The most populous city in the southeastern United States, Jacksonville, consistently rates in the top 20 in Forbes’ annual ranking of the Best Places for Business and Careers. The task of providing water for all those businesses—plus thousands of residences—falls to JEA, the largest municipal electric utility in Florida and one of the largest water and sewer utilities in the nation, providing electric, water and sewer service to residents and businesses in northeast Florida.
“As a municipally-owned utility, we are directly accountable to the community we serve,” said JEA Meter Specialist Foreman Jody Godsey. “We understand the important role we play in the local economy, so we’re always looking for ways to improve our services and plan for the future.”
In 2013, JEA’s legacy large turbine and compound water meters reached their end of life, putting a significant amount of JEA’s water revenue at risk. JEA’s team strategically invested in an advanced meter upgrade program to recapture unaccounted for water, protect revenue streams and preserve the city’s natural resources.
Findings from our initial change-outs helped kick-start our larger meter replacement project. It was clear how much the upgrade would help us protect revenue streams and improve customer service. - Jody Godsey (JEA Meter Specialist Foreman)
JEA worked closely with long-time partner Sensus, a Xylem brand, to develop a phased, large-meter change-out program, ultimately replacing its legacy meters with Sensus OMNI™ meters for greater service life and accuracy within a wider flow range. Additionally, the utility’s rigorous testing program identified outdated meters in their system, so there was little to no downtime for JEA’s 25,000 commercial and industrial customers.
“Findings from our initial change-outs helped kick-start our larger meter replacement project,” said Godsey. “It was clear how much the upgrade would help us protect revenue streams and improve customer service.”
Since first addressing the issue of aging meters in 2013, JEA has experienced an overall gain of one billion gallons of measurable water, achieved using a solution that includes the new Sensus OMNI meters, advanced meter testing and valve maintenance best practices.
Read the full case study to learn more about JEA’s meter replacement program and how it benefits customers today and for generations to come.
