Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/850954
E n s u r i n g a S t r o n g F u t u r e 45 | P a g e Meter Services and AMI Field Service Technicians provide excellent service and resolve problems at a customer's home or business. They are responsible for installing meters, maintaining meter boxes, turning a customer's water on or off; performing pressure surveys; replacing aging or failing meters; and testing for meter accuracy to ensure reads are correct for billing. The Field Services Technicians are also responsible for maintaining the District's Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). AMI is an integrated system of smart meters, communications networks, and data management systems that provides real-time data about water use for billing, analysis and on-line reporting. Staff's ability to maintain a successful AMI system is remarkable; they are experts in maintaining, repairing, and replacing parts of the system without assistance from outside professionals, saving time and money. The system's current meter reading percentage is over 99%. Staff is committed to maintaining this exceptional level of performance. Field Services will be experiencing a significant transformation in the next five years. Approximately 15,000 new meters will be installed in addition to 10,000 AMI radios to support the electronic billing and data systems. The upper-level AMI network will be equipped with stronger, more robust equipment. Efficiencies will be realized by reducing the amount of existing infrastructure while providing better, more reliable data. The reduction of infrastructure will assist staff to better manage the AMI system and respond more quickly to problems or outages.