Budgets Tight? There’s a Smarter Way to Level Up Your Water Infrastructure
Metron’s Prism™ registers deliver dependable connectivity—and significant savings—with no need to replace existing hardware.
In tumultuous times, many investors view water utilities as a safe haven. No matter what, people will always need water—and that, in theory, makes utilities more or less recession-proof.
But while the water industry is insulated against economic turbulence, utilities shouldn’t get complacent. History shows that water providers often struggle during long-lasting downturns as governments curb spending while also pushing for lower costs for consumers.
The global financial crisis of 2008-2009 sparked a vicious circle of underinvestment, unhappy customers, and unpaid bills. The World Bank warned that infrastructure development could be set back by a decade unless utilities prioritized efficiency and regained investors’ confidence.
To avoid a replay of that trend in 2025, utilities must act now to get ahead of the curve by reining in operating expenses while making smart investments to reduce waste and improve quality of service.
In other words, utilities need new ways to do more with less—and that’s where Metron’s Prism registers come in.
The Prism register is a simple, low-cost device that attaches to an existing water meter, and magnetically or electronically “listens in” to record minute-by-minute flow data. Stored data is then transmitted back to the utility once per day via commercial cellular networks, completely eliminating the need for manual or drive-by meter reads.
For utilities, Prism offers a straightforward and cost-effective way to capture the key benefits of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) with no need to purchase new meters, replace existing hardware, or build expensive and unreliable radio-frequency transmission networks.
As you’d expect, Prism is fully compatible with almost every Metron meter, and it works with virtually every other vendor’s equipment, too.
With unified data flowing seamlessly into Metron’s WaterScope® analytics hub, utilities can automate billing, streamline maintenance tasks, and rapidly generate actionable insights based on data from their full fleet of deployed meters, whether Metron’s meters or otherwise.
Among the key benefits:
- Extend the life of your hardware. Instead of ripping out existing meters, utilities can use Prism registers to quickly and cheaply upgrade legacy hardware for the AMI era, giving back-office teams, work crews, and customers access to the benefits of modern smart-meter technology—at a fraction of the cost.
- Put customers in control of their water. With daily data uploads, utilities can give customers access to their water use data virtually in real time, enabling them to rein in their consumption—or spot and fix leaky taps or stuck toilets—in order to keep costs low and avoid unpleasant surprises when their water bill comes due.
- Provide leak alerts in real time. While Prism registers transmit routine flow data on a daily basis, they can also be configured to transmit a real-time alert if a leak is detected, enabling utilities to rapidly pinpoint and remedy major leaks, and to proactively warn homeowners before a minor nuisance turns into a major problem.
- Alert you to abnormal usage. WaterScope provides reports on excessive or zero usage, irrigation restriction violations, water use on locked-out properties and more.
- Test new tech before making big upgrades. Because Prism registers can be attached to existing meters, it’s easy to run a low-cost pilot project. No need to commit to a major overhaul: utilities can add connectivity where and when it’s needed, and verify they’re getting real ROI before committing to a broader rollout.
- Fill in gaps in connectivity coverage. Struggling to ensure connectivity via fixed-network infrastructure? Prism dovetails with existing networks to add cellular connectivity in hard-to-reach locations, with no need to invest large sums building new radio masts or signal repeaters.
A Prism register can be installed quickly with no need to interrupt the customer’s water supply, and no need for expensive transmission equipment or other infrastructure upgrades. That makes Prism the smart way to futureproof existing water infrastructure and deliver dependable, efficient, and cost-effective services.
In the face of soaring demand, aging water infrastructure, and economic uncertainty, utilities can’t afford a business-as-usual approach. But they also can’t afford to invest precious capital in unproven technologies or fixed-network AMI systems that fail to deliver reliable connectivity.
Our Prism registers put water providers in control of their equipment, providing the simplified, always-on data-stream they need to make smarter decisions and build resilience across their operations—while keeping costs low for everyone.
Get in touch with Metron today, and find out how Prism registers can help your organization to do more with less.