Moulton Niguel Water District is launching its full-scale smart meter program to proactively detect water leaks, improve operations, and enable all customers to monitor their hourly water usage through an online customer portal.
Last week, the South Orange County-based District began installing smart meters at 2,000 homes in its service area – with plans to continue installing in batches for all residential customers through 2021.
The state-of-the-art water technology will provide customers with hourly water usage data, the ability to view and pay bills, and sign up for leak notifications, whether they’re home or not. Hourly water usage is available 24/7 through a secure online customer portal and app, MyWater MNWD.
“We want to empower our customers to take control of their water usage in the most convenient way,” said Moulton Niguel President Brian Probolsky. “Instead of waiting for their monthly bill, they can log on to the customer portal, and set up customized notification preferences such as leak alerts or reminders about scheduled service appointments.”
The ability to receive proactive leak notifications can save water and money. For example, if there’s a high volume of water used in the middle of the night, it could indicate there’s a potential leak at the home. Customers could sign up to receive a leak alert, and if they have signed up to receive push notifications through the MyWater MNWD mobile app, they can receive the notification directly on their phones.
“Traditional water meters log a customer’s total use over a month,” said Moulton Niguel Vice President Duane Cave. “Our smart meter technology can help track unusual water spikes and will allow our customers to avoid unintentional high water consumption, saving them water and money.”
Based on the early success of Moulton Niguel’s pilot program, the District secured more than $2 million in federal grants from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation to offer the program to all its customers.
When complete, the District’s smart meter program is expected to conserve 500 million gallons of water every year.
To learn more about the program, contact Moulton Niguel’s customer service team at customerservice@mnwd.com or (949) 831-2500, or visit mnwd.com/smart-meters.
Moulton Niguel Water District provides high-quality drinking water, recycled water and wastewater treatment services to customers in Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Dana Point, and San Juan Capistrano. A leader in environmental protection, Moulton Niguel maintains the lowest average bill in South Orange County.