Beaverton, Oregon Changes Meters, Saves Millions and Gains Unexpected Functionality

Beaverton, Oregon, famously addressed as the birthplace of Nike, is a thriving city of around 100,000 residents and just a short drive from Portland. Nestled in the lush Pacific Northwest, it’s ranked nationally as one of the best places to live and raise a family, known for its welcoming community and excellent amenities, among them its water services.

Aware of the importance of its drinking water to its community, Beaverton is proactively addressing a common challenge faced by cities across the U.S., namely aging infrastructure. Dan Graff, the city’s water manager, is at the forefront of this initiative. When Beaverton’s water meters began to show signs of wear, Dan was a leader in supporting a move away from the city’s 23,000 mechanical meters for an opportunity to improve the city’s water management by upgrading to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). Graff had backing from both the city’s engineering and finance departments. Graff and the other departments saw AMI as a tool to not only manage and conserve the city’s water supply but also ensure full visibility into its infrastructure. Dan and others in the engineering and finance departments supported the goal to implement a solution that would generate measurable savings and revenue, paving the way for a more sustainable future.

Beaverton carefully assessed the requirements it would need to install a new AMI solution with its existing vendor. However, like many utilities, Beaverton was not unhappy with its existing vendor and recommended solution. But upgrading to an AMI meter meant a larger device than the current meters and meter boxes, the vendor’s proposed system would be too big for the city’s existing meter boxes. As Beaverton prepared to change out over 8,000 meter boxes—a massive and costly undertaking—their local distributor, HD Fowler, introduced them to Kamstrup. The Kamstrup meter is changing the city’s complete metering system for the better.

First, the compact design of the Kamstrup meters eliminated the need for the meter box replacement project. The Kamstrup meters are ultrasonic, lightweight, and feature embedded communications. They also fit in Beaverton’s current meter boxes. Troy Pierson, Water Distribution Lead for Beaverton, summed up the relief this brings to the utility: “We’re looking at saving over $3 million simply by using our existing meter boxes. We don’t have to buy new boxes and rip out the old ones and install the new ones. These new meters are saving us meter box replacement cost, labor, and time.”

In addition to saving millions in capital expenses and labor, the use of existing infrastructure enabled Beaverton to accelerate their AMI project. The accelerated timeline, in turn, reduces the city’s accumulated interest on the US government loan administered by the US EPA for the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program. Instead of phasing the transition over 15-18 years as they’d originally planned, Beaverton elected to overhaul their system over a period of 3-4 years, a decision driven by their desire for data and expected longevity of the Kamstrup meters.

To say that Beaverton’s Water Manager, Dan Graff, is eager to bring new technology and data to the city is an understatement. “These meters are going to affect many processes: streamlined billing, operational efficiency, and leak detection,” says Graff. “Plus, it will really elevate our visibility and customer service. We’ll have an hourly picture of what is going on in our system and the data to show homeowners when leaks are happening.”

When Graff learned that acoustic leak detection was part of the data the Kamstrup meters deliver, he was intrigued. Like most utilities, Beaverton has a leak detection program, which follows a common approach. The utility engages with a third-party contractor to survey their system in annual segments. City staff also check high risk parts of the pipe network for leaks. Specifically, Beaverton’s annual survey covered 20% of their system such that each segment was surveyed once every five years.

Compare that approach to their new system, using Kamstrup’s embedded acoustic leak detection which uses the same ultrasonic technology used for metering to listen within the water column, recording acoustic patterns as efficiently as it does flow. The multipurpose and simplicity of the solution is its greatest asset—with no added hardware, no wires, or battery drain.

With embedded acoustic leak detection and 26x daily reporting for every residential meter, Beaverton is set to launch a new modern leak detection program. “We know we have leaks. But we don’t have the funding to hire or operate staff to search the city for them. Now we have daily insight into where and how big they are. We have the data to locate, prioritize, and fix them efficiently.”

Along with built-in acoustic leak detection, the Kamstrup meters also offer embedded communications, which Beaverton has found to be another advantage. With no external wires, the Kamstrup meters have minimized construction mishaps. And, in a city that is undergoing rapid development, that’s been a huge relief and a time saver.

While Beaverton is in the first year of their 3-year installation project, they are happy with the ease, reliability, and accuracy of the Kamstrup meters. “We are already finding lots of leaks and underreporting meters,” says Dan Graff. In the field, installation crews are surprised by the lightweight and solid construction of the Kamstrup composite meters. “The threads are very clean,” says Chad Lindberg, making it easy to thread in the field with confidence. We’ve had no issues with cross threading.”

Join us as we continue to follow the AMI transition in Beaverton, Oregon. We’ll hear from the team as they accumulate data and process it over time. We’ll explore how their leak detection program is progressing and learn what processes they’ve put in place to operationalize and reduce water loss. Check back with us soon.