Three Benefits of Smart Electric Meters for Marinas

Marinas often focus on generating more revenue, but what about reducing operational costs? Marina managers have a responsibility to ensure their guests have access to reliable power and water, but this is often one of the largest utility costs for outdoor properties.

Regardless of how marinas charge boaters for utility costs, there’s now a new and improved tool to help track usage: smart electric meters.

What Makes an Electric Meter “Smart”?
Smart electric meters allow property managers to digitally track and analyze energy consumption, voltage regulation, and more for each slip on their property.

With traditional meters, it’s more difficult to accurately gauge a property’s energy consumption or allocation since power usage varies by guest and the equipment they use. Since managers won’t know how much energy has been used until the electric bill arrives, they can only react to this expense.
With smart meters, marina managers can automatically charge guests according to how much water and electricity they used during their stay.

Gives Guests More Convenience
Efficient utility management at marinas requires more than just managers and staff monitoring energy consumption. Empowering guests to do the same can create a cohesive, streamlined property.

Integrated smart meters with RMS allow guests to turn their meters on and off from anywhere when utilities are not in use. This not only creates a worry-free process for visitors, but it also results in less work for marina staff who would normally manually turn these meters off instead.

Depending on whether marinas utilize pre- or post-pay metering, smart electric meters provide a more accurate and streamlined billing process, as guests will be charged for exactly what they used. It’s a simple process: the utility tracking begins at check-in and finishes at check-out. When integrated with reservation management software, it automatically bills guests for their usage. This removes any uncertainty for guests about how a marina’s utility billing works and gives them more autonomy over how much they pay.

Efficient Utility Monitoring
Efficient utility monitoring is crucial for marinas. Smart electric meters give managers the most accurate insight into utility usage, preventing hidden costs from hurting their bottom line.

Unfortunately, many property managers don’t charge short-term guests for utilities because it typically requires staff to manually collect, enter, and invoice meter values.

Real-time, smart meter reads that feed into a reservation management database enable marina managers to:

Eliminate utility reading errors and hidden costs
Reduce labor expenses
Remove manual utility data input
Streamline electricity and water billing and monitoring

With the capabilities of smart meters, water and power utilities can be read and managed remotely. This gives marina staff the ability to do this from anywhere, saving time that can now be spent on other tasks.

In addition to time-saving benefits, smart meters are also equipped with ground fault detection and cloud-based architecture that stores all meter readings and reporting. With these features, marina management can rest easy knowing that guests are protected from malfunctions and that operations are more streamlined, energy-efficient, and cost-effective.

Handle Guest Surges with Ease
During busier times of the year, an influx of boaters can cause utility bills to skyrocket and go unchecked without a smart meter. This can quickly eat into a marina’s budget and diminish revenue.

With smart electric meters, marinas will be able to handle waves of guests with ease while also maintaining an energy-efficient property.

Sustainable Energy Efforts

Creating an energy-efficient property with the help of smart electric meters comes with an added benefit: increased sustainability. Smart meters promote sustainability by allowing marinas to set energy usage goals and monitor the progress being made.

For example, if a marina wants to reduce the amount of energy being used at the facility, it can track the exact percentage with reservation management software’s smart meter feature.

In fact, smart meters can reduce energy consumption by up to 30%, significantly reducing utility costs and bringing property into the sustainable age.

With the new age of travelers looking for sustainable options and the latest technology, smart electric meters offer them the opportunity to participate in more sustainable practices, all while helping to scale the marina’s processes to create a more profitable property.

Having this real-time data can help guests be more aware of energy consumption, including when and how utilities should be used. This drives sustainability and promotes an eco-friendly marina.

Getting Started
Implementing smart meters at a property can increase sustainability, save utility dollars, streamline processes, maximize efficiency, and back a property with the latest technology so that marina management and staff can spend more time focusing on the guest experience.

Adelle Rodriguez is senior director of marketing at RMS North America. She can be reached at aro@rmscloud.com