Louisiana City Funds Infrastructure Upgrade with Metering-as-a-Service Program

The City of Gonzales was seeking to give its customers accurate and timely water bills. The challenge stemmed from manual meter reading and old, outdated technology.

By Joey Mitchell

The business case for Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is compelling, as it provides accurate billing data, consistent and faster billing resolution, and operational efficiency through the elimination of manual operations. Access to more data lets utilities make informed decisions to streamline operations, boost customer service and provide valuable data that can be utilized to identify needed distribution system enhancements. While the benefits are widely accepted, the funding for advanced metering is often the biggest challenge to implementation. This forces utilities to balance multiple capital improvement projects, which often yields long deployment cycles and lagging program benefits.