Salemburg, North Carolina
Municipality
AMI Water Meter Solution
Background
Named the first “model community” in the USA in 1914 by The Rockefeller Foundation, the quaint town of Salemburg is home to the Tarheel Challenge Academy and the state’s criminal justice training at the North Carolina Justice Academy. The Town’s infrastructure is handled by the Public Works Department which is responsible for maintaining the water and sewer systems, streets, and storm drainage systems. It also repairs water line breaks, installs new water and sewer lines, clears sewages lines, and more.
Challenge
Salemburg needed to replace aged assets, especially clean water infrastructure, using alternative sources of funding since it was capital constrained. The Town leadership sought to directly align the capital costs with the asset usage and benefit from increased incoming water revenue by removing inefficient and broken mechanical meters.
Project Description
The Town replaced 518 commercial and residential mechanical meters of varying sizes and types with ultrasonic water meters along with all associated data collection equipment and infrastructure. The installation also included setup, training for software data collection package, and integration to the billing interface.
Impact
A seemingly small project offered big results for the Town of Salemburg. Previously dealing with declining revenue and increasing maintenance costs, the Town has realized immediate benefits that are positively impacting the utility and residents.
Monthly water revenues have shown a marked increase as water is now accurately tracked and usage data is easy to access with the state-of-the-art technology provided by the smart water meters. Additionally, maintenance costs have decreased due to the nearly maintenance-free hermetically sealed meters with no moving parts. This durable system was built for efficiency and reliability and is doing exactly what the Town hoped for and anticipated!