Page 228 - Water Loss Control

CHAPTER 13

Controlling Apparent Losses

from Data Transfer Errors

by Leveraging Advanced

Metering Infrastructure

George Kunkel, P.E.
Julian Thornton
Reinhard Sturm

13.1 The Customer Water Consumption Data Transfer Process
The majority of water utilities in North America provide meters on customer service
connections in order to register water consumption from individual customer accounts.
Historically, the justification for use of customer meters in water utilities has been to
periodically obtain measures of customer consumption that serve as the basis for billing.
Linking water consumption volumes to a price also serves as a basic means of water
conservation, since consumers are usually more judicious in their water use when its
impact on their spending is clear and explicit. Having accurate water meters in place is
the first in a multistep process to manage customer consumption data. North American
water utilities typically store customer consumption data in a customer billing system.
Errors can occur in the process used to obtain readings from the customer meter and
transfer this data to the billing system. Often such errors result in understated con-
sumption volumes, and represent one form of apparent loss.
Many opportunities for error exist in the customer meter reading and data trans-
fer processes of water utilities. Meters are usually read in one of two manners: man-
ual meter reading or automatic meter reading (AMR). Manual meter reading, with
meter reading personnel (meter readers) visiting individual customer premises to
visually collect readings, is the traditional approach and, as of 2007, still used by
more than 70% of North American water utilities. However, AMR, and a host of

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