cork€county€council … o' keeffe.pdf ·...

Cork County Council

NonDomestic Water Metering Project

Project Update September 2005

Noel O Keeffe BE, Eur Ing, C Eng, FIEI, MICE, MIHT, MAPM.

Senior Executive Officer, Water Services Capital, South Cork Rural

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CONTENTS1. Project Background & Objectives

2. Trial Systems Midleton

3. Experience & Lessons from Midleton

4. What was really needed…

5. Project Conclusions

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Irish Government Policy

1. In 1998 the Government issued a waterpricing policy, which requires metering ofall nondomestic water supplies by 2007.

2. The new policy will ensure thatconsumers will be charged on a fair andequitable basis, in that they will only payfor water & waste water on a WIWObasis.

3. The charge will only relate to the nondomestic element of the water supply i.e.,business, farming, institutions, and allconnections that are not wholly fordomestic use. Local Authorities areprohibited by law from charging for adomestic supply under a derogationobtained by the Irish Government fromthe EU.

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Current Metering Practices

Ø Meters are read manually once a year

Ø There are approximately 11,800 metered customers in Cork County

Ø Further 2,800 are billed on a fixed basis

Ø At least 20% of all issued bills are queried due to inaccurate readings

Ø In 2004, invoiced value equated to €18 million

Ø In 2004, 67.55% of charges were outstanding at year end

Ø It is estimated that there are 40.000 nondomestic customers in CorkCounty Council

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Objectives of the Midleton Trial

q Trial to test meter & AMR technologies

q Field test equipment e.g. meters & meter boxes

q To assess the effects of alternative metering policies e.g. internal vs. externalmeter location

q Customer acceptance & reaction

q To assess data and user friendliness of alternative systems

q Capability of equipment from different suppliers

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Trial Systems

ØCork County Council policy was to trial all the driveby and fixednetwork Automatic Meter Reading Systems available in the Irish market

ØAfter a period of intense research decided on seven contractors, eachbeing allocated approximately 65 meter locations.

ØWe trial 7 different AMR systems ( driveby and fixed network) incombination with all on the market available water meters.

ØManufactures/ Suppliers were Actaris, Elster Metering, ista, Sensus,Hydrometer, Miltel, Ramar and Qonnectis.

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Subsequent Developments:

We wanted one common platform… .

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Subsequent Developments:

We wanted one common platform… .

… .. and ended up with 6 differentcomputers & systems !

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ista's Fixed Network System

METERS

DATA

WAREHOUSE

CIS

INVOICES

INTERNET

COMMUNICATION

DATACOLLECTION

SYSTEMS

ista's Approach for Ireland

Combines newand existingsystems ontoone common

platform

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External Box Filled With WaterClick t

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Indented External Meter BoxesClick t

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ista Internal InstallationsClick t

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Confidence Check, Manual Vs Automatic Data

0100020003000400050006000700080009000

100001100012000130001400015000

HANLEY CTRLS EMR SW CARTHY IPL RESPONSE ENG. CULLYAUTOMATION

CSL

Customer Name

Con

sum

ptio

n m

3

Automatic

Manual

Manual vs. AMR reads Confidence Check, Sept 2004

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Internal Meter Installations

•Easier to install

•Quality of the installation can be easily checked

•Increased life due to less aggressive environment

•More versatile and cost effective

•Easier access

•No additional legal powers required to install, maintain andread

•Helps reduce public liability claims

•More transparent for customer

Lessons Learned

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Why AMR?

•Fewer disputed bills

•Fewer missed reads

•Network management

•Leak detection

•Enhanced customer relations

•Increased frequency of reads for significant customers

•Revenue generating project not an engineering one

But for the overall project we need much more…

Lessons Learned

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What we really needed…

Having evaluated the trial at Midleton itwas clear that we did not just need acivil contractor to dig holes and installboundary boxes with metersThe requirements were much broader…

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What we really needed…

The following requirements emerged because theassets will remain in Cork County Councils ownership:

n To identify the ‘missing’customersn To obtain customer & site information from surveysn We still require good installation (civil & plumbing)n Reliable, Resilient, Long Service Life meters & AMR devicesn An effective Billing and Debt Recovery operationn An enduring new installation & replacement operation

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Identify the Customers

Cork County Council is required to meter all nondomestic water/waste water usage estimated40,000 customersCurrent records do not identify all the nondomesticwater/waste water usersDesktop collation of multiple databases: Propertyrates, telephone directories, business directories,agricultural users, etc.Combine and refine this data to remove duplications,supplement with post & phone enquiries

Requirement: good IT & research skills

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PreInstallation Surveys

Having established a ‘virtual’customer base fromdesktop activityVisit the identified customers/sites to obtainadditional customer/site informationFind additional customers/sites not previouslyidentified

Requirement: Experienced Surveyor with ExcellentCustomer relationship skills

Assistance from Cork County Councils water curators

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Good Installation

Schedule work to minimise disruption in the localareaQuality installationInternal Installation causes less disruptionExternal meters more of the customer pipe workCivil works should be designed to last for many years

Requirement: Experienced civil & mechanical contractor

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Quality Meters and AMR devices

Meters must be selected to be accurate over as longa long time as possible –postpone cost ofreplacement as long as possibleAMR devices must be reliable and robust, some in avery hostile environment –maximising long termoperationMeter & AMR design must be well proven to ensureconfidence in automatic meter reads

Requirement: integral meter/AMR design fromexperienced quality manufacturers

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Billing & Debt Recovery

Current billing operations are for14,000 customers, this is anticipatedto increase to 40,000 customersCurrent revenue recovery is at 67%,this must increase to upper 90’s%Need focused staff, moderntechnology, determination to correctlyinvoice and recover revenueIs billing/revenue recovery a ‘coreskill’of CCC or best outsourced?

requirements: an experienced billing &revenue recovery contractor

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Operate & Maintain Assets

Not a fit & forget contract once fitted all theequipment needs continuing careNew meters need fitting on new & change of usesitesDamaged equipment needs repair/replacementMeter population need to be monitored for accuracythrough annual sample testingMeter population requires planned replacement

Requirement: long term commitment from the winningcontractor

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The real requirement

The requirement is being satisfied through acompetitive tender run by our consulting engineersRPS –MCOS under EU procurement regulationsThe winning contractor will be a company who iscapable of combining their wide expertise andexperience to satisfy the long term requirements ofCork CCThree tenders have been received and are currentlyunder evaluation

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Conclusions

•County wide AMR solution

•Project will cover all nondomestic customers (40,000)

•Internal meters preferred (90+% customers less than20mm supplies)

•Metering is popular with customers –provided it isexplained (it is Cork Co. Co.’s policy to communicateand be transparent)

•Project is full DB&OM with billing & debt recoveryoption

•The challenge ahead: End of EU derogation ondomestic meters is 2010

Universal Metering to commence 2007/8 ??

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Thank you for listening

Questions?

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