CITY OF EVERMAN OVERCOMES WATER LOSS AND GAINS ENERGY SAVINGS

Everman, a small city in Texas, was facing a series of inefficiencies in their monthly energy usage, largely due to outdated water metering technology and a lack of understanding of how they were using their resources. They approached Usource to evaluate and advise them on how to create a more efficient energy strategy.
 

Challenge

When the City of Everman realized it was losing millions of gallons of water monthly they turned to Usource and put their tax dollars to work. Mr. Michael Gunderson, Everman City Manager, explained, “Like many small cities with limited resources, some of our processes remained somewhat antiquated (i.e. our water meter reading). Additionally, we had never evaluated our use of electricity. After I explained to Usource how three city workers spent up to a week reading our water meters, and how clumsy and inaccurate the process was to post those readings, they presented a proposal.”
 

Solution

In an effort to help the residents of Everman, Usource conducted an analysis of the City’s water meters and electrical consumption. “Usource’s proposal noted they could fix our meter reading process, reduce electrical energy consumption and pay for it with our savings. It showed by replacing old meters plagued by diminished reading accuracy, and installing an auto-read meter system, could result in significant savings. Usource also recommended replacing all city lighting with LED lighting fixtures, (again, paying for itself with reduced kWh consumption), and they even arranged for financing,” noted Mr. Gunderson.

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Result

After putting the project to vote, and being approved by city council, Usource installed 1,968 new water meters throughout the city, which allowed them to read all of the meters in one day and reduce labor costs overall. In addition to the new accurate-reading water meters, Usource retrofitted several city facilities with LED lighting technology. The project recovered more than $70,000 in lost revenue and saved nearly $18,000 in operating costs.

“Today, we can read our meters in one day and in any weather. The labor savings is huge. And with same day readings every month, our data is more accurate, consistent and we have fewer customer complaints. The LED lighting reduced our electric invoices from around $20,000/month to an average of $16,000. That savings pays over one half of our total annual loan payment,” said Mr. Gunderson.

By working with Usource and both saving resources and measuring more accurately, the City of Everman has saved substantially on energy consumption and water loss over time.