August Water Usage Briefing

Transcription

1 August Water Usage Briefing Utility Billing Department September 22, 2015 Council Meeting Presented by: Erin Mynatt Assistant to the City Manager 1

2 Customers Concerned About Increase In Water Usage and Their Bills Like a number of other cities throughout North Texas, beginning in late August, Melissa Utility Billing started to receive a number of calls and s from customers throughout the City voicing concern about unusually high water bills for the billing cycle running roughly July 15 to August 17. Generally questions/concerns centered on accuracy of billing and/or questioning functionality of meters 2

3 Steps Taken to Verify Bill Accuracy Staff noted that individual water usage appeared to be generally higher while reviewing mid August readings. Decided to proactively re read many accounts where usage appeared to have at least doubled as compared to the previous month. Initial reads confirmed the re read was higher than the reading that was entered for billing. As we started to receive questions regarding the most recent bill, staff performed a spot audit of our billing software and no anomalies were observed for that billing cycle, confirming that the bills were calculated correctly. 3

4 Number of Inquiries & Actions Taken to Verify Accuracy of Reads Total number of contacts to UB voicing concern : 100 Total number of water accounts: 2,697 (2,570 Residential) Total requests for meter re read/leak inspection: completed as of September 22 nd Number of mis reads identified: 0/73 Total Request for meter accuracy testing: tests completed as of September 22 nd Total of number of failed meters: 0/20 Number of leaks reported/adjustments processed: 6/6 4

5 What About Meter Accuracy? All water meters purchased and installed by the City of Melissa are certified by the manufacturer, MasterMeter to meet American Water Works Association (AWWA) standards. Meters must be within 98.5 and 101.5% accuracy to be usable. The design of the water meter does not allow for the City or anyone to adjust the dials or the accuracy of the meter. Water passes through the meter, which turns a series of gears and gives a reading. The mechanical parts are not capable of speeding up or registering a significantly higher reading than actual use. If there are problems with a meter s accuracy, it would be because it is running slow, not fast. Almost 5 always benefits the customer.

6 Water Meters Not the Problem Public Works at the request of customers completed on site meter inspections and accuracy testing (10 gallon bucket test). All meters were confirmed to be in good condition and testing showed that all were metering water usage accurately. MasterMeter the city s meter manufacturer, conducted additional testing of like meters for area cities testing confirmed metering in line with AWWA standards with no meters having failed testing to date. 6

7 Significant Increase in Average Residential Water Use Billed per Meter In August 2015: Average Residential usage was at its highest since Summer 2012 On average, residents used over 10,000 gallons more than July 2015 and Summer 2014 City of Melissa Average Residential Water Usage (January 2012 to August 2015) 18,000 gal. 8,000 gal. 8

8 An Overall Increase in Billed Water Usage: Confirmed by Increase in Amount Purchased City of Melissa purchased twice as much water in August vs July for M gallons: the highest amount purchased by the City in last two years 9

9 Regional Impact: Increase in Billed Usage Not Isolated to Melissa Numerous media reports emerged beginning late August throughout the DFW metroplex, North Texas and even Central Texas numerous customers reported being taken by surprise by higher water bills. Cities cited, reported that after reviewing usage data, billing systems, and re reading and/or testing water meters that the reads were accurate with no systematic errors emerging. City of Melissa s water supplier North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) water purchased reports confirm the overall increase in water purchased in August across the district indicates individual consumption had generally returned to pre drought levels. 10

10 NTMWD Customer Cities Water Purchased Highest in Two Years NTMWD Customer Cities purchased 0.5 Billion gallons more from NTMWD in August 2015 vs July B gallons, an increase of 1 Billion gallons from August 2014 highest amount purchased in at least two years 11

11 Why the Unexpected Increase and Higher Bills? A couple of factors compounded in a short period of time contributed to the unexpected increase in individual water usage: August billing period consisted of five week usage period (versus the typical four) Increase in irrigation usage (planned and unplanned) The timing of these factors combined for a large jump in the billed water usage. 12

12 Unexpected Increase in Irrigation Dry weather conditions According to the National Weather Service, DFW received 0.46 inches of rain this past August and 0.92 inches in July. By comparison, the Metroplex received 4.34 inches in August 2014 and 0.98 inches in July Relaxing of water restrictions Summer 2014, was limited to watering no more than 2x s per billing cycle; Summer 2015, up to as many as 8x s per billing cycle. Power outages during billing cycle likely lead to reset of many irrigation controllers to manufacturer settings which can cause to run more often, even daily 13

13 Tiered Rate System: Price of Water Increases as overall consumption increases $10.00 $8.00 $6.00 $4.00 $2.00 $ Residential Tiered Volumetric Rates (Tier 1 3) $5.42 $7.32 $ K 10 20K 20 60K $ Per 1,000 gallons Customers entering Tier 2, saw a 25% increase from Tier 1 Customers entering Tier 3, saw a 17% increase from Tier 2 At the higher rates per 1,000 gallons, bills 14can quickly become higher than expected.

14 Percentage of Residential Accounts with Monthly Usage >10,000 gallons 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% 33.30% Tier 2 Tier % August 2014 July 2015 August 2015 Typically in Summer we see approximately 75% of our customers using 15 less than 10,000 gallons; In August 2015 this was reduced to 45%

15 Conclusions Upon reviewing the research, the City has concluded that overall the meter readings are correct and that the water was used by our customers. With an extended billing period coupled with an overall increase in irrigation use due to dramatic weather shift and relaxing of water restrictions overall we have found usage is similar to that of previous summers within the past 5 years (with the exception of summer 2014, when lawn watering was more restrictive). 16

16 Continuing to Work with Customers As this increased usage has taken a number of our customers by surprise, our staff will continue to work with our customers to try to help minimize the impact of an unexpected high bill. To do this we have: Suspended the 10% late fee for payments not received by 15th No residential account will be disconnected for non payment this cycle Continue to set up payment extensions or in the more extreme cases installment payment plans to For every customer that has contacted us we have tried to offer suggestions on how to manage their water usage Provided additional tools such as an irrigation calculator and promote WaterMyYard.org to help better manage the amount used for irrigation 17

17 Looking Forward: We are excited about the future as we prepare to partner with FATHOM beginning in October to provide high touch customer care with a superior level of automated services utilizing Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technology to provide accurate and consistent water meter reads. The partnership also includes: Replacing aging water meters with newer ones utilizing AMI technology which will help improve water conservation and provide the data required to better manage water usage. How does that benefit our customer? Within the next six months, our customer will be able to: Track their own water usage on an hourly basis Set alerts to notify them if they are going over a certain amount of usage With the power of data in their hands, customers 18 can become true consumers of water.