Below is a statement from the City of Wichita Falls.

June 30, 2016

Installation of Water Smart Meters Begins

Wichita Falls, Texas – Beginning in July, the City will be replacing 34,000 water meters over the next 9-12 months as part of the new Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) System.  These new ‘smart meters’ will transmit water consumption data directly to the City’s Utility Billing Office, which means that meter readers will no longer physically visit your property to obtain readings.

Residents will be receiving a post card in the mail approximately 30 days prior to their meter installation date.  The post card will inform citizens about service outages and will provide contact information to schedule appointments if special arrangements are required for inaccessible meters.  It should be noted that a private contractor hired by the City will be installing the new meters.

Here are just a few of the benefits provided by the new system.

• Automated meter reading eliminates estimated meter reading, meter accessibility issues, and reduces billing errors.

• New water meters will reduce failure rates and result in fewer service calls from customers.

• Automated meter reading reduces operational and maintenance costs.

• Longer lasting meters reduce annual meter replacement costs.

• The AMI system will also allow City staff to access the billing data through a web portal and provide citizens with real time answers to water usage questions.

Upon completion of the project, this state of the art AMI system will provide a customer web portal that retail customers can visit to see their water consumption data. Every 6 hours, the customer’s consumption data will be updated with water usage broken down into hourly increments.  More information about the benefits of the customer service portal will be provided as the system becomes fully operational.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Utility Billing Office at 940-761-7414.

– Newschannel 6