Photograph: City of Rocky Ford
CASE STUDY
Rocky Ford Adopts Metron’s Metering as a Service Program
Metering as a Service Transforms Water Utility Operations for a Small Colorado Utility.
Listen to our conversation with Rocky Ford:
Overview
The City of Rocky Ford, Colorado, home to roughly 4,000 residents with around 1,680 active water meters, struggled for years with an aging, labor-intensive metering system. By replacing their meters through Metron’s Metering as a Service (MaaS) program, the city’s public works department eliminated a chronic drive-by read backlog, cut billing processing time from as much as two weeks to a single day, and reduced meter-related work orders by an estimated 90%. In addition, the new meters captured considerably more low-flow water usage, boosting revenues.
The Challenge
Rocky Ford’s public works team, led by Public Works Director Rick Long, found itself functioning as a de facto meter-reading crew. Each month, the team could only complete around 800 drive-by reads out of the roughly 1,700 meters in service, with the additional burden of 600 rereads from that set of 800! The process consumed nearly the entire month, leaving little time for other public works responsibilities and pushing routine maintenance to the back burner.
The downstream effects extended into the billing office, where staff needed a week and a half to two weeks to process each billing cycle. Field access was also a recurring source of friction: many meter pits sat in residential yards, and repeat visits for rereads created frustration for both crews and customers.
Compounding the operational strain, the city had been financially constrained since 2019, limiting its ability to fund a large capital upgrade. Traditional grant and loan pathways were difficult for a small, rural utility to pursue, especially with existing infrastructure debt already on the books.
Why Metron
Rick Long evaluated multiple vendors and was far along in negotiations with a competing provider before ultimately choosing Metron. Key factors in the decision included:
- No upfront capital outlay. The lease-based Metering as a Service (MaaS) model required no down payment, removing the need to secure grant or loan funding.
- A collaborative sales and structuring process. Long cited the ability to work directly with the Metron team to structure a proposal he could take to city council for approval.
- A vendor-supported deployment. Metron assisted with the installation process, and the city experienced a smoother rollout compared to alternatives it had considered.
The Solution
Metron’s MaaS platform replaced Rocky Ford’s drive-by reads with automatic data collection over the cellular network, with automated notifications. Key capabilities included:
- Rapid leak detection. Customers could be alerted to potential leaks within roughly 24 hours, compared to up to 30 days under the previous system.
- Leak source differentiation. The one-minute data granularity allowed Metron to distinguish indoor from outdoor water use, helping identify whether a leak likely originated from a fixture (e.g. a toilet) or an outdoor source (e.g. an irrigation zone).
- Streamlined billing integration. The new system synced with the city’s existing billing workflow, addressing what is often one of the most disruptive parts of a metering upgrade.
- Customer-facing transparency tools. Residents gained the ability to set usage budgets and access consumption data directly, reducing inbound questions to city staff.
Results
Two years into the deployment, the City of Rocky Ford reported substantial operational and financial gains:
- Billing time reduced from 1.5–2 weeks to one day, freeing significant staff hours in the billing office and removing frustration.
- Work orders reduced by an estimated 90%, largely by eliminating the recurring cycle of reads and rereads.
- 8.4 million additional gallons of water identified and captured in billed revenue on an annualized basis, primarily from previously unbilled low-flow usage.
- Minimal ongoing vendor intervention required. Aside from routine maintenance, the city reported it had not needed to call in Metron for corrective support since deployment, a point Long cited as evidence of product reliability.
- Improved visibility of customers gaming the system. With daily alerts and detailed data, it became easy to identify customers bypassing their meters or similar.
- Freed-up staff capacity. With meter reading largely automated, the public works team were able to redirect time toward other day-to-day utility operations that had previously been deprioritized.
In Their Words
Rick Long, Public Works Director, described the deployment as a turning point for a utility that had been financially strapped and reliant on an unreliable legacy system, noting that the promises Metron made during the sales process were consistently borne out in practice. Utility Foreman Cody Baylor, who had spent years absorbed almost entirely in meter reading and reread cycles, said the system had performed smoothly and that he now recommends Metron to other utilities in need of a metering solution.
Conclusion
The City of Rocky Ford adopted Metering as a Service due to essentially having no financial options to pursue a CapEx approach to replacing their aging water metering system. By leasing the meters, the entire system could be upgraded with no initial outlay, and with ongoing access to Metron’s WaterScope® software platform and customer support team.
