We revisit smart metering solutions provider, Kamstrup, whose Country Manager and Vice President of North America, Bruce Bharat, updates us on the company’s latest investments, developments, and achievements from the past 12 months.
WATER METER MASTERS
Since we last spoke to Kamstrup in early 2024, the water meter manufacturing industry has continued to progress towards digitalization and connected technologies.
Along the way, Kamstrup, a world-leading manufacturer of advanced solid-state metering solutions for smart energy and water utilities, has seen its competitors struggle to maintain product quality and overcome supply chain issues.
While component availability is being resolved, the next macro level supply chain challenges for the water metering industry in North America concern trade policy and the increasing costs of metals.
As the sector moves towards integrated digital networks and smart solutions, meter manufacturers appear to have overlooked quality, reliability, and durability.
However, Kamstrup bucks this trend. Headquartered in Denmark with employees in more than 20 countries, the company has been trusted by utilities around the world to deliver reliable metering solutions for over 75 years.
In North America, the company has almost 120 employees and is focused on supporting water utilities with ultrasonic meters, network communications, and software applications, as well as heating and cooling in Canada.
It boasts an impressive North American return rate of just 0.25 percent and a high customer satisfaction rating, while competitor manufacturers continue to lag behind in terms of delivery and lead times.
“With US-based manufacturing, we are able to deliver meters in a fraction of the time that our competition requires,” elaborates Bruce Bharat, Country Manager and Vice President of North America.
“For example, a customer in Alabama recently noted that availability was a deciding factor in their decision to choose Kamstrup. To that end, their Kamstrup system would be completely installed before the incumbent manufacturer estimated their first meter could be delivered.”
As Kamstrup continues to invest heavily in supply chain localization and source more components in the US, the company is well-positioned in the face of impending trade regulations that would negatively impact metering products made by competitors in other countries.
“We want our utility customers to know that we are navigating ongoing trade regulations and doing everything within our control to make sure we deliver on our promises,” emphasizes Bharat.
“Additionally, our flagship residential metering products feature our robust polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) composite material, which helps minimize risk from inflationary metal pricing-based supply and demand or future tariffs,” he adds.
“With US-based manufacturing, we are able to deliver meters in a fraction of the time that our competition requires”
Bruce Bharat, Country Manager and Vice President of North America, Kamstrup
ADVANCED FACILITY
In March 2024, Kamstrup celebrated the grand opening of its new US headquarters and manufacturing facility in Cumming, Georgia (GA), which was attended by the GA Governor, Brian Kemp, along with the Ambassador of Denmark to the US, Jesper Møller Sørensen.
A testament to Kamstrup’s commitment to the North American market, the facility includes over 150,000 square feet (sqft) of operations and manufacturing space – enough to support the production of over three million meters annually.
“In keeping with Kamstrup’s globally recognized reputation for outstanding quality, the facility features robotic automation, technologically advanced flow bench equipment, and robust internal quality checks and processes,” Bharat informs us.
Alongside the opening of Kamstrup’s new US headquarters and manufacturing facility, metering as a service (MaaS) is expanding and gaining exposure.
Offered by public-benefit corporation, Sustainability Partners, in collaboration with Kamstrup, MaaS is disrupting the traditional approach to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployment, delivering unmatched benefits with assured performance.
To date, over 200,000 Kamstrup water meters are under contract with MaaS and Kamstrup expects this number to double in the next 18 months.
The innovative model delivers a turnkey AMI project with no upfront costs and immediate cash flow. Instead of buying, installing, and maintaining a solution, utilities pay a monthly fee per meter in exchange for a new AMI system.
“MaaS includes hassle-free service and performance guarantees that deliver accountability – if a meter is defective or malfunctioning, monthly payments stop for the service and payments don’t start again until it’s verified to be successfully functioning once again,” explains Bharat.
Last year, the City of Shreveport in Louisiana (LA) entered into a MaaS agreement with Kamstrup and Sustainability Partners, through which it will transition approximately 80,000 drive-by automatic meter reading (AMR) devices to Kamstrup’s AMI with embedded acoustic leak detection (ALD).
