RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(Click to Tweet) – The newest member of your water utility staff won’t be joining the softball team, chatting with you in the break room or chipping in for Friday pizza but that doesn’t mean you won’t have a new friend. When your utility deploys the new ally™ water meter from Sensus, you’ll turn what was once a measuring device into a virtual member of the team.
“With the integrated three-state valve, utilities can remotely turn on water for a new account, turn it off in the event of a leak or reduce the flow,” said Dan Pinney, senior director of global water marketing at Sensus.
The reduced flow option helps utilities manage high maintenance accounts, write-offs for bad debt and collections. And, like a good friend who shares information, the ally meter’s alarms can alert utilities to numerous conditions including empty pipes, reverse flow, leaks and tampering.
Pressure Monitoring
Pressure is simply the way we deliver water. Without it, water doesn’t move. The ally meter contains sensors for monitoring pressure at the service connection. What’s more, with the Sensus® Smart Gateway Sensor Interface and Sensus Essential Water Analytics, utilities can create a map of the complete service area, which will help with overall operational efficiency.
“If we can improve pressure monitoring and control, utilities can better manage energy consumption—because it takes a lot of energy to pump and move water around,” said Pinney.
Temperature Monitoring
Temperature sensors in the ally meter can alert utilities to a potential freezing problem, either at the service connection or in the water mains. Knowing the temperature can also help utilities get reliable data on water quality data.
“Utilities manage the time between when water leaves a well or plant and when it’s consumed,” said Pinney. “Typically, it’s between three and four days. Anything more than that and the water becomes stale.
Transmitting the data from the ally meter back to the utility happens with the Sensus FlexNet® system, a powerful, utility-grade communication network that helps support the growth of smart cities. “Think of the network as another pipe, only this one carries data, not water,” said Pinney. “Unlike a water pipe, though, the data can be prioritized, so that the most important information reaches the utility first.”
What data is most important to utilities? For many, it’s about leaks, which contribute to non-revenue water, affect conservation efforts and if left unattended, can lead to expensive property damage.
“Water utility staff can’t be in all places at all times. That’s why they need a friend in the field—and an ally they can count on,” said Pinney.
About Sensus
Sensus helps a wide range of public service providers—from utilities to cities to industrial complexes and campuses—do more with their infrastructure to improve quality of life in their communities. We enable our customers to reach farther through the application of technology and data-driven insights that deliver efficiency and responsiveness. We partner with them to anticipate and respond to evolving business needs with innovation in sensing and communications technologies, data analytics and services. Learn more at sensus.com and follow @SensusGlobal on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
