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City of Richmond Virginia Automated Meter Reading A Case Study

City of Richmond Virginia Automated Meter Reading A Case Study. Presented by: Lewis W. Adkins, Jr. Customer Service Manager. City of Richmond. Service area includes City of Richmond, Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield Counties.

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City of Richmond Virginia Automated Meter Reading A Case Study

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  1. City of Richmond VirginiaAutomated Meter ReadingA Case Study Presented by: Lewis W. Adkins, Jr. Customer Service Manager

  2. City of Richmond • Service area includes City of Richmond, Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield Counties. • Richmond City population is 190,000 & service area population is 750,000. The service area covers 550 square miles. • 110,000 gas and 65,000 water services • DPU’s gas utility is the 8th largest municipally owned gas utility in the country. The utility has 7 gate stations, more than 1800 miles of gas main lines, & 1250 water pipe lines. • Old infrastructure, some piping dating back to late 1800’s (civil war era)

  3. BACKGROUND ON AMR • On table since 1988 • Issued RFP in 1998 • Signed 5 year Itron contract 11-99 Inherited small CIP budget Added funding to complete project over 5 years Gas cost $10.5m & water cost $9.9m • First Ert’s installed February, 2000

  4. Project Team • Lew Adkins----Project Manager • Preston Brown and Robert Travis----Project Team Associates Responsibilities: • Develop and maintain project and budget plans • Prepare/report on project and budgetary status • Determine logical flow of areas to automate • Coordinate from host/to host daily work loads and systems changes with MIS • Perform quantity/quality audits on contractors work • Train internal users (field svc, meter shop, etc.) on ERT installation, programming and other related issues • Coordinate resolution of Automation Exceptions with Exceptions processing, internal AMR team, and contractor • Train meter reading on automating hard to read premises, including changing out Hexagrams

  5. Project Team Responsibilities-Cont’d • Assist with in-house training of contractors to ensure DOT operator qualifications, OSHA standards, and DPU internal gas/water procedures are adhered to • Generate and close s.o.’s for new sets and re-sets • Review & trouble-shoot field svc s.o. closed in Banner to ensure ERT’s are removed and/or “married” to premise correctly. • Issue P.O.’s and pay invoices for the purchase of ERT’s and all other automation equipment. • Receive and physically store all equipment shipments. • Perform weekly ERT inventory audits--warehouse and issues to contractor.

  6. Project Phases (only utility in country automating gas & water simultaneously) Phase I: 2/2000 to 6/2001 Automate 50k ‘gas only’ customers in outlying counties Gas less costly/easier to automate & had available funding to automate gas in counties Time to experiment w/process on one svc before auto water (from host/to host; ert installs; programming) Automate hardest to read areas first spread out walking routes 30 meter readers for manual reads 4 days downsize staff quicker

  7. Project Phases-cont’d Phase II: 11/2000 to 9/2003 automate 60,000 gas in city (plus county growth) & 65,000 water in City. Includes com’l/industrial customers Additional funds budgeted to complete project

  8. Innovative Approaches to a Successful AMR Project Visited Houston Water Project—what works, what doesn’t Deter could purch new meters w/elec registers for same price as purchasing registers only. Learned about types of lids to use for radio freq reads. Decision made to change all meters Repair leaks; replace inaccurate meters;enhance revenue

  9. AMR Ready Water Meters Water meter contract did not meet needs; also was expiring 21 contract employees on site—needed quick solution. Going RFP route time consuming (idle resources) Director/Purchasing appvd meter purchases as a ‘pass thru’ off AMR contract until new water meter contract could be obtained.

  10. Retrofitted, Potted & Programmed erts on meters GAS: Negotiated deal with meter mfg to install & program erts on meters for nominal add’l charge. WATER: Experienced field install problems on initial stages Developed process with AMR vendor to attach end cap to ert, torque antenna, & ship unit to meter mfg. (no add’l cost) Negotiated deal with meter mfg to pot cable and program erts. (nominal fee) 1st utility to initiate this process—saved time and eliminated errors Other utilities have since ‘piggy backed’ off this process

  11. Warehouse Overhead Negotiated with whse and ops support to order, receive and store AMR parts/equip Allowed us to financially and physically control the purchasing process Save 16% on warehouse overhead charges ($1,968,000) that would have been capitalized to the AMR project

  12. Call Center/Notices Set up contractor call center with dedicated phone lines Work 8 to 8 and Saturdays Eliminated excess volume of AMR related calls to DPU call center Reps schedule appt’s for meter changes & light ups & handle complaints & inquiries Use door tags & neighborhood signs to notify customers of AMR activities. Obtained approval from county administrators to use signs and notices. Developed & obtained approval to use gas cut off letters for non responsive Customers (response rate went to 95-100%)

  13. Contractor Facilities 1st 1 ½ years was a space problem Negotiated deal with Ops Support to split costs ($40k) to renovate unused, dilapidated utility property Allowed contractor to have adequate & secure working space for personnel, trucks and equipment. (Shared locked, fenced in yard with school buses) Small investment to accommodate project allowed us to be contract compliant and increased value of unused property 3 fold.

