AmCoBi adds new alerting features to water billing solution in California

American Conservation & Billing Solutions (AmCoBi) has launched Intelligent Water Conservation Solution with alerting features which can help water utilities in the state of California, US to meet the mandatory water usage restrictions.

The utility billing service provider has added two additional features to the online portal called AquaHawk Alerting.

AmCoBi President Bobby Lee said: "AquaHawk Alerting is the only solution available that empowers utilities with first- and second- generation metering equipment to provide some ‘smart meter’ capabilities to their clients.

"Governor Brown mandated reductions from 8 to 36% for major California water suppliers. Utilities must encourage all their customers to save."

The enhancements can ensure that even water utilities without AMI or smart meter systems can assist customers to reduce their water consumption.

Use of smart meters by the utilities facilitate rapid leak detection, notification, and projected usage.

However, manual, handheld, or mobile ‘drive-by’ Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) systems are still used by 80% of the water utilities in the state, which require data collection after every 30 days.

Customers wouldn’t know about their water usage till they receive a bill, which makes it difficult for them to track their usage or stick to the state-specified limits, resulting in fines and penalties.

The first additional feature included in AquaHawk Alerting will involve delivery of water use reports to the consumers via print or e-mail which will compare consumption to drought targets.

The second one to be offered by the solution will be in the form of customer-entered meter reads which can be used for usage projections and alerts.