality Model for Evaluating Customer Portal Solutions

A municipal water utility providing services to 5,500 endpoints had just finished upgrading meters and installing a wireless meter reading network. The choice to implement a fixed base meter reading system–commonly referred to as an AMI or Advanced Metering Infrastructure system–would virtually eliminate drive-by and manual reads, and allow the utility to collect daily usage data, remotely.

At nearly $1.4 million, the price tag had been a tough sell to the city council. But council members had agreed to the project knowing the utility would reap improvements in operational efficiency, and create long-term cost savings. They were also sold on the leak detection capabilities of the new system.

Service Connections : 1,682 | Population: 4,556 | Meter Reading System: Mobile AMR / Sensus FlexNet™ AMI

Highlights

•  Prevented the loss of more than 5.5 million gallons of water (16.9 acre-feet)
•  Saved the District $225,000 in avoided water costs (purchase, treatment, and distribution expenses)
•  Identified a wide variety of leaks caused by: broken toilets, malfunctioning appliances, leaking irrigation lines, improperly
    programmed irrigation clocks, pipe breaks, and more
•  Enhanced the level of service to CPMD customers by proactively notifying them of problems and preventing costly property damage.