AMR And Teamwork Automate Albany Water, Gas & Light

On schedule and within budget, the Albany, Water, Gas & Light Commission (WG&L) in Georgia is now reading nearly all of its residential gas, water and electric meters, and a portion of its commercial meters, with mobile automated meter reading technology from Itron.

As of August 1, 2004, the utility has automated the meter reading process for more than 80,000 meters through a business arrangement facilitated by Hometown Connections.

A subsidiary of the American Public Power Association (APPA) and a licensed business associate of Itron, Hometown Connections negotiates lower purchase prices and service arrangements from Itron and other industry suppliers on behalf of all APPA members.

Albany WG&L installed an Itron automated meter reading (AMR) system to collect usage data. ERT (encoder, receiver, and transmitter) modules were installed on the meters, enabling radio transmission of readings to handheld devices and a mobile collector. The collector is a piece of equipment resembling a laptop computer, that gathers readings as the vehicle travels through the territory.

The utility purchased 20 Itron G5R handheld units for use during the 12-month build out of the system while the routes were being populated with ERTs. The G5Rs can read ERTs or accept data keyed in manually by utility personnel.