Gainesville Regional Utilities continues to install or retrofit electric, water, and gas meters or modules as it moves forward with its Meter Upgrade Project. These new units will allow customers to track energy usage and water consumption more effectively.
The benefits of AMI include improving the accuracy of meter reads, detecting meter failures and water leaks quickly, quicker response to power outages, remote turn on/offs, energy theft detection, and eliminating on-site meter readings.
As GRU continues to install digital meters, or what’s technically known as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), here is what you need to know:
Meter change-outs take only a few minutes and result in minimal service disruption, according to AMI Deployment Manager Doug Hoffman. Natural gas meters, he said, get modules added to them, so it’s a slightly different process.
“We pull up to a residence where they can see us and the GRU truck,” Hoffman said. “Our installer will wear a GRU shirt, hard hat, gloves, and safety glasses and be well-identified. They’re going to knock on your door, ring the doorbell, and we will call if it looks like someone is home.”
At a recent installation at an apartment complex in Gainesville, AMI Installer Nathan Espinoza explained the process as he replaced a panel of six meters in less than 15 minutes. Fellow trainee installer Nate Marshall assisted Espinoza.
Espinoza starts by reading the current meter number and taking a current read, which Marshall records on a form with the new meter identification information. Espinoza removes the old meter and replaces it with the new AMI meter, seals the meter box with a blue seal that denotes AMI, and then the new meter gets processed through GRU’s billing system.
Data collector devices throughout the city will relay the data to the AMI Head-End System and Meter Data Management System for processing.
Once the AMI system goes live, GRU customers can access and monitor their consumption via a self-service Web portal, empowering them to make informed decisions about budgeting and conservation.
GRU Electric Measurement Technician Joe Barber said the AMI installation schedule is going as planned and that “customers have been accepting and happy about the meter upgrades.”
Visit gru.com/meterupgrade for more information.
