Workers can read digital meters as they drive by, saving the city time and money. But some customers may see bills rise.
By Rebecca Mahoney | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted May 18, 2006
DELAND -- Angry dogs. Fire ants. Snakes. Muddy backyards. Locked fences.
Reading meters has never been hassle-free. But thanks to new high-tech digital meters, DeLand's utility workers soon will be able to read meters from the comfort of their vehicles.
DeLand is upgrading all 17,600 water meters at homes and businesses across the city to radio-read water meters, which allow workers to "read" the meter as they drive by, rather than having to park at each home and trek through the yard.
City commissioners approved the $4.38 million project at their meeting this week, saying the meters will save the city money in the long run and provide more accurate readings.
"Whenever you can improve efficiency through technology, it's a very good thing," said Michael Pleus, DeLand's assistant city manager.
The new technology brings DeLand in line with a growing number of Florida cities that are converting to radio-read digital water and electricity meters, including Port Orange, Ormond Beach, Cocoa, Titusville and Mount Dora.
Progress Energy began replacing 1.5 million residential electricity meters in Florida with radio-read meters last fall, including in DeLand.
The digital meters transmit an address code and usage information via radio waves. As workers drive by each house, a computer collects the data.
It used to take two to five minutes to read one meter, and three workers took an entire month to read the whole city.
Once the meters are in place, however, workers will be able to read as many as 72 meters per second, and one person will need only two days to read the entire city.
Reading the meters will be so fast that the city plans to do away with its meter-reading contract and assign the task to city workers, adding up to a savings of about $125,000 a year, Pleus said.
The high-tech meters will help readers gather data from hard-to-reach places, such as homes that have locked fences or protective dogs, or where roads are flooded or under construction.
It will alert workers to problems with the meters, such as a gauge that is incorrectly installed.
The meters are also expected to be more accurate, which could mean some customers with older, slower meters may see higher water bills.
About 8,500 meters, accounting for half of the city's customers, are old and don't always measure water use correctly, said Adam Corwin, general manager of Triton Water Technologies, a Tampa company that is facilitating DeLand's transition to the new technology.
Some customers may see their bills rise 6 percent or 8 percent a month, he said.
The city is mounting an aggressive public-information campaign to alert people that their bills could rise. Officials hope to avoid the sticker shock that some residents experienced after they got their first digitally-read Progress Energy bill earlier in the year.
"We don't want people to wonder what's wrong with their water bill and what happened," City Commissioner Leigh Matusick said.
Rebecca Mahoney can be reached at rmahoney@orlandosentinel.com or 386-851-7914.
Town OKs New Water Meters, Readers
Lakeland Ledger
Published Friday, December 16, 2005
By Donna Kelly
The Ledger
LAKE HAMILTON -- The town's water customers soon may no longer have meter readers tramping into their yards to find out how much water they've used.
The Town Council gave tentative approval to spending more than $250,000 to buy and install new water meters and automated meter-reading equipment during a special meeting Tuesday night.
The council will make a final decision on the system after the purchase contract is reviewed by Town Attorney Robert Crittenden.
Converting to the automated meter-reading system will cost the town no more than $258,500 over a 10-year period, with a $33,025 annual payment to Triton Water Technologies of Florida, which will be installing the system.
"This is a huge investment, but I am in favor of it," said Town Councilwoman Kathi Latimer.
Mayor Randy Martin doesn't expect the cost of the new water meters to cause rates to increase anytime soon.
The new system will allow the meters to be read by one employee who drives through the town while recording readings transmitted electronically from the antenna on the meters to a handheld scanner. These readings then are downloaded into a computer and entered into the billing system.
The contract with Triton includes initial training on the system for town employees plus a year of unlimited technical support.
Triton representative Mark McDonald told the council that the current water meter-reading system, which involves manual reading of meters by town employees and hired day laborers three days each month, is 91 percent accurate.
His company's Neptune R900 System is 99 percent accurate, McDonald said.
This is a big improvement from the manual system, Mayor Randy Martin said.
"The current method is slow, cumbersome and inaccurate," Martin said. "This is a long-term investment in the future."
He's not too worried about how to pay for it.
"We have $440,000 in unappropriated surplus," Martin said. "I think we're fine."
Cost also will be offset by increased water fees that result from more accurate meter readings, he said. "We will see a big increase just in that because we aren't collecting all our revenue now," Martin said.
Martin expects to see a 15 percent to 20 percent increase in water revenue after the installation of the new equipment.
The council also will look at the possibility of increasing impact fees.
"For every 2,000 services, impact fees alone are $3.3 million," Martin said. "Impact fees alone with take care of that service (electronic meters) plus some infrastructure."
Martin said he expects rapid development to generate 2,000 new water service accounts over the next several years.
McDonald said the automated meter-reading system will take approximately eight weeks to install, once the contract is approved.
Most municipalities in Polk County use similar systems already in place. Mulberry is in the final stages of implementing an electronic meter-reading system, McDonald said.
"It's not like we are on the cutting edge of doing this," Martin said. "We're just trying to come into the modern ages."
