How the implementation of cutting-edge technology enhanced billing accuracy, reduced labor costs, and conserved water resources in Chartres area?
In a bid to improve its water distribution network, Chartres Métropole area, which is home to 140,000 people, partnered with Aqualter, responsible for water production and supply in the region. In a recent video, Lionel Turpin, Operations Director at Aqualter, Adrien Dubost, and Antonio Rodrigues, experts from Diehl Metering, explain how our solutions have helped the city save 600,000 m3 of water. Consumers are more satisfied with bills based on real consumption and the automatic meter reading has also reduced manual labor for the utility while empowering it to identify leaks and preserve water resources.
One of the main challenges that the partnership faced was the labor-intensive and inefficient manual data collection process for water meters. This not only led to unreliable billing but also wasted water due to undetected leaks in the network. Plus, before 2016, only one bill a year was sent out to the area’s 50,000 households. Reading meters was a time-consuming business and manual reading required consumers to be at home. These constraints, combined with the potential for human error, made manual reading an inefficient and costly process.
To overcome these challenges, Aqualter replaced all the water meters in its distribution network over a period of one and a half years. Diehl Metering, designed a suite of solutions to remotely read all the meters in the network. The solutions included a fixed network with a Passive Drive-By solution and a Walk-By system to gather readings from the few remaining meters that are not covered by the other two solutions. All data from IZAR RDC receivers can be integrated into the customer’s database software IZAR PLUS PORTAL, which can then be used by their billing software.
Thanks to the combination of fixed network and Passive Drive-By solutions, the city can now automatically read 95% of the meters in its network. Data is collected weekly and is extremely reliable. As a result, Chartres has implemented accurate quarterly billing, allowing households to monitor consumption and adjust their habits accordingly. This has helped increase end-user satisfaction.
Overall, the solution has helped Chartres Métropole to make significant progress towards a more sustainable and efficient water distribution network.
