Project Summary
Customer
Raytown Water Company, MO
Type of Project
AMI installation, system monitoring and maintenance
Results:
- Avoided revenue loss during the transition to AMI
- Rapid, full deployment enabled Raytown Water to quickly secure the needed rate-based increase
- Improved billing accuracy increased revenue
- Redeployment limited staff to address other operational priorities
- Enhanced customer satisfaction and positioned the utility to launch customer portals
- Delivered a complete AMI solution—from design and rapid installation to full deployment and ongoing billing support
For Raytown Water Co., rapid Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) installation was essential – a needed rate increase couldn’t be approved by the PUC until the system was fully operational. Staffing challenges made manual meter reading and maintenance difficult, but the completed project allowed the utility to redeploy its limited workforce to other priorities. With AMI in place, customer service has become more efficient, and Raytown is now preparing to launch a customer portal. The utility values the USG Water AMI monitoring and management services for its proactive oversight, follow-up, and responsive support.
From Manual Meter Reading to AMI
Before implementing AMI, Raytown Water Co. relied on a limited, failing AMR program and manual meter reads for most billing. “We were reading every meter by hand—walking house to house, lifting lids, checking dials, and using handheld devices to capture data,” explains Thompson. “It was time-consuming, labor-intensive, and increasingly difficult to find reliable staff willing to do that kind of work every day.”
The problem intensified during COVID, when staffing shortages and failing meters made replacements difficult. “We didn’t have enough people to read meters or fix water breaks—we do it all,” Thompson says. That challenge pushed the utility to invest in a full AMI system, with USG Water’s team providing the speed and resources to complete the project on schedule.
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If we were going to have to change more than half the meters in our system, this would be the time to go ahead and make a major investment, to go ahead and bring ourselves up to the millennium with AMI.
— Chiki Thompson, Vice President, Raytown Water Company
Smarter System, Greater Efficiency
Beyond easing labor shortages, the USG Water AMI services have transformed operations for Raytown Water Co. by reducing human error, saving time, and lowering costs for both the utility and its customers. The rapid deployment also allowed Raytown Water to secure the rate-based funding it needed.
With AMI, the utility now has access to daily—and even hourly—consumption data. “Before AMI, we wouldn’t know a customer had a leak until we went out and manually read their meter,” explains Chiki Thompson, Vice President. “We’d bring readings back once a month, and if we saw an unusually high bill, we’d notify the customer—but by then, that leak could have been happening for weeks. Now, we can see it immediately on our office dashboard. It’s helpful for our customers, for our team, and it saves us from having to issue work orders and wait another 24 to 48 hours.”
By alleviating labor shortages and minimizing reading errors, AMI allows Raytown Water’s small team to focus on other critical field tasks while improving customer satisfaction and moving toward a customer-facing portal.
A Legacy of Service
Founded in 1925 by Dr. Samuel J.T. Davis, Raytown Water Company provides safe, reliable drinking water to the City of Raytown, Missouri, and surrounding areas. A suburb of Kansas City with a population of about 30,000, Raytown Water serves roughly 6,700 connections, reaching 13,000 residents. The utility purchases its water from Kansas City and distributes it to customers with a dedicated staff of 17 employees, including 10 field technicians. “We have a limited number of people in the office who do everything—we wear many hats here,” Thompson notes.
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The customer service that we received from USG Water Solutions helps us be better for our customers. One of our mottos is ‘providing safe and adequate drinking water since 1925’ and they help us maintain that goal.
— Chiki Thompson, Vice President, Raytown Water Company
