Automatic Meter Reading: Debunking the Myths

Deck: 

Advanced Meter Reading

Fortnightly Magazine - March 2005
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Advanced Meter Reading

An executive speaks out.

 

I think, frankly, that it's those marketing folks who conjure up all the myths about advanced meter reading. Rather than sheepishly admitting that their product is deficient in multiple areas, corporate spinmeisters spin webs of words and images into difficult-to-understand concepts, hoping upon hope they can fool us. They bank on the old adage: tell a lie enough and soon people will begin to believe it.

Automatic meter reading (AMR) is an area in which myths constantly swirl, so it's time for a little truth about AMR, long considered a promised land among utility executives. Time to toss out the marketing jargon. Time to bust some myths.

First, if AMR is the Promised Land, then why in the heck isn't every utility, municipal, and cooperative throughout the world relying on it and preparing to deploy it? A seemingly simple question, I think. The answer is that AMR has more holes than the Titanic's hull. All sorts of holes: technical holes, hardware holes, network holes, communication holes. The Promised Land? It's more like a wasteland.

Bottom line: AMR's hype outpaced reality, leaving the marketplace littered with failures, fake promises, and foolish hype. Here's why.

 

  • AMR was viewed as a niche technology with niche benefits rather than as an enabling platform with tentacles that can touch nearly every operational area within a utility. Better billing was billed as its chief, if not single, benefit.

 

 

  • Deregulation turned return on investment (ROI) analyses into a fool's game. Outrageously long payback on AMR investments made the risk higher than the potential benefit.

 

 

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