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The South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) provides reliable and safe water distribution and wastewater collection and treatment for 14,000 water customer accounts and 18,000 wastewater accounts. The District is located next to the pristine Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada mountains known for nearby ski resorts and beaches.
The Challenge
In 2010, the South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) embarked upon an extensive water meter installation project that aimed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of their water distribution system. With the goal of installing meters on more than 80% of their water service connections, the District was committed to ensuring that their customers had access to reliable and real-time water use data.
Recognizing the importance of advanced technology in water management, the District took a significant step forward in 2016 when they applied for and received Watersmart (now VXsmart) Drought Resistance Funding from the Bureau of Reclamation. This funding allowed them to implement an automated meter infrastructure (AMI) system, which revolutionized their data collection and analysis capabilities.
With the AMI system in place, both District staff and water customers now have access to real-time water use data, providing valuable insights into their consumption patterns and enabling them to make informed decisions about their usage. This real-time data has also proven to be an invaluable tool for the District itself, allowing them to monitor water usage trends, identify potential leaks or anomalies, and take proactive measures to address any issues that may arise.
Sitting in the Sierra Nevada mountains, amidst a desirable vacation destination, STPUD is faced with a handful of unique challenges. One of those challenges is the fluctuations in weather. During winter months, the community experiences several feet of snow, often resulting in frozen pipes. These frozen pipes have the potential to cause serious home damage in the spring as the weather warms, ice melts away, and flooding occurs.
The policy holds the District to granting water billing adjustments for water leaks on the customers’ side of the water meter. The District requires a written request from a customer for a billing adjustment within 30 days of discovery of the water leak and/or 30 days of receipt of the bill which includes the time period the water leak occurred.
A second challenge is inherently linked to a large population of tourists, part-time residents, and second homeowners. These customers will often turn water off at the valve when they are leaving town. Unfortunately, sediment and dirt can get into their pipes, blocking them from turning off entirely. This can result in continuous water use that the customer won’t become aware of until they receive their next water bill.
Prior to the implementation of AMI, the District had little visibility into the customer-side leaks. “Our staff would monitor customer use, and when we identified higher than normal use for an account, we would manually call the customer to alert them,” shares Jessica Henderson, Customer Service Specialist for STPUD. “We would then send someone out to investigate the situation and assist the customer.”
Staff knew a more proactive approach was needed to better identify and address customer-side leaks, particularly as the AMI system unlocked real-time insights into water use. In an effort to provide excellent customer service to the community, STPUD began a Leak Adjustment program in 2012.
FINDING THE RIGHT SOLUTION
TURNING DATA INTO ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS
The District began a hunt for a solution that would turn real-time water data into actionable insights for customers and staff. Our customer engagement engine and data analytics provided a helpful solution for the District. Unlike the utility’s current manual process, our VXconnect Leak Detection module detects and alerts customers to notify of potential high volume or continuous use leaks automatically.
EMPOWERING CUSTOMERS WITH LEAK RESOLUTION
Alerts are sent to customers through multiple channels including email, SMS text messages, and automated voice calls.
These automated alerts are then taken a step further by helping customers to find and resolve leaks on their own. A closed-loop leak resolution workflow guides customers through a complete diagnosis of the alerts and a series of steps for resolving the suspected leak without having to call their utility.
PROVIDING STPUD STAFF WITH TOOLS AND REPORTS
In addition, STPUD staff have access to tracking and documentation for all detected and alerted leaks, including insights into the timing and size of the leak, and captures any customer actions that occur including whether the customer has reported the source of the suspect water use.
MONEY BACK IN EVERYONE’S POCKETS
Since implementing the Leak Adjustment Program, District staff received an average of 20-30 requests per billing period.
In response to these requests, staff reviews water use in the billing period, averages it out, and estimates what portion of the use was over average. Staff then use that usage estimate to convert into a billing adjustment. Given this methodology to calculate the billing adjustment amount, the District found itself paying back anywhere from $100 to $1000 per customer that requested an adjustment. This ultimately costs the District around $27,000 a year.
We are so thrilled with the improved efficiency and excellent customer service it offers our customers. -Jessica Henderson, former Customer Service Specialist
In one year, 5,600 leaks have been detected and alerted STPUD. While this volume of identified leaks has resulted in a several more leak adjustment requests per billing period, South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) has still experienced real cost savings. So, how has the District been able to save money? The key is the timeliness of alerting.
When a customer submits a request through a form on our customer portal, STPUD staff use the Leaks Reports to see the estimated leak volume and calculate the amount owed back to the customer. By proactively alerting customers to suspected leaks, leaks are caught far sooner.
Adjustment requests are now less than $80 per account in the majority of cases. STPUD only grants one leak adjustment per account every twenty-four months. As such, 30% of customers initially requesting an adjustment opt-out to save their adjustment for a bigger leak in the future. “Our customers often react with shock when we share what the leak adjustment equates to and many choose to forgo the adjustment,” says Jessica, a former Customer Service Specialist at STPUD. Year over year the District has saved about $8,500 from the Leak Abatement Program following the implementation of the WaterSmart program.
TAKING A SIGH OF RELIEF
In addition to the hard cost savings, staff are also experiencing significant time savings. The STPUD team see the value of the leak detection, alerting, and resolution system and are relieved by the reduced burden managing their Leak Adjustment Program. They no longer have to manually run through bills and identify suspected leaks, nor do they have to spend time calling customers to alert them. This saves approximately 10-15 hours of staff time per week and has significantly decreased the number of customer visits necessary to diagnose suspected leaks.
“Access and knowledge for our customers has been huge, and we love to hear their continual appreciation for the automated notifications.”
“We have taken the time to trust the system and are so thrilled with the improved efficiency and excellent customer service it offers our customers,” remarks Jessica. When asked for advice to share with other utilities considering a digital customer engagement and data analytics platform in complement to an AMI system, Jessica urges peers to grant customers access to the information as soon as possible if not in advance of the implementation.