Plano water meter system disruptions costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, city says
Plano is experiencing disruptions with its water meter system due to technical issues, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, a city spokesperson said.
In 2019, Plano upgraded to digital water meters, a major investment for the city.
"It was about $10.6 million for all the units and the installation," city representative Steve Stoler said.
Now, about 90% have stopped working.
"Our water meters are working great," he said. "It's the unit that is attached to a meter that uses a radio signal to transmit the water usage to a collection unit. It's that transmitting unit that is failing."
He said other major cities are experiencing similar issues with the vendor, Aclara.
Three of them are New York City, Toronto and Minneapolis, Stoler said.
Now, the city is having to revert to manual readings. About 20 people are needed to do the job, which is estimated to cost the city $765,000.
"We want to stress that this will not impact water bills whatsoever," Stoler said.
He said the only thing that's changing is how the information is being read.
"Also, the fact that you won't be able to go on the portal and get hourly usage numbers anymore," he said. "You can get the monthly number from when they read your water meter."
The main impact will be on the city.
"The whole situation is under investigation and we're trying to recoup any expenses that the city has incurred as a result of the failure of this equipment," Stoler said.
Right now, there's no estimate on when the problem will be fixed.