Tracking Backflow on Customer Meters: What It Means for the Water Utility

11/10/2016 Water Research Foundation Webcast. ​​The advent of smart meters, AMR, and AMI allow water utilities to monitor metering systems to find times when the water meter runs in reverse. The project "Case Studies to Identify Occurrence, Accuracy, and Causative Factors of Reverse Flow as Measured by Meters" (#4384​) focused on reverse flow in residential meters. American Water’s research team examined several key topics:
How often do meters run in reverse?
When they do, how accurately do they measure the reverse flow?
What are the possible causes for such activity?
How can utilities investigate these events and confirm the causes?
The webcast summarized project findings, namely that where numbers of backflow occur at the same time or an individual meter displays repeated reverse flow, utilities can take action to improve operations or take corrective action with their customers.​