Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Locus EIM
- Locus Platform
Tech Stack
- Cloud-based data storage
- Web application
- Mobile application
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Digital Expertise
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Utilities
Applicable Functions
- Quality Assurance
- Maintenance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Data Science Services
About The Customer
San Jose Water Company (SJWC) is an investor-owned public utility founded in 1866. It serves approximately one million water customers in the heart of Silicon Valley. The company is subject to various regulations, including public health (drinking water), environmental, and planning/permitting. SJWC prides itself on being a 'tech-forward' company, aiming to be ahead of the curve among water agencies. Its IT staff currently manages dozens of internal and third-party applications, ranging from legacy to brand-new systems. The company has a strong focus on compliance programs, including drinking water compliance and recordkeeping, and environmental regulations. The company's compliance programs involve thousands of water quality samples to keep track of, lab results to keep, and permits and their requirements to maintain.
The Challenge
San Jose Water Company (SJWC) is a tech-forward company that manages dozens of internal and third-party applications. However, they faced challenges in managing their compliance programs and environmental recordkeeping. The regulations required recording company activities, which were not very predictable and involved diverse records to maintain. Before this effort, records were all managed on paper and in Excel, with no validation or backup. This made it difficult to ensure data accuracy and completeness. For example, the annual report for NPDES Discharge Reporting required hand-reviewing a full year's records, verifying data accuracy, entering it all into Excel, running analysis as required by permit, and formatting data for submission to the state.
The Solution
SJWC selected Locus Platform to manage their environmental data. The platform provided in-person training and personalized live support. The user and admin interfaces were intuitive and easy to navigate. As they developed and configured their first applications, Locus was there to advise them on how to implement more advanced features. The platform's 'Configuration Workbench' made app development easy and intuitive. Entities, which serve the same purpose as a traditional paper form, were developed by adding Fields. Field Validations improved data quality and saved staff time. Admin users could distribute licenses, edit user info, and reset passwords. Security settings for each Entity controlled who may view, create, edit, or delete records. Records could be referenced manually or in an auto-generated Report. The platform also offered Dashboards for an at-a-glance compliance status.
Operational Impact
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
IoT Solutions for Smart City | Internet of Things Case Study
There were several challenges faced: It is challenging to build an appliance that can withstand a wide range of voltage fluctuations from as low at 90v to as high as 320v. Since the device would be installed in remote locations, its resilience was of paramount importance. The device would have to deal with poor network coverage and have the ability to store and re-transmit data if networks were not available, which is often the case in rural India. The device could store up to 30 days of data.
Case Study
Automation of the Oguz-Gabala-Baku water pipeline, Azerbaijan
The Oguz-Gabala-Baku water pipeline project dates back to plans from the 1970’s. Baku’s growth was historically driven by the booming oil industry and required the import of drinking water from outside of the city. Before the construction of the pipeline, some 60 percent of the city’s households received water for only a few hours daily. After completion of the project, 75 percent of the two million Baku residents are now served around the clock with potable water, based on World Health Organization (WHO) standards. The 262-kilometer pipeline requires no pumping station, but uses the altitude differences between the Caucasian mountains and the capital to supply 432,000 m³/d to the Ceyranbatan water reservoir. To the people of Baku, the pipeline is “the most important project not only in 2010, but of the last 20 years.”
Case Study
GPRS Mobile Network for Smart Metering
Around the world, the electricity supply industry is turning to ‘smart’ meters to lower costs, reduce emissions and improve the management of customer supplies. Smart meters collect detailed consumption information and using this feedback consumers can better understand their energy usage which in turn enables them to modify their consumption to save money and help to cut carbon emissions. A smart meter can be defined in many ways, but generally includes an element of two-way communication between the household meter and the utility provider to efficiently collect detailed energy usage data. Some implementations include consumer feedback beyond the energy bill to include online web data, SMS text messages or an information display in consumers’ premises. Providing a cost-effective, reliable communications mechanism is one of the most challenging aspects of a smart meter implementation. In New Zealand, the utilities have embraced smart metering and designed cost effective ways for it to be implemented. The New Zealand government has encouraged such a move to smart metering by ensuring the energy legislation is consistent with the delivery of benefits to the consumer while allowing innovation in this area. On the ground, AMS is a leader in the deployment of smart metering and associated services. Several of New Zealand’s energy retailers were looking for smart metering services for their residential and small business customers which will eventually account for over 500,000 meters when the multi-year national deployment program is concluded. To respond to these requirements, AMS needed to put together a solution that included data communications between each meter and the central data collection point and the solution proposed by Vodafone satisfied that requirement.
Case Study
NB-IoT connected smart meters to improve gas metering in Shenzhen
Shenzhen Gas has a large fleet of existing gas meters, which are installed in a variety of hard to reach locations, such as indoors and underground, meaning that existing communications networks have struggled to maintain connectivity with all meters. The meter success rate is low, data transmissions are so far unstable and power consumption is too high. Against this background, Shenzhen Gas, China Telecom, Huawei, and Goldcard have jointly trialed NB-IoT gas meters to try and solve some of the challenges that the industry faces with today’s smart gas meters.
Case Study
OneWireless Enabled Performance Guarantee Test
Tata Power's power generation equipment OEMs (M/s BHEL) is required to provide all of the instrumentation and measurement devices for conducting performance guarantee and performance evaluation tests. M/s BHEL faced a number of specific challenges in conducting PG tests: employing high-accuracy digital communications for instrumentation, shortening setup and dismantling time, reducing hardware required, making portable instrument setup, avoiding temporary cabling work and the material waste costs
Case Study
British Gas Modernizes its Operations with Innovative Smart Metering Deployment
The UK government has mandated that smart meters are rolled out as standard across Great Britain by end of 2020, and this roll-out is estimated to create £14 billion in net benefits to the UK in consumer energy savings and lower energy generation demand, according to the Oxford Economics report, “The Value of Smart Metering to Great Britain.” While smart-metering systems have been deployed in many countries, the roll-out in Great Britain is unique because it is led by energy retailers, who have responsibility for the Electricity and Gas meters. The decision to have a retailer-led roll out was made by DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change) to improve customer experience and drive consumer benefits. It has also led to some unique system-level requirements to support the unique local regulatory model.