Emerald Coast Utilities Authority advances AMI pilot to curb 450 million-gallon annual water loss

Emerald Coast Utilities Authority advances AMI pilot to curb 450 million-gallon annual water lossThe Florida utility’s Citizens' Advisory Committee has approved a pilot project for advanced metering infrastructure and static meters, targeting $1.4 million in annual unbilled revenue caused by aging mechanical meters.

ECUA loses an estimated 450 million gallons of water annually due to mechanical meter degradation, equating to $1.4 million in lost revenue.

The Citizens' Advisory Committee unanimously approved a pilot project to test AMI and static meters in a new residential development.

A business case by Arcadis found that pairing AMI with static meters offers a $22.8 million improvement in net present value over the status quo.

The utility is considering a $25 million bond issuance to fund the full AMI rollout across its 112,000 customers.

On May 19, 2026, the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) Citizens' Advisory Committee unanimously approved a pilot project to begin transitioning the utility's water network to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) paired with static meters. According to an ECUA staff presentation, the utility currently relies on automated meter reading (AMR) with mechanical meters, which lose an average of 0.25% accuracy per year due to the wear of moving parts. Over a 15-year lifespan, this degradation results in a 3.75% accuracy loss. For ECUA’s 94,100 residential customers, this translates to nearly 450 million gallons of unbilled water annually, costing the utility approximately $1.4 million a year at a rate of $3.12 per 1,000 gallons. The approved pilot will deploy a data collector and static electromagnetic meters—which have no moving parts and maintain accuracy over a 20-year lifespan—in a newly developed residential area, likely in Beulah. The trial will run for six months to a year to provide proof of concept. Concurrently, ECUA will begin purchasing static meters for all new installations and as replacements for failed mechanical meters, which currently fail at a rate of about 5,000 per year. A business case developed by consultant Arcadis evaluated several options for the utility. The selected approach, deploying AMI with new static meters, represents a $22.8 million improvement in net present value compared to the status quo, driven by increased billing accuracy and a reduction in the estimated 7,900 hours of employee time spent on manual rereads and account changes annually. Executive Director J. Bruce Woody noted that a full rollout across all 112,000 customers would cost approximately $25 million. ECUA plans to fund the comprehensive transition through a proposed bond issuance to accelerate implementation and avoid a protracted rollout period. Woody added that the $1.4 million in recovered annual revenue could offset future upward pressure on customer rates. The AMI network will utilize a licensed radio frequency, providing a secure, ECUA-controlled network that is insulated from commercial cellular technology changes, mitigating the risk of obsolescence. The system is also expected to help ECUA meet Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Northwest Florida Water Management District requirements to keep unaccounted-for water below 10%.