Now in pursuit of his PhD at the University of Maryland, Casey Wichman wrote the report referenced below as an Environmental Economics Analyst with the Environmental Finance Center.
Water utilities in the Southeast are increasingly considering the adoption of “smart” water meters to replace decades-old infrastructure and outdated technology. With increasing demand for clean drinking water in the US, the need for efficient management of water supplies is driving the upward trend in demand for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). New metering technology is attractive for a host of benefits well-known to those in the water management business: improved leak detection, reduced meter reading costs, enhanced customer service, remote service connections and disconnections, among others. AMI meters also provide an opportunity for better demand management by rethinking the way water is priced and distributed for different end-uses.
