Wireless Electric and Water Meters in Marshfield
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 -- 8:14 AM
-Meter readers for utility companies will soon be a thing of the past in one Wisconsin community.According to Marshfield News Hearald, Marshfield Utilities said it will begin replacing old electric and water meters with new wireless ones in June. The new meters will transmit data documenting energy and water use to the utility company's office, eliminating the need for meter readers, assistant utility manager Bob Trussoni said.
The utility is switching to wireless meters because its old ones are obsolete and replacement parts are hard to find, Trussoni said. Replacing all the meters will take two to three years and cost about $4.5 million.
But Trussoni said that the move will ultimately save money and pay for itself in four to six years. He also said the wireless meters would eliminate the chance for errors made by reader meters, and the utility will know as soon as outages occur.
Trussoni said it might be possible for customers to opt out of the program and keep an old-fashioned meter. It would likely cost them $15 to $25 per month for readings, he said. The state Public Service Commission would have to approve any opt-out option.
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