When the City of Dallas, Georgia, launched an initiative to get a handle on water loss, they couldn’t know just how far their journey would take them.
The city began with a smart water meter pilot program that helped them reduce non-revenue water (NRW)—an undertaking that netted a $12,000 return in just four months. From there, City of Dallas Billing Clerk Amber Whisner and her team began to explore more ways to reduce water loss and improve service.
The city decided to expand their metering upgrade program to address water loss. They chose to deploy a smart utility network from Sensus, a Xylem brand, as the next step in their journey.
With an aggressive, five-year timeline, the City of Dallas expanded the rollout of Sensus iPERL® residential water meters and added OMNI™ commercial meters to their arsenal. Backed by the secure, two-way FlexNet® communication network for real-time remote monitoring, the city was able to quickly address leaks.
“We could resolve issues within hours that might have taken us 30 days to even identify with our old system,” said Whisner. “The network helped us make a major dent in water loss and improved billing accuracy for customers.”
Hungry to see what else was possible, the city’s water team began looking for other ways to advance their water loss program. The city launched a pilot program with Sensus ally® water meters combined with Sensus Analytics for enhanced pressure monitoring across residential accounts in three targeted zones or district metered areas (DMAs).
The solution allowed staff to pinpoint issues beyond leaks, such as a broken main or open hydrant. The city also analyzed data to catch subtle sources of background leakage.
“Data analytics helps us identify areas with leaks that we can’t visibly see underground due to small cracks or pipe deterioration,” said Whisner. “Adjusting the water pressure in those areas can help address any issues and it also protects our infrastructure over the long run.”
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