AMI: Leveraging the Power of Data

The transition to Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) brings many changes to a utility. Weathering the change has a lot of decision-making moments. For some, the desire remains only to have accurate billing reads for customers for others the power of AMI can become a trigger to update and revolutionize levels of service and generate new business processes. When Mount Pleasant Waterworks implemented AMI, we first started to notify customers of irregular usage through manual reports and outbound customer contact through our contact center. Following full implementation of AMI, we explored customer portals and more advanced notification options. We will share with the audience our experience in implementing a customer portal and the trial and error of setting impactful usage notifications for customers. ____________ Our steps to success: Implement Advanced Metering Infrastructure, begin manual customer irregular usage notifications. Explore and choose a customer portal with automated irregular usage notifications. Analyze and test automated notifications and the process. Implement automated irregular usage notifications. Analyze the success and failures of notifications. Implement and staff a conservation and education team. Add field visits and diagnostics to our services. Reevaluate customer notifications and write business processes for notifications, field visits and leak adjustments. Analyze water loss and leak adjustment results since inception of AMI and make improvements to program where necessary. _____________ Following the effective launch of portal and customer communications regarding usage we began to see the fruits of our labor. Stopping leaks sooner than ever we experienced business process changes to our leak adjustments and impacted field service levels for customers experiencing leaks. This outcome became a measurable accomplishment of our AMI success. We also realized the advantages of AMI data during freezing events which caused emergency water loss situations for customers and utility. We will share our methods for tackling major water loss situations and the processes and plans that worked to our advantage. From meter to cash we will explore the changes for our staff, customers and business processes with our data proven results.