St. Croix Natural Gas Sets AMR Install Record

摘要

Being small and nimble has its advantages — just ask St. Croix Valley Natural Gas based in River Falls, Wisconsin. Working with Itron Gold Partner Business Associate, Hydro Metering Technology, this rural utility implemented its automated meter reading (AMR) system in only three months. That's got to make it one, if not the fastest AMR installation on record. Back in 2000, up to four meter readers armed with paper route books and pencils would take to the field. Their mission was to read some 5,500 meters located in the city of River Falls, the city of Prescott, and the Village of Hammond. With the task requiring 20 eight-hour days to get the five billing cycles read each month, and regional growth expected to continue, the utility reached a crossroad. The 11-employee strong company would have to hire more help to keep reading manually, or it could look to technology.