Conserving Water by Monitoring Smart Meter Data

Water conservation is an increasingly important strategy for water providers and communities, and the City of Fort Worth’s water department wanted to develop ways of saving water to improve supplies.

As part of a project to update the city’s Drought Contingency Plan (the strategy to manage water supply shortages during droughts or emergencies), Fort Worth Water worked with Freese and Nichols to analyze smart meter data to provide a better view of where customers might be violating outdoor watering restrictions.

The Problem: Water users not following schedule limits

Under Fort Worth Water’s rules, customers are prohibited from using irrigation systems between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., year-round. Residential customers also must follow the watering schedule in the Drought Contingency Plan based on their addresses:

  • Houses ending in even numbers can water on Wednesday and Saturday.

  • Houses ending in odd numbers can water on Thursday and Sunday.

  • No residential watering is permitted on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

When the city declares Stage 2 drought restrictions, outdoor watering by irrigation systems can be limited to once per week. When drought restrictions reach Stage 3, the city can prohibit all outdoor watering.

The city implemented a custom dashboard to meet their specific needs for using smart meter data to identify potential watering violations. The tool gave Fort Worth Water a sense of the magnitude of water use tied to watering violations. Having access to the PowerBI dashboard developed by Freese and Nichols saved them the cost of subscribing to a separate, additional service.

Without the data (known as Advanced Metering Infrastructure or AMI data), warnings or fines could only be issued to watering violators if city personnel by happenstance witnessed the violation. AMI provides a data-driven approach to optimizing driving routes for drought restriction enforcement: It creates more effective methods of identifying violators by mapping out routes so staff can be at violators’ addresses at specific times.

This approach minimizes staff time and operational costs and maximizes the effectiveness of compliance efforts. The results: less time needed for patrols, higher revenue generated from fines and greater compliance with watering restrictions. Ultimately, this helps utility staff quantify the impacts to the existing water supply and delays the need to develop additional water supplies.

It should be noted that Fort Worth Water does not issue warnings or fines based on AMI data alone, and authorized personnel still need to witness a violation before any penalty.

This project recently won a Horizon Award, a quarterly award at Freese and Nichols given to projects that encapsulate our culture of innovation.