Paducah, Kentucky: Building a Smart Water Metering Solution

Paducah, Kentucky is a popular river town located at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missouri and Nashville, Tennessee. Paducah Water, the town’s water utility, identified a need to update its aging water system from manual read to a smart water system.

More than improving meter reading accuracy and efficiency, the utility aimed to ensure water quality, safety and reliability for its 27,000 water customers. After a failed attempt with another company’s metering solution, the utility selected Badger Meter BEACON^® Advanced Metering Analytics (AMA) with E-Series^® Ultrasonic meters and ORION^® Cellular endpoints. Utility leaders visited other area utilities that had already deployed smart water solutions from Badger Meter and were experiencing great successes. After a short pilot of its own, Paducah Water ultimately decided on a full deployment:

Within the first six months of system deployment, Paducah Water saw an increase in revenue of 9.6% with the E-Series^® Ultrasonic 1-1/2 in. meters and 20.3% with the E-Series^® Ultrasonic 2 in. meters. The utility’s efficiency improved by eliminating the time and expense of manual meter reads. It also has greater flexibility in that cellular solutions do not require fixed infrastructure, so the utility can focus on providing safe drinking water instead of having to monitor, manage or maintain its own infrastructure. “This new technology has been an impressive and worthy investment,” said Robertson. 

Learn more about our smart water metering solutions or contact our experts to discuss a custom solution for your utility.