Delivering AMI to Address Water Utility Growth
How Greer Commission of Public Works revolutionized water management and customer experiences with advanced metering infrastructure.
Facing water infrastructure challenges during rapid growth
For over 110 years, Greer CPW has been the lifeblood of the Greer, South Carolina community, providing the essentials like water, power, and gas that families and businesses need to thrive. Serving 90,000+ customers across its utilities, Greer CPW has had a front-row seat to the area’s explosive growth. Greer has blown up into one of South Carolina’s fastest-growing cities as major corporations like BMW have moved in, with the population swelling by 8.57% annually.
With demand going through the roof, Greer CPW knew it needed to step up its game. The tried-and-true way of operating wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Greer was growing by leaps and bounds, and Greer CPW was determined to rise along with it.
While the urgency was apparent, the metering infrastructure solution revealed itself more slowly. Still, the goal was to anticipate future needs before they arose and empower customers by giving them access to water usage data and the transparency they deserved.
“Greer and that part of the state took off when BMW built a plant in Spartanburg.”
– Josh Allison, National Meter Sales Director, Fortiline Waterworks
Migrating to an advanced metering infrastructure with automatic meter reading
After decades of reliable service, Greer CPW’s water infrastructure was at a crossroads. Rising demand strained aging pipes and meters alike, threatening to outpace Greer’s rapid growth. Searching for a solution equal to the moment, Greer CPW explored cutting-edge automated metering systems capable of propelling operations into the 21st century. Josh Allison from Fortiline sang the praises of Kamstrup’s innovative ultrasonic smart metering technology. Intrigued by the smart meters’ robust accuracy and efficient remote readings, Greer CPW took a leap of faith, deciding to replace all 23,000 antiquated water meters across the region—a process that began in 2023.
The Kamstrup AMI system has proven visionary, providing a wealth of granular data to optimize every drop. Readings come in every three hours, filling in the gaps hour-by-hour to create an expansive view of real-time usage. This abundance of information gets translated into billing dollars and cents, empowering customers to truly understand their own water consumption patterns. With deep Kamstrup integration enabling existing billing systems to harness this data, Greer CPW stands poised to thrive in the future.
“Our goal has been to provide a lot more data not only to ourselves but also for our customers, and that required us to look at an AMI system like Kamstrup.”
– Paul Peach, IT Manager, Greer CPW
Unlocking the Advantages of an AMI Water Meter: Realizing Benefits and Results
- Improved customer experience with a portal that shows hourly water usage and costs
- More accurate and frequent meter reads
- Durable, polymershell meters that eliminate cross-threading issues
“Twelve contractors later, 11,000 meters in the ground, not a single one has been cross-threaded. That’s fantastic.”
– Steven Crymes, IT Endpoint Supervisor, Greer CPW
Thanks to the installation of Kamstrup water meters, Greer CPW has been able not only to maintain but elevate its high standards for customer service and efficiency. As meters continue to be installed and data flows in, we look forward to even more impressive results, which we will be sure to share.