The City of Yonkers implemented an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in October of 2013. The components of the system included the replacement of approximately 30,000 meters and installation of 30,000 radio transmitters (MTUs), the installation of 9 data collectors throughout the city, design and implementation of a custom interface with the billing system Basis 2, and installation and configuration of the MegaNet MCM Software. This system was implemented with a customer portal, WaterSmart, with the goal of providing Yonkers’ customers with more visibility into their water usage and billing.
The system that was selected in 2013 was technologically advanced at the time. However, as technology has advanced, the City of Yonkers’ system is no longer meeting the original goals of eliminating estimated bills and obtaining more accurate water consumption for accurate water balancing. The City is only able to regularly attain an accurate read rate of 70% or less due to rapid battery drain in MTUs and malfunctioning meters. Because of the lack of bi-directional communication functionality in the MTUs, the City has little to no ability to perform field diagnosis on equipment. Additionally, the City experiences, on average 76 water main breaks annually, representing significant cost to the City in not only in maintenance and repair, but also in the cost of water purchased from New York City.
The City does not have an active meter change out program and meter readings are uploaded daily to The City’s billing system, Basis 2, via custom interface. The City has been divided into six water meter reading and billing districts/sections, with an account number assigned to each water meter for billing purposes. Existing water meter sizes vary from 5/8-inch to 8- inch. Please refer to the table below for current meter numbers by size and type.
The City of Yonkers is now seeking a turn-key solution which will allow them to update the current technology with more accurate and reliable metering and data transmission while also proactively detecting and managing leaks throughout the water distribution system. The City of Yonkers intends to acquire an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system and related products, software and services (collectively, the “System”), for all of its approximately 29,000 water meters.
The City of Yonkers is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors to provide a System. The City will consider combination of responses which include some or all of the following:
- AMI System (with Endpoints) - minimal required for proposal
- Full or partial replacement of Water Meters
- Leak Detection System
