The days of finding a job where you don’t need to know technology is pretty much over. Most roles out there require you to use phones, laptops, or tablets. The water industry is no different and more technology is needed and used.
The common technologies that you will find are advanced metering infrastructure, supervisory control and data acquisition systems, and geographic information systems. These have complex names but are relatively simple once you are exposed to them.
Advanced metering infrastructure is a fancy word for saying that the read on the meter is always being collected. If the read is not showing up, this means that the meter needs to be checked manually and see what might be causing the issue. There are several different reasons why the read may not be coming through. While at the same time, these meters do need to be replaced about every five years to ensure they are working properly and collecting reads properly to bill customers correctly.
Supervisory control and data acquisition system is what assists operators in ensuring water is being provided to customers. They use the data collected to make changes to the system to ensure demand is met when the supply is running low. The best example is during the summer. We all tend to use more water during this season. Most of us are sweating and therefore take more showers. That information is being captured. The operator then must make changes to meet the demand of the customers.
Geographic information systems are used in our everyday lives. The systems help operators locate all our underground lines. They assist them in marking our lines for other organizations and help them shut off the proper lines during emergencies. This technology continues to advance and is useful for operators, customer service, and all sorts of departments.