As most of us entered daylight saving time slightly over a week ago, and the first day of spring was only two days ago, has your utility made preparations for spring?
Just as your local fire department encourages everyone to replace smoke detector batteries, the start and end of daylight saving time should bring about housekeeping chores in your office as well.
Seasonally adjusted high/low parameters
As temperatures warm in the spring and cool off in the fall, your customers’ usage patterns adjust according to the season. With this in mind, if your billing system determines out of range meter readings by applying high and low percentages to your customers’ average usage, you should seasonally adjust those high and low parameters.
Energy utilities
If your utility is an energy supplier (electricity or natural gas), spring marks the transition from winter heating season to more moderate temperatures, and less energy usage. Therefore, it makes sense to adjust the high and low limits down in the spring and back up in the fall.
Water utilities
Conversely, for water providers, spring brings about more watering of lawns and gardens and increased usage. Accordingly, you should adjust the high and low limits for water consumption up in the spring and back down in the fall.
Does your meter reading process need reviewing?
If your utility doesn’t seasonally adjust high and low meter reading parameters, or if you think any other internal process could be improved, please give me a call at 919-232-2320 or e-mail me at gsanders@logicssolutions.com to learn how a business review could help your utility.
Don’t miss your chance
In a recent issue, I introduced the Utility Staffing Survey. This survey is designed to determine what is adequate staffing for a utility office. If you haven’t already completed the survey and would like to participate, please click here to complete the Utility Staffing Survey. This should take less than five minutes to complete. I will publish the results in a future Utility Information Pipeline.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the survey. Please feel free to share the survey with your peers at other utilities.
© 2016 Gary Sanders
Utility Information Pipeline 