This is a huge achievement for the City of Shreveport and Kamstrup and one of the company’s largest MaaS projects to date.
“The residential meters for the city will be manufactured in our Cumming facility and, as of today, over 47,000 meters have already been delivered,” Bharat acclaims.
“MaaS includes hassle-free service and performance guarantees that deliver accountability – if a meter is defective or malfunctioning, monthly payments stop for the service and payments don’t start again until it’s verified to be successfully functioning once again”
Bruce Bharat, Country Manager and Vice President of North America, Kamstrup
VIVA LAS VEGAS
Elsewhere, in Las Vegas, where water is a precious resource, Kamstrup recently signed a seven-year agreement with the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD).
As a careful water steward, Kamstrup’s focus on sustainability and the environment resonated with the utility.
“LVVWD looks forward to seeing how a more accurate meter will help them with their progressive conservation and non-revenue water programs in a true urban desert environment,” outlines Bharat.
“They will be evaluating our claims of meter reliability and accuracy over the next few months and using the agreement to enable expansion into integrated ALD and other solutions.”
Excited to work with Kamstrup, LVVWD is going before its management board to authorize up to 400,000 residential meters as well as the new flowIQ® 4200 for casinos and other large water users.
“Our ability and willingness to flex our production capabilities to win Las Vegas shows Kamstrup’s dedication to innovation,” Bharat observes.
Alongside its LVVWD agreement, Kamstrup announced the extension and expansion of its exclusive partnership with Everett J. Prescott, Inc. (Team EJP) in April 2024.
This partnership is a significant display of confidence in Kamstrup by Team EJP, a premier provider of water, wastewater, stormwater, and erosion control products.
“Team EJP officially ended a 70+ year relationship with a competitive meter manufacturer in order to represent Kamstrup,” reveals Bharat.
Through this relationship, Kamstrup has been able to expand its distribution network in Canada through an agreement with Team EJP and ICONIX Waterworks, a leading distributor of water, wastewater, and civil construction products.
EFFICIENCY AND GROWTH
The team at Kamstrup, meanwhile, continues to drive the company’s success in North America.
2024 was a year of significant growth for its sales team, including several internal promotions, while staff reported a 90 percent loyalty rate in a recent employee survey.
“This is not only a key metric for our cultural and business success, but it also translates to consistent service and sales relationships with our customers,” Bharat notes.
Looking ahead, a big focus for Kamstrup in 2025 is to maintain its manufacturing efficiency and quality while growing into newer, larger segments of the North American water utility industry.
The company therefore recently completed a major overhaul of its internal sales processes in an effort to streamline the connection between sales and production.
“As a result, we are seeing our short lead times shrink even further while our production team is breaking efficiency records,” he prides.
Momentum is also expected to increase for MaaS this year, with Kamstrup increasing its promotion of the model and increasing interest from water utilities.
From a product standpoint, the company anticipates increasing its market share in 2025 with the help of its groundbreaking flowIQ® 2200 residential meter, which has two significant differentiators that are revolutionary for utilities.
First, the flowIQ® 2200 features built-in ALD, which utilizes ultrasonic technology first introduced by Kamstrup in 2020 to listen out for leaks within the water column.
With an increasing number of Kamstrup ALD meters in the ground across the US, the real-world impact of this technology is revealing itself through impressive customer stories and testimonials.
The flowIQ® 2200 is also earning accolades for its ability to measure ultra-low flow consumption.
As hyper-efficient customer appliances become ubiquitous in US households, utilities have been falling behind – until now.
“With Kamstrup’s ultra-low flow meters in place, utilities are able to capture an additional six gallons per minute (GPM), per household, per day on average.
“When this additional flow capture is multiplied over time and across communities, the results are astounding as just six gallons a day can help shave many years off the business case for a meter changeout project. With Kamstrup, water utilities are able to increase their return on investment (ROI), become more productive and efficient through AMI, and reduce non-revenue water,” Bharat concludes.
KAMSTRUP PARTNER
