The city Department of Environmental Protection announced today that over the next three years (starting this fall), crews will be installing radio transmitters on water meters around the city.
The device will transmit users’ exact water usage to an automated billing system, several times a day. Officials say it will do away with estimated bills – allowing users to pay for only the water they actually use.
The Department of Environmental Conservation released the following statement:
New York City Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Emily Lloyd announced today the award of a contract to acquire advanced Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) technology to improve DEP’s water metering system. The $68 million contract will allow DEP to automate its meter reading capabilities and to improve customer services for its approximately 831,000 metered points serving nearly eight million people in New York City.
“We have been working on improving our Bureau of Customer Services, and this new technology will dramatically improve the accurate and timely readings of the water meters as well as better serve our customers with technologies that will help them to efficiently utilize water resources,” said Commissioner Lloyd. “Ultimately, AMR will also provide customers with a system that offers an early warning notice of potentially expensive leaks before they become a problem.”
The AMR system consists of small, low-power radio transmitters connected to individual water meters that send daily readings to a network of rooftop receivers throughout the city. In most cases, the transmitters will be placed where meter remote receptacles are currently located. The AMR receivers will be part of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) New York City Wireless Network (NYCWiN). The installation of the AMR system will take approximately three years to complete.
“The largest government-dedicated, high-speed wireless data network in the country, NYCWiN can vastly improve the performance and efficiency of agencies citywide, and DEP’s AMR system is one of the first and best examples of an agency leveraging this new technology,” said DoITT Commissioner Paul J. Cosgrave. “We are pleased to partner with DEP in meeting its commitment to better service delivery for New Yorkers.”
The new AMR technology will be able to send accurate readings to a computerized billing system up to four times a day and will largely eliminate the need for estimated bills. It will also provide DEP with the ability to eventually transition to monthly billing, and it will offer improved water consumption data, which will aid DEP’s water conservation and system planning initiatives. Since it is an automated system, AMR also eliminates the need for a meter reader to visit customer properties.
DEP contractors will be providing door-to-door free installations of the AMR transmitters for water customers and will also be replacing some old water meters. Installation will begin in Brooklyn and Queens in October, in the Bronx and Manhattan in November of this year, and Staten Island in 2009.
DEP piloted two AMR technologies in parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan last summer, and chose the Aclara technology after determining that it was more effective in transmitting signals in New York City’s densely built urban environment. AMR equipment operates on a low-power frequency band reserved specifically for meter reading transmissions. It is unlikely to interfere with the operation of any other electronic equipment.
Similar systems are currently used by the Boston and Washington, D.C. water systems and have led to higher payment rates in both cases. A similar system is also being installed by Pacific Gas & Electric for their gas customers throughout central and northern California, and Aclara’s technology has also been selected by the city of Toronto.
AMR is a key part of DEP’s ongoing transformation of DEP’s Bureau of Customer Services (BCS). As part of this initiative, customer service and billing practices have improved significantly, with more robust, accurate and easily accessible information now available to all 826,000 water and sewer account holders throughout the City.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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7 Responses
We have this in some parts of Lakewood. Yay NJ American Water! 🙂
Does any one know if this will be a shabbos halachic issue? meaning: if I turn on my water on shabbos will I be activating this meter?
#2
you raise issues that you can ask today.
when you use water do you automatically trigger pumps to start up to pump additional water,etc etc,.
its not clear to me that they will give you minute by minute water usage. they probably radio signal each location monthly for billing purpose only or excessive usage. it probably works automatically.i think you have nothing to worry about.
What about the digital display on the meter that constantly displays the amount of usage in real-time (including Shabbos)?
#2– I must presume you do not use any electricity or gas since you activate the meter either in your apt. complex or your house. Unless you live in a hut with no modern facilities, or use a candle on Shabbos/Yom Tov, you can lay in bed all day too on Shabbos and just breathe till it’s over.
#5 you must be joking! Of course I use electricity on shabbos the difference is, is that I set it up before shabbos. However unlike water I am not initiating anything on shabbos.
Do you flush the toilet in the bungalow colony? The flush activates a pump that brings up more water from the source. I found this out when we were having a scheduled blackout and were advised of this.