A unique three way partnership between Seward County Public Power District (SCPP), Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) and the City of Seward was formed to share the costs of implementing an Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system. Once implemented, the Utility consumption totals will be electronically sent via the electric power grid to the utility billing staff. This is the same power grid that supplies electricity to microwaves and televisions in homes. Each electric meter has a special circuit to inject the signal onto the power carrier lines. In addition, electric meters will receive an additional plug-in circuit board to receive water meter usage transmissions radio signals. The transmissions will be broadcast by a radio transmitter on the water meters. Once the system is in place, all utility meters for SCPP, NPPD and City of Seward will be read at the same time. The usage totals will be picked up by a decoder at a substation before being sent to Columbus, Nebraska to a NPPD processing center. At the processing center, the data is sorted and sent on to each of the respective utilities. At any time, any meter can be read on demand. This feature will be helpful to the utility billing personnel for customers who change residences in the middle of the month. The project scope will include the replacement of many old, inaccurate water and electric meters which may be inaccurately reading actual utility usage.
Additional benefits of the AMR system include being able to read meters located behind fences or those locked inside houses, as well as reducing the exposure of personnel to aggressive dogs. The system will also have leak detection and tamper detection capabilities. In the future, the City may also have the capability of automatic electricity shut-off, load monitoring, and load control.
Because the majority of our Electric meters are located outside, changing out an Electric meter is a fairly simple process. When an Electric meter is changed out, customers can expect a brief power outage and then the process should be completed.
Water meters are typically located in the basement which makes their change-out a bit more challenging. For these change-outs, the Water Department will be contacting all customers to set up an appointment to get in to their house. In order to make this transition as smooth as possible, we ask that all customers be prepared to set up an appointment when contacted.
All City personnel carry City ID. If you have questions or concerns about this project, please contact the City Utility Office at (402)643-2927, Electric Department at (402)643-3151 or the Water Department at (402)643-3433 with any questions or concerns.
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Jared Hochstein |
Ryan Hurst |
Chris Inness |
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Doug Pollak |
Michelle St. Louis |
Ken Toovey |
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Patrick Vrbka |
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