Winston-Salem And Forsyth County Select Mueller Systems To Upgrade Metering System

CLEVELAND, N.C., Feb. 2, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, N.C., have selected Mueller Systems, a leading innovator in water meters, metering systems and water management technology, to upgrade their metering infrastructure with a state-of-the-art Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system. Mueller Systems is a subsidiary of Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE:MWA), a leading North American provider of water infrastructure products and services.

Mueller Systems will begin installing the first of 118,000 water meters and Hot Rod™ transmitters throughout Winston-Salem and Forsyth County in early 2011. Located in the Piedmont of North Carolina, metropolitan Winston-Salem has a population of more than 480,000. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Utilities Division serves both the city and the county and is the third-largest water system in the state, with 3,296 miles of water and sewer lines.

According to a resolution from the City/County Utilities Commission, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County reviewed four systems. During a pilot project, certain attributes of the systems were recognized as being beneficial for the purpose of customer service, efficiency, and effectiveness. Currently it takes 11 readers three days to manually read an entire billing cycle of approximately 7,500 accounts. By using the AMR system, it will only take one reader one day.

"The purpose of the pilot was to determine if AMR was something the Utility Commission could find beneficial to its water distribution system," wrote David Saunders, utilities director for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Utilities Division, in the summary of the pilot test. "It was also identified during the pilot project that the Mueller Systems' Hersey "Hot Rod" performed better in areas of capability, reliability and consistency with technical assistance and support more readily available."

"We are proud to announce our partnership with Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, as it will help improve the service they provide to their customers, the operational efficiency of their drinking water systems, and it will enable them to more accurately account for the water that is distributed through their systems," said Hassan Ali, vice president and general manager of Mueller Systems. "We believe utilities recognize the superior functionality and technical innovation of our metering systems, and we will continue to develop new products and services that further enable utilities of all sizes to capture and use data more effectively."

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