City of Fairmont Improves Performance and Service with the Sensus AMI Solution

West Virginia utility reduces excess water usage by 25 million
gallons per year

RALEIGH, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#Sensusnews–Nestled in the rolling hills of northern West Virginia, collegiate life
reigns supreme in the City
of Fairmont. As with any college town, residential turnover is the
norm, with the constant move-ins and move-outs straining the city’s
water utility resources.

“We serve many rental properties and apartments, so there’s a lot to
manage in terms of monitoring customer usage and handling inactive
accounts,” said Mark Moore, utility controller, City of Fairmont
Utilities.

The utility knew it needed a better system to monitor its 14,500 water
meters and turned to Sensus,
a Xylem brand, to put plans for a smart water system into action. After
a thorough evaluation process, the utility determined that the Sensus
AMI solution possessed all the capabilities they needed to tackle
non-revenue water and meet customer needs.

City of Fairmont Utilities initially installed 6,500 Sensus water meters
covering its two largest routes along with commercial meters, with the
intention to roll out the full solution over a five-year period.
However, the benefits were realized so quickly the utility decided to
shorten the implementation.

“We went in and installed the rest of the meters right off the bat,”
said Moore.

The City of Fairmont Utilities AMI solution included 14,500 Sensus iPERL®
residential meters, and a combined 200 OMNI™
Compound (C²) and OMNI™
Turbo (T²) commercial meters. The utility bolstered its deployment
with Sensus FieldLogic™
and Regional
Network Interface (RNI)™ software, delivered via the
Sensus Software
as a Service (SaaS) platform. Finally, the Sensus FlexNet®
communication network and Sensus
Analytics served as the backbone of the utility’s smart water
network, enabling Moore and his team to remotely monitor water usage and
increase billing accuracy.

Since launching, City of Fairmont Utilities has achieved more than 99
percent accuracy in its meter readings while saving $30,000 a year by
reducing non-revenue water, improving billing accuracy and enhancing
overall system performance. Additionally, the utility has notified
nearly 3,000 customers of leaks or issues with continuous usage since
deployment, helping customers reduce excess water consumption by an
average of 25 million gallons per year.

“With time saved on meter readings and billing, we’ve diverted those
staff resources to an ongoing data and meter testing program,” said
David Sago, utility manager, City of Fairmont Utilities. “This
initiative will help us ensure accuracy and great customer service for
years to come.”

Read the full case
study to learn more about the City of Fairmont’s Sensus AMI
implementation.

About Sensus

Sensus helps a wide range of public service providers—from utilities to
cities to industrial complexes and campuses—do more with their
infrastructure to improve quality of life in their communities. We
enable our customers to reach farther through the application of
technology and data-driven insights that deliver efficiency and
responsiveness. We partner with them to anticipate and respond to
evolving business needs with innovation in sensing and communications
technologies, data analytics and services. Learn more at sensus.com
and follow @SensusGlobal on Facebook,
LinkedIn,
Twitter
and Instagram.

About Xylem

Xylem (XYL) is a leading global water technology company committed to
developing innovative technology solutions to the world’s water
challenges. The Company’s products and services move, treat, analyze,
monitor and return water to the environment in public utility,
industrial, residential and commercial building services settings. Xylem
also provides a leading portfolio of smart metering, network
technologies and advanced infrastructure analytics solutions for water,
electric and gas utilities. The Company’s more than 16,500 employees
bring broad applications expertise with a strong focus on identifying
comprehensive, sustainable solutions. Headquartered in Rye Brook, New
York with 2017 revenue of $4.7 billion, Xylem does business in more than
150 countries through a number of market-leading product brands.

The name Xylem is derived from classical Greek and is the tissue that
transports water in plants, highlighting the engineering efficiency of
our water-centric business by linking it with the best water
transportation of all – that which occurs in nature. For more
information, please visit us at www.xylem.com.

Contacts

For Sensus
Kim Genardo, +1-919-376-2566
[email protected]
or
Mark
Van Hook, +1-919-459-6481
[email protected]