Prepayment Water Metering System

The system is a revolutionary and complete ‘water metering solution’. It provides many benefits to both water utilities and end users, including guaranteed revenue and arrears collection, extensive management tools through detailed report functionality and the ability for customers to manage their budgets more easily.

It is a straight forward and user friendly system to operate, as it uses a Smart Card to handle credit and monitor water use. Customers purchase credit at vending points(POS), providing an opportunity to download new tariff data. Simultaneously, data from the meter, stored on the Smart Card, is uploaded and sent to the utility headquarters

It guarantees payment prior to water distribution. It dramatically reduces operating overheads by removing the need for a billing department or meter readers.

Technical Features

- Power supply – 3.6v lithium battery. Expected battery life 6 years under normal operating conditions
- Accommodates a Smart Card reader (the mechanism used for credit transfer). Can cut off the water supply on Smart Card removal
- Incorporates a tamper switch, which activates a water supply cut off

- Liquid crystal display (LCD), which shows the following customer information:
- Prepayment credit
- Remaining water available
- Accumulated water consumption
- Current tariff band status (8 levels)
- Water supply valve – open / closed
- Emergency water – on / off
- Low battery warning
- Tamper status
- Remaining water available
- Monthly water usage for the current month and previous 6 months
- Minimum night time flow rate
- Valve status
- Battery status
- Daily rateable value deductions
- Programmed variable tariffs

Meter Management System

The Meter Management System (MMS) provides a friendly way for utilities to manage the Prepayment operation; run reports, find leaks, schedule battery changes, manage customers and prevents fraud.

The MMS is centrally located and collects customer and consumption data coming from the vending points. The
MMS also sends data back to the vending point and Smart Card network. It is possible to add, shut off or remove customers and alter tariffs.

Each unique Smart Card will only operate in a single customer’s meter. The Smart Card further provides a two way communication highway back to the MMS and delivers the following data:

- Accumulated water consumption
- Monthly usage for the current month and previous 6 months. Facilitates accurate zoned water balances and
trend analysis
- Minimum night flow. Highlights potential leaks within the customer’s premises
- Battery status is reported 6 months prior to failure, allowing time to schedule a maintenance visit
- Tamper status and mode is highlighted to initiate an evaluation visit to assess the mode and potential
fraudulent/vandal activity
- Collection of arrears. Accommodates a field for customer arrears within the database. It can be deducted on a fixed amount or a fixed percentage of each transaction
- Limit water consumption to a maximum daily water allowance in times of water restrictions

Report Generation

It includes a powerful suite of reports, giving utilities full diagnostics and revenue control and the reports include:

- Battery status exception
- Minimum night flow exception
- Tamper status exception
- Customer sales history
- Transactions per customer per day
- Vending points sales data
- Transactions per vending point per day
- Water usage report

Vending points

Vending points can be provided at fixed locations or as mobile hand held vending units. These options provide full flexibility for urban and rural areas. Customers bring their Smart Card to a vending point to load new credit. When new credit is loaded to the card, customer and consumption data is uploaded. To operate the vending point, a Cashier Card and a 4-digit PIN is required. This ensures only authorised cashiers can operate a vending point and a full transaction audit trail is available.

Vending points regularly upload all transactions. In the event that communications are not possible, a manual transfer system is available. The vending points link to the MMS, which offers a full SQL server database, through a communication network using secure FTP protocols. The MMS can handle in excess of 5 million customer records through a Smart Card protected operator interface.

Benefits:

For the water company:

- Flexible tariffing
- Different shut-off levels overcome traditional hurdles to Prepayment
- Automatic and remotely controlled - no customer visits required after installation
- Two-way communication between customers and the utility. Provides many of the benefits of Automatic Meter Reading systems
- Protected long-term revenues with guaranteed accuracy

For the customer:

- Customers are in control of their own budgets
- Water supply is not cut off unexpectedly
- Less administration helps to keep prices more affordable
- No visits to the customer’s property required to read meters