  14. Trained Field Units Trained commercial meter techs, field service techs, & meter readers on installing & programming erts. Com’l meter techs automating com’l/industrial sites Expertise on larger meters and shut down procedures Approx savings on gas, $114,000 Approx savings on water, $130,000 Field service automating growth—mostly in Outlying counties Approx savings on gas thru 7-31-03, $156,000 Approx savings on water thru 7-31-03, $65,000 Meter readers automating hard to read and Hex sites Approx savings on gas thru 7-31-03, $32,500 Pre-AMR had approx 2500 CGI’s/month. Currently 200, with eventually none.

  15. MAMR Route Conversion Initially, converted routes to MAMR reads when 80% saturated. (designated 00) Eventually, converted each premise to MAMR route as automated. • A number of hard to reads, & consistently estimated accounts had been automated • Meter readers failed to take appropriate DCPN on routes. • Created too many customer complaints.

  16. Accelerated Project • 5 year CIP had sufficient allocated funding • Revised budget to ‘pull back’ funds allocated in 04-05 to 03-04 fiscal. • Rec’d commitment letter from Itron to hire add’l resources • Adjusted productivity goals to complete project by Sept 2003---11 months ahead of schedule. Get customers on board quicker Improves PR Saves $ on certain direct/indirect costs Downsize staff faster, reducing O & M costs

  17. Beta Site • Served as a gas and water Beta Site for Itron Tested 30 new com’l gas erts—savings $3,000 Tested 200 water sites for ‘bubble up’ frequency application—savings $25,000

  18. Loss of Jobs due to Automation Most of staff comprised of 21 part time readers Arranged for several companies to screen and offer employment after AMR downsizing at DPU Full time staff is currently 15, including office support After full automation in October 2003, transitioning 5 staff to other field units to bolster existing programs or begin new programs. Pre AMR staff was 42

  19. Post Project Negatives MAMR Can’t Reads—Water Utility: Number downloaded = 61,786 Number not read via MAMR read = 6,479 or 10.5% Causes: --Bad installs --Lid gap/RF shift --ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) created by failed integrated circuit specific failure mechanism not identified extended warranty --Metal lids --Weather (too much rain) --Damaged/vandalized ert’s (cut wires) --Ert out of slot (in mud)

  20. Post Project Positives GAS Utility: Pre AMR, averaged 2500-3000 gas can’t reads per month • Currently, averaging about 200 per month. • With full automation, will be less than 10 per month. • Reading MAMR gas at 99.9 % rate

  21. Positives cont’d Meter Reading Operations: • Staff reduced from 42 to 11 • O & M reduced from $1.5m to $500k annually • Cost per read reduced from .68 to .24 • Vehicles reduced from 40 to 12 • Eliminated home/property intrusion to obtain read • Worker’s comp claims no longer an issue • Cycles reduced from 21 to 19

  22. Positives cont’d AMR Maintenance: • Forming team to maintain system • Reduces current M.R. staff, which further reduces O & M and cost per read • Maintenance team relieves service order work from Field Tech unit, freeing up their time to work more critical orders. • Also, will positively impact Field Service Unit annual OT

  23. Positives cont’d Position Upgrades: • Reclassifying current meter reader job status/duties • Rewards staff for acquiring new technological skills and knowledge.

  24. Positives cont’d Operating System: • Recently upgraded to MVRS from P2 • System offers more opportunity to leverage AMR technology

  25. Positives cont’d Business Process Improvements: • Purchase MDC to leverage current AMR technology • Detect Theft of Service on ‘front-end’ to reduce losses • Utilize MDC for ‘Read for Change’ service orders, reducing 50 field tech’s work load and related costs, including OT

  26. Summary of AMR Benefits REDUCTIONS/MTR READING OPNS: IMPROVED CUSTOMER SERVICE: STAFF-76% TIMELY AND ACCURATE BILLING O & M -67% ELIMINATE ESTIMATED READS COST PER READ-59% ELIMINATE HOME INTRUSION CYCLES-10% CUSTOMER SELECTED BILL DATE RE-READS FEWER CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS HUMAN ERROR REDUCED CALL CTR/WALK-IN EXCEPTIONS VOLUME VOLUME VEHICLES, GAS, MAINT. DEPR. ACCIDENTS/INJURIES WORKER’S COMP WORKING IN BAD WEATHERBILLING AND CASH FLOW: TIME OFF/LOST WAGESREDUCE READ TO BILL TIME PERSONNEL ISSUES REDUCE BILLING ADJUSTMENTS OVERTIME ($210K TO $50K) REDUCE CONTESTED BILL DELAY FEWER RE-BILLS REDUCED MAILING COSTS IMPROVED COLLECTIONS BETTER RECEIVABLES MGMT

  27. Summary of benefits cont’d REVENUE PROTECTION: OFF CYCLE READS: REMAIN COMPETITIVE INDEREGULATED READ FOR CHANGE MARKET READ FOR THEFT CUST RETENTION AND ACQUISTION HIGH BILL CHECKS LOWER COST TO READ RE-READS THEFT DETECTION/DETERRENT INVESTIGATIONS TAMPER DETECTION/DETERRENT UNACCOUNTED FOR WATER/GAS REPLACE INACCURATE METERS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: LOWER WATER PRODUCTION COSTSREDUCED VEHICLE REDUCED CLAIMS AGAINST CITY EMISSIONS WATER CONSERVATION FIELD SERVICE: SHIFT AND IMPROVE LOAD MGMT IMPROVE RESOURCE MGMT REDUCE FIELD VISITS DOWNSIZE STAFF REDUCE OVERTIME

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