Island pump metering and AI analytics: local teams report PG&E billing, pressure‑transducer rules and growing meter network

Kirk and island partners presented progress on measuring tailwater pumping and electrical usage for island water balances and said AI tools have helped clean and visualize large telemetry datasets. Kirk showed that PG&E bills and 15‑minute telemetry are usable for identifying pump operating patterns and that a simple rule of thumb — pressure transducer readings above ~2 PSI indicate a pump is running — provides a reliable on/off signal for many pumps.

Kirk described a dataset of 15‑minute records and an approach that aligns pump counts with instantaneous power reads to estimate kilowatt‑hours per pump; he demonstrated dashboards generated with AI tools to visualize pump count versus electrical usage. "If it's less than 2 PSI, it's usually the pump is off. If it's greater than 2 PSI, the pump is on," he said.

Russ reported the installed field metering progress: 86 siphon meters are now installed per the Delta Watermaster implementation plan, with Bolden and Webb Track fully metered and Bacon and Holland Track recently completed. He said the West Levee pump station will receive inline discharge meters during a planned pump station replacement, enabling direct flow measurement.

Why it matters: island pumping is a major operating cost (examples included multi‑tens of thousands of dollars annually); combining flow and power data with OpenET and soil moisture sensors will help reconcile diversions, seepage and consumptive use and guide cost‑effective meter deployments.

Next steps: teams will continue QA/QC of flow meters, expand soil moisture transects for seepage verification, attempt to reconcile pump tests with measured flows, and share dashboards and analysis workflows with DMEC partners.