Jim ‘Slim’ Mimlitz, SCADAmetrics
Regional Water Utilities deliver and sell wholesale water to their Satellite Districts through networks of distribution mains and custody transfer meters. The consumption data from these custody transfer meters — the “cash registers”, so to speak — are of vital interest to both parties; and regulations generally require that their readings be collected daily — by both the seller and the buyer.
Unfortunately, most modern encoder-output water meters are designed for connection to only one AMI/AMR endpoint, which means that either the buyer or the seller (usually the buyer) will have to resort to climbing down into the meter vault to perform a daily “eyeball” meter read. In-vault meter reads are more prone to human error, pose a safety hazard for meter reader personnel (OSHA confined spaces), and consume more time.
Today, with SCADAmetrics’ introduction of its patent-pending Universal Duplexer, custody transfer water meters may now be shared, so that both the seller and buyer can connect their respective AMI/AMR endpoints to the meter! — thereby obviating the need for either entity to perform daily “eyeball” reads of the utility’s most important meters!
Universal Duplexer Allows Two (or More) AMI/AMR Endpoints to Be Connected to a Single Water Meter.
Illustrated Solution (click to zoom):
Meter Sharing System for Metropolitan and Regional Water Utilities.
It is important to note that the Universal Duplexer is truly “universal“: It enables the splitting of signals from every major encoder-type water meter to every major AMI/AMR/Visual endpoint in the industry — including those from Sensus, Neptune, Metron-Farnier, Kemp-Meek, Aclara, Mueller, Kamstrup, Badger, Master Meter, RG3, Zenner, Itron, Elster-AMCO/Honeywell, McCrometer, and many others! And universal compatibility is necessary, because Regional Water Utilities and their Satellite Wholesale Customers will generally present with an in-homogeneous set of AMI/AMR endpoints.
Are you interested in how SCADAmetrics technology can foster meter-reading harmony between Regional Water Utilities and their Satellite Wholesale Customers? Give us a call! We’ll be glad to discuss the details!
P.S. – Due to popular request, we have published this meter-sharing technique in a downloadable White Paper (PDF): CLICK HERE. Please feel free to download and share with your colleagues!