Water utilities honored for making communities more resilient
Xylem recognizes Texas and Michigan water utilities for operational and customer service excellence at Xylem Reach conference
Water utilities in the City of Fort Worth, Texas, and the Village of Mattawan, Michigan, and their distributor partners received 2022 Reach awards for going above and beyond in the areas of customer service and community impact. The honor, given by Xylem at the annual Xylem Reach conference, recognized the forward-thinking water operators for the innovative steps they have taken to quickly alert customers to a potential household leak or step in to help homeowners avoid disastrous repair bills.
“Our Reach award recipients leverage the power of digital solutions to address pressing water challenges, such as accessibility and affordability, and do so with efficiency, scalability and speed,” said Matthew Pine, Senior Vice President and President, Xylem Americas, Applied Water Systems and Measurement & Control Solutions. “These local heroes deserve recognition for transforming their water utility operations, enhancing customer service and supporting community members in need.”
Reach Transformation Award
The Reach Transformation Award honors those who reach farther through the application of Xylem technology to make operational advancements, improve customer service and optimize data.
The City of Fort Worth, Texas, is the 13th largest U.S. city and among the nation’s fastest growing cities. Fort Worth Water began their transformative journey to digitize systems in 2012. With the help of distributor Aqua-Metric, the utility exchanged more than 270,000 residential water meters, implemented the Sensus FlexNet® communication network and is annually adding thousands of new meters to meet its growing population. The utility is seeing substantial annual cost savings while improving the customer experience and reducing water loss.
“The MyH20 project is truly a game changer,” said Fort Worth’s Deputy Water Director Kara Shuror. “With our customer portal, residents now have access to detailed usage data, and they have the ability to monitor and manage their own water use.”
Shuror and Aqua-Metric Project Manager Paul Morrison accepted the award on behalf of their teams. View the award video for the City of Fort Worth transformation winner.
Reach Resiliency Award
The Reach Resiliency Award recognizes those who go above and beyond to make their community a better place to live, work and play through modernization and rapid response in the midst of emergencies.
The Village of Mattawan, just outside of Kalamazoo, Michigan, is home to 2,500 residents. The small, but mighty, public works team consists of four people and a superintendent who are always searching for new ways to improve efficiency and maximize staff time. Along with distributor ETNA Supply Company, they deployed smart technology, including iPERL® residential water meters and the two-way FlexNet ® system for remote meter management, allowing crews to get a week’s worth of work done in a matter of hours.
“In the summertime, it would take one to three days, and in the wintertime it would take a week or more, and now we are doing the billing and it’s in the mail in a matter of hours,” said Public Works Superintendent Tom Anthony. “It is unbelievable.”
The change in technology also improved meter and billing accuracy, leading to a reduction of water loss and overall costs, saving the utility approximately $75,000 each year. Anthony said “That’s money we are not flushing down the drain. The savings allowed us to purchase a bulk water station to fill residential swimming pools.”
With this smart technology, the utility was also able to empower customers to track their water usage from their laptop or phone. For residents who are not as web-savvy, Anthony and his team set up alerts to spare them from a costly water bill – and they even make house calls for those in need as part of their exceptional customer service.
Anthony and ETNA Account Manager Kevin Dieleman received the award to share with their teams. View the award video for the Village of Mattawan resiliency winner here.
The Xylem Reach conference brings industry leaders together to discuss smart sustainable solutions for water, gas and electric utilities. The conference took place in October with more than 100 educational and networking sessions.
Learn more about Sensus smart technology solutions.
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Join us at Xylem Reach 2023.