Prescott's AMI rollout yields immediate operational dividends, slashes service orders by 32%

Prescott's AMI rollout yields immediate operational dividends, slashes service orders by 32%The Arizona utility is running ahead of schedule on its 27,000-endpoint smart meter deployment, leveraging early data to reduce truck rolls and drive high customer adoption of leak detection software.

The city has replaced 14,991 of its 27,000 water meters (55%), tracking well ahead of the project timeline.

The deployment has already yielded a 32% decrease in utility billing service orders, dropping from 15,576 to 10,684 year-over-year.

Customer adoption of the EyeOnWater portal has reached 14% citywide, a figure staff noted as high compared to national program standards.

A targeted pilot program in Chino Valley achieved an 88% leak notification activation rate among registered portal users.

The City of Prescott, Arizona, is realizing immediate operational efficiencies from its ongoing advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployment, with project leaders reporting a 32% drop in utility billing service orders before the installation phase is even complete. During a July 7 meeting of the Council Subcommittee on Water Issues, the Water Superintendent reported that 14,991 of the city's 27,000 water meters have been replaced. The project is currently 55% complete despite only 45% of the project timeline having elapsed. The primary vendor for the installation is Ferguson Waterworks. The transition from aging mechanical meters to smart endpoints has drastically reduced the need for manual interventions. In fiscal year 2025, water operations handled 15,576 service orders primarily related to missing or anomalous reads. Following the partial AMI deployment, that number fell to 10,684 in fiscal year 2026. Staff noted that the reduction in service orders has allowed water operations personnel to redirect their focus from driving reading routes to performing critical system maintenance. In tandem with the hardware rollout, Prescott is aggressively pushing customer engagement through its EyeOnWater portal. A water resource project manager reported that citywide adoption of the portal has reached 14%, a figure staff noted as exceptionally high compared to national standards for similar programs. To further drive engagement, the city recently launched a pilot initiative targeting 792 accounts in the Chino Valley area, which is fully equipped with the new smart meters. Early data from the pilot shows that of the customers who registered for the portal, 88% actively configured automated leak notifications. City staff are currently evaluating the cost-benefit of expanding this targeted, high-touch outreach—which includes proactive phone calls and dedicated help sessions—to other meter reading routes. Moving forward, the AMI data will be integrated into Prescott’s Long-Term Water Management Plan. The city is working with consultants to estimate the potential system-wide demand reductions achievable through the AMI software and to establish formal water conservation goals based on the platform's leak detection capabilities.