Automated Meter Reading

Camrosa Water District is introducing to our customers new technology to provide more efficient utility billing and improved customer service. Automated Meter Reading, also known as AMR, is currently being implemented by Camrosa. Our goal is to have the District 100% installed with AMR by 2011. Two-thirds of the meters in the district are Touch Read type registers. It is a simple process to upgrade, requiring the replacement of the existing Touch Read or manual read register with a new register, and plugging the new Touch Read connection into the transmitter.You will know that your meter has been updated when you find the blue door hanger notice, hanging on your door.

Customer Service_AMR2 Camrosa began the AMR Pilot Project in 2006 with the community of Leisure Village Leisure Village was chosen as the pilot project due to their high water usage demand, having only six master meters, as well as the relatively low cost of converting the entire community and ease of evaluating the benefits of the AMR pilot project. The pilot project consisted of installing Meter Terminal Units (MTUs) located at each of the six master meters and one Data Collector Unit (DCU) located at a nearby reservoir.

AMR benefits both Camrosa and our customers, providing meter reading efficiency, conservation and customer service. The AMR system will provide Camrosa and our customers a powerful tool for leak detection. AMR allows Camrosa to attain daily meter reads. AMR eliminates the need to physically go to a property to get a read when a customer either starts or discontinues service. In addition, the AMR software provides the ability to view daily usage history to assist customers who have unusual consumption patterns.

Camrosa’s AMR project is more cost-effective than outsourcing the meter reading function. Camrosa currently utilizes an outside meter reading service to read over 9,000 customer meters over a 32-square mile area. The cost to contract for meter readings is over $80,000 annually. As the AMR Project is phased-in throughout the district, this will reduce operating costs for Camrosa’s need for an outside contractor to manually read the meters, thereby lowering operating costs.