PLANO , Texas — September 20, 2010 — Lake Arrowhead, CA — Water conservation and management is an ever increasing issue for the Lake Arrowhead Community Services District (LACSD), which serves communities in a rural area just north of San Bernardino, California. LACSD has the right to withdraw a maximum 1,566 acre feet of water year from the lake for its 7,800 water and 10,500 wastewater connections.
To keep up with growing demand, especially during frequent periods of drought, LACSD sought to implement a solution that would allow it to track every gallon and spot potential problems before any water was wasted. A unique challenge was the high number of vacation homes in the area that were often unoccupied. Without constant monitoring, any leakage at those locations could prove devastating for both the homeowner and the water district.
“Initially in the 1920s and 1930s, the area was primarily a resort with summer cottages,” said LACSD Water Use Efficiency Coordinator Marc Lippert. “Over the years, Lake Arrowhead has become an area of permanent, semi-permanent and seasonal character. The changing population patterns moved water management and conservation to the top of the priority list.”
For the past few decades, LACSD installed various meters at the homes and businesses scattered about the towering mountain area. This required meter readers to drive enormous distances around the lake to gather usage data, which did not provide the District with an accurate report of usage on a daily basis. Collecting usage data during winter months also posed a particular challenge for LACSD, as snow accumulation kept readers from accessing meter data for up to six months.
“We began working with LACSD to implement a drive-by system in early 2008,” commented Datamatic Vice President Rich Sanders. “While that was a significant improvement from the legacy system, bad weather could prevent accumulation of information from drive-by systems in a timely manner. This led us to suggest an upgrade that would allow the District to collect the data they needed to manage the water system.”
Datamatic suggested that the District review the company’s MOSAIC™ system. The ‘mesh’ technology offered a cost effective way to collect usage data with the accuracy needed. To gauge the viability and potential ROI of a wireless approach, the District asked Datamatic to conduct a pilot program of its MOSAIC AMR system.
“Our goals were pretty straightforward,” commented Lippert. “Datamatic not only recommended a system that would better meet those objectives, but also allowed us trade-in value for the drive-by legacy system. Datamatic also offered to arrange financing based on the proven ROI of the MOSAIC system.”
MOSAIC is an AMR solution that supports a migration path through walk-by, mobile and true mesh network collection methods using the same endpoint, a MOSAIC-class FIREFLY Meter Interface Unit (MIU), on every water connection point. The FIREFLY units are linked to MOSAIC gateways. These are installed and connected to a data backhaul.
The mesh is designed to reroute around hazards such as mountains, buildings and difficult terrain. They automatically deliver the utility’s data, all without user intervention. For example, if a FIREFLY’s shortest route to the gateway becomes unavailable for any reason, the transmission simply arrives via one of its other redundant routes, effectively “healing” itself. “We appreciated that meshing capabilities meant that MOSAIC requires less expensive, gateways than traditional network designs,” added Lippert. “This translated to a much lower overall initial cost, which accelerates payback.”
After a successful pilot program, LACSD believed that Datamatic’s MOSAIC AMR solution would help meet its goals. Plans called for a FIREFLY to be installed in every water connection, feeding data to the Gateways.
“We quickly recognized that when entire routes were automated,” noted Lippert, “that this would allow us to deploy our team to prevent problems, fix leaks and better monitor conservation efforts. We’d also be able to better manage our manpower as well.”
Installation took only about six months to complete. While the system quickly began to prove its worth upon installation, the mountainous terrain did not allow the information to be delivered within the window sought by the water district. “Datamatic’s experts immediately began working with our team to enhance performance,” noted Lippert. “Our investigation yielded fascinating data. The initial study indicated that each Gateway could collect data from about 800 meters. However, the mile high mountains had negated that expectation. Once the problem was determined, we added a few more Gateways on property the District already owned and the problem was resolved.”
The program far exceeded expectations and within just a few months, helped the District identify over 4% savings in water usage. This impressive result is expected to give LACSD a payback on investment in only two and a half years, which is far less than their original goal. According to Lippert, “The savings alone more than covered the costs to install the AMR system quickly. Datamatic’s willingness to give us trade in value for the drive-by system and ability to help secure financing provided a sound return on our investment.”
