Last July, the City of Las Cruces launched a huge project to upgrade and/or retrofit the thousands of water and gas meters across the city to Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). With the upgraded technology, instead of a meter reader coming to your home or business to read meters, the meter sends a signal to a receiver high on a nearby utility pole. Leak detection is part of the meter upgrade.
First came a pilot project on 17 meter reading routes. Jose F. Provencio, LCU business services administrator, explains the results, “Thanks to the automated meter upgrade and pilot project in the East Mesa area now takes just 10 minutes to read the 17 routes.” Previously it required a crew of eight meter readers working 3-days, while dealing with fenced and locked yards, protective dogs, and climbing into bushes and under cars to read those same meters.
BENEFITS TO CUSTOMERS: “With these new meters,” Provencio adds, “customers will have much quicker and more accurate readings for billing, and after the city-wide installation is complete, they will be able to tap into the online portal and see their own water and gas consumption hourly, daily, or monthly, and can make decisions on how they are using their water and gas service.” With that information a customer could even detect the possibility of a water leak before they run up a large bill.
The City is working with a private energy service company, Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI), to carry out the city-wide project, which is progressing ahead of schedule.
JCI recommended the city-wide AMI upgrade after completing a comprehensive Investment-Grade Energy Audit of Las Cruces Utility’s (LCU) infrastructure and facilities. The goal was to increase utility efficiency and save dollars.
This automation comes at no cost to LCU customers. The investment in the new system will be paid directly from the monthly savings provided by the AMI system. The project is a guaranteed-performance contract, meaning that JCI guarantees the savings that the City of Las Cruces will see with the more efficient automated meter reading.
The AMI project was initially expected to take 22 months to complete but is already weeks ahead of schedule thanks to JCI and its contractors. As City Manager, Stuart C. Ed, noted to City Council at the beginning of the project: “With the PEAK Performance initiative and performance-based contracting, we are evaluating performance in everything we do. This is the City’s first performance-based contract with a financial guarantee by the contractor, and the largest one in the State of New Mexico.” The AMI project performance is right in line with the PEAK Performance demands, which benefits our entire community.
Submitted by Las Cruces Utilities at 528-3500 from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Las Cruces Utilities provides GAS – WATER – WASTEWATER – SOLID WASTE services to approximately 100,000 Las Cruces residents and businesses.