The Hidden Costs of Missing Meters

What happened to some of your meters?  The meter is running but no address associated, who is getting a bill? Is there a bill going out? Is someone receiving free electricity? The problem is far greater than wasted time and resources. It’s indicative of a much larger issue, one that goes back to data integrity.

The Problem with Missing Meters

Meter readings are a critical step in a utility’s revenue collection and provide accurate usage data, which informs equipment wear and lifecycle. Unfortunately, meters can go missing. Usually, this happens when something changes on-location and the records aren’t updated: a lot can go wrong, new power is supplied to the location without being tied back to the billing system, a meter is pulled in the field and re-commissioned somewhere else in a pinch, or addresses are changed and not updated in the system. 

In general, this merely occurs because someone makes a typo when entering location data after installation. However, to send bills, update equipment, or deploy smart meters, we have to first locate the meter in the field.

Impact on Utilities

As we already mentioned, meter readings are a source of revenue for utilities, but missing meters are a drain on resources. It gets far more complicated when trying to provide services to their customers. Without accurate location data, utilities don’t have good information on customers affected by outages and can’t respond quickly because records don’t match reality. 

It also throws a wrench in smart meter initiatives and projects. Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) requires precise locations for deployment and installation. Much of the data used for smart meter deployment is based on existing meter records. Without good records, we should expect field documentation to take a lot longer, accounting for discrepancies between database location records and real locations in the field. 

Missing meters might be discovered in the smart meter install process, but this still creates delays and increases costs. Existing but undocumented meters may never get replaced with smarter, better technology. Without accurate field data, it’s a toss-up. 

 Industry-Wide Issues

This problem isn’t localized or limited to urban areas. It’s an industry-wide struggle that has industry-wide impacts. These are pervasive and far-reaching issues that affect utilities across the US. Missing meters complicate smart grids and reliability efforts because AMI networks need accurate meter locations to function properly. Incomplete records complicate and compromise load forecasting and effective grid planning. Emergency teams rely on accurate records and customer data to prioritize response. Without those things, the grid as a whole will struggle.

The problem persists because of some key ongoing utility challenges: 

• Communicating and documenting field operations requires manual entry, which introduces human error. 

• Fragmented systems don’t communicate with each other, creating silos and duplicative, distorted data. 

• Legacy data is incomplete or inconsistent. 

• Different teams use different documentation methods and standards, so data doesn’t follow uniform or universal rules. 

Breaking the Cycle

Utilities across the US experience the struggle of missing meters. It’s an issue that doesn’t always crack the top 10 in the priority list because it’s not costing a utility millions of dollars and historically it’s been a very time intensive high expertise problem to solve. With hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment across miles and miles of footprint, something’s bound to get lost. Data integrity and management are incredibly hard to keep track of, and even the best management system is bound to have some errors. But just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we can let the problem persist. 

Teams can help find missing meters and keep track of them by:

1. Proactively Verifying Assets 

Smart meter initiatives are on the horizon, and you can help prep utilities for deployment with systematic meter audits that flag errors and true up records to create trust. 

 2. Standardizing Data Management 

Standard protocols for documenting meter installations, relocations, and removals create easy-to-follow, low-effort processes. Create those processes using tools that have QC, accurate location tags, and consistent data formatting to make sure you get the right data in. 

 3. Unifying Platforms

Silos create outdated information. Using one data management system, or at the very least data management systems that talk to each other, makes it far easier to keep track of changes across departments and teams. 

 4. Creating an Ecosystem 

Let other work feed records. Leverage maintenance, inspections, and PCI operations to verify meter locations and reuse other survey data to keep records updated. Establish communication channels to raise issues to the right teams. 

Missing meters are a huge challenge in asset management. They affect utilities, their engineering firms, customers, and the industry at large. The key is recognizing that missing meters are symptoms of larger data challenges, and taking proactive, coordinated efforts to address those challenges with uniform data in and better data management. 

Thanks for reading! We’d love to help you find and update your missing meter data. Learn more about Katapult Pro and rapid data collection: https://www.katapultengineering.com/data-collection