Smart Metering: Progress Toward More Accurate Bills
To achieve more accurate bills, SWBNO is gearing up to install smart water meters for all customers. The modern technology will revolutionize our operations, allowing us to read meters remotely and empowering customers to manage their water use like never before.
Today and historically, SWBNO has calculated water and sewer bills using approximately 140,000 meter reads – each taken by hand every month. Obstacles, such as bad weather and staff absences, regularly leave some meters unread. When a meter goes unread, we estimate that customer's water use to determine the bill amount. This process can lead to inaccurate bills.
Smart water meters will use Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) — a reliable, proven technology — to digitally measure water use at customer homes and businesses. The system will use radio waves to securely send that data to SWBNO's billing system for more accurate, timely bills.
With this technology, we'll end the need to read nearly 140,000 water meters manually every month. The new system will nearly eliminate inaccurate, unexpectedly high, and estimated bills. The result? Bills you can trust.
Bills You Can Trust
Confidence that bills reflect actual customer use
Nearly eliminates estimated bills
Accurate, frequent readings
Automatic meter diagnostics
Advanced Tools
Empowering customers with modern account management tools
Leak detection
Customized alerts
Online customer portal
Once installed, the smart metering system will allow customers to self-manage their accounts through an online dashboard. Customers can choose to receive immediate notification of possible leaks, compare their use with previous days, weeks, and months, and actively manage their water expenses.
After years of planning and preparation, this much-needed investment is moving forward. In December 2022, the SWBNO Board of Directors approved the final installation contract with Aqua-Metric, a smart meter vendor. With the contract in place, Aqua-Metric can begin work on the wireless communication infrastructure that will securely send water use data from the smart meters to SWBNO's billing system.
Smart meter installation will begin in the summer of 2023. We anticipate the installation of meters for all customers to take approximately three years.
Before installation, each customer will receive a mailed notice two months in advance. The installation team will give you reminders two weeks out and on the installation day. We’re excited about the investments we are making to modernize our systems and make them more resilient.
