Source: City of Broken Arrow
The City of Broken Arrow is rolling out new technology this spring designed to improve how water utility customers can review their bills and usage.
The new customer service portal is called WaterSmart and will be accessible beginning May 5.
“This is the first time in the State of Oklahoma that a customer will be able to see their water usage down to their hourly consumption,” Director of Utilities Timothy Robins said in a presentation to the City Council at a recent meeting. “You can see your water usage anywhere from one year to two months, two weeks, one week, and even one-hour intervals.”
City officials said the new program lets customers track their water use in “complete transparency” and could help minimize surprises when a bill is due.
Customers will be able to check for leaks and set up alert notifications through the online engagement portal.
“This is really a great tool to have. Most water leaks are small leaks that occur over a long period and cost a great deal of money,” said Vice Mayor Johnnie Parks, who made a career as a plumbing contractor. “Say a flapper inside of a toilet is stuck, and you don’t know it. It can run your bill up $50-$100 a month before you realize it. But this will tell you, ‘Hey, something is happening.’”
Customers can also pay bills, report outages, and view their billing history from their phone or web browser.
The city says what customers will be able to access through the WaterSmart interface is the culmination of years of planning and investment.
Conversion to this new system began in 2016 with the first installation of automated meter readers (AMR) for every water meter within the city. The conversion to AMR was completed in three phases, which finished in late 2022. The City of Broken Arrow has more than 42,000 meters for residential and commercial use.
Next, 28 Neptune 360 gateway receivers were installed at various locations throughout the City of Broken Arrow to collect the data from the AMRs.
The data collected is transmitted through cell signals back to the servers. The gateway receivers reduced the need for drive-by collections which enables the technicians to focus on preventive maintenance.
“What this has done is allow us to go from meter reading technicians driving through neighborhoods all over town to a cellular-based collection system,” Robins said. “Instead of getting data once a month, or 45 days, we get it in 24 hours.”
Over the past 2 years, the Utilities Department and Finance Department have been working on researching, developing, and implementing new customer portal software for utility billing to give the citizens of Broken Arrow relevant water usage information.
They determined that WaterSmart from Vertexone was the best solution to provide comprehensive water usage information gathered from the Neptune 360 metering software.
This system also adds additional levels of communication, engagement, and troubleshooting technologies while still providing the Paymentus billing system the City has had for several years.
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