Elster Electricity, LLC announces its first EnergyAxis System deployment in the Lone Star State's city of Fredericksburg, Texas. This is Elster's first commitment for a complete system wide deployment of both electric and water meter automation in the United States.
The EnergyAxis System is an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system for residential, commercial, and industrial electric and water metering applications. Deployment will take place in stages over a three-year period encompassing approximately 5,290 electric meters and 5,071 water meters installed at residential and commercial locations. The city expects to improve billing efficiencies with more accurate and timely bills.
"It has been an extreme pleasure working with the Elster support team on this project," stated Russell Immel, information systems manager at the city of Fredericksburg. "The support we have received has exceeded our initial expectations. The preparation, training, thoroughness of installation, quick response time and follow-up by the Elster team has been excellent."
The EnergyAxis System was selected by the city for its controlled mesh network technology, its user-friendly features, and its minimal number of system components. Elster's system meets the city's requirement for remotely accessing meter data from both electric and water meters. Having a limited staff with increasing responsibilities, the city wanted to implement a state-of-the-art advanced meter reading system that did not require extensive planning, infrastructure, administration, or resources to deploy. Another main deciding factor was the system's ability to read water meters in service areas where the City does not manage the electricity service.
Elster's EnergyAxis Metering Automation Server (MAS) allows the city to perform on-demand meter reads. In the future, the city plans to implement the remote service connect and disconnect feature. The automated functionality of MAS helps save time and improves time management efficiency for system operators. The city expects to improve customer service with the system's capability to perform daily reads and to retrieve meter data from past months.
