Serving more than 70,000 people across an area of 17 square miles, the City of Turlock in northern California was faced with a problem impacting Utilities across the nation: changing and unpredictable water conditions that make sustainability and efficiency of paramount importance. Seeking to modernize its system so as to save both money and water, the City of Turlock turned to one of the world’s most recognized names in innovative AMR and AMI products and solutions: Itron.
Beginning in 2008, the city Utility implemented Itron’s ChoiceConnect Fixed Network, a comprehensive solution that entails 18,500 Itron Water Communication Modules, allowing for an unprecedented amount of detail regarding water usage. The versatile network also provides daily reads for customer billings and interval reads when needed. It gives staff effortless monitoring abilities via cutting-edge administrative software. The Utility can easily supervise field work, run reports on detected leaks and non-use, and get ahead of potential problems before they even deploy service technicians.
With Itron’s file delivery guarantee, an impressive meter read rate guarantee of 98.5 percent, the City of Turlock and its residents can rest assured that readings will be gathered with the utmost reliability and accuracy. As the city’s municipal services director observed:
“Our meter read rates are phenomenal, regularly exceeding our guarantee. Itron routinely exceeds their commitment—we find that less than one percent of meters require us to visit the field to obtain a read”.
That is an unmatched level of dependability that has no doubt served the city well during these tough water conditions.
In 2011, the City of Turlock elected to have Itron manage the ChoiceConnect Network, given the company’s renowned reputation in management services. Relying on Itron for system upgrades and maintenance saved time and costs for the city’s staff, and the upfront contract fees were far more preferable to unknown hardware ownership costs. Itron’s management services include round-the-clock system monitoring, world-class technical expertise, and deft customer support. The end result is a multitude of savings for the city and an increase in both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
From its pioneering network and metering solutions, to its state-of-the-art services, Itron is the ideal partner for boosting the operational efficacy of any Utility. For more information, contact the Avanti Company at 800-284-5231 or info@avanticompany.com.