Case Study: Town of Cary achieves rapid leak detection and smarter water management with SAS Analytics

Town of Cary uses SAS® Analytics to analyze data from sensors, assess demand, detect problems and visually engage customers

The Town of Cary, North Carolina, faced the challenge of turning hourly readings from 60,000 wireless water meters—about 8,760 data points per customer per year, totaling roughly half a billion records—into actionable insight. Cary needed to make that volume of data visually consumable for customers, quickly detect leaks and spikes, and gain a reliable, system‑wide view of consumption to inform conservation efforts and future water‑plant planning.

By using SAS Analytics to link meter and billing databases and power a customer portal, Cary turned raw hourly data into easy visualizations and real‑time alerts. Customers can track usage online and receive leak or spike notifications within hours or days (one business discovered a continuously running dishwasher), the town estimates over $10M saved by eliminating manual reads, and officials now have better demand forecasting, targeted conservation strategies (e.g., verified average indoor use of ~45 gallons per person per day) and improved drought‑response and leak‑detection capabilities.

Town of Cary

Karen Mills

Finance Director