Niles meters to go online

The city’s four meter
readers won’t lose their jobs.

By JORDAN COHEN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

NILES — Meter readers here will be going the way of home milk deliveries and doctor house calls in 2009, but they will not lose their jobs.

The city will spend $5.5 million on a computerized system to remotely access all usage readouts from electricity and water meters, eliminating the necessity of monthly readings on the premises.

Billing office manager Thomas Telego says the entire information infrastructure has been replaced with this new system that includes software installation and the eventual replacement of 26,000 meters, which are included in the project’s cost.

“It will take from 12 to 18 months before the system goes completely online,” Telego said. “We started the software installation two weeks ago and once that’s completed, we’ll begin replacing meters.”

Also under way is installation of a wireless mesh system throughout the city that will be linked with meter collection devices. Telego said the devices will receive data from the meters about usage, demand and possible tampering on an hourly basis. The data includes warnings about leaks from the water meters and power spikes from the electricity readouts.

“If there is a power failure in a part of the city, the meters will give off a final warning notifying us that they have lost power,” Telego said. “The central software will enable us to narrow down the location so crews can be dispatched quickly without having to figure out where the failure is.”

The system’s central servers will be located in city hall.

Niles is leasing the software for two years from Cogsdale Corp., Charlottetown, Canada, at a cost of $84,000 per year. The city has not yet put out a request for bids on meters.

Telego said the city will not have to replace recently installed commercial meters that contain radio frequency capabilities, which are necessary to interface with the system.

“Anything digital can be upgraded so the more recent models can stay in operation,” Telego said.

The city’s four full-time readers will be moved into customer service, and there will be plenty of work for them, according to Mayor Ralph Infante.

“No one will be losing a job,” Infante said. “They can troubleshoot and go to homes when the system detects problems.

“We’ll have a checks-and-balance system by using the readers when necessary to assure there’s no system failure.”

Telego said the newer system will enable the city to charge for very low levels of water and electricity usage, something that is generally undetected by the older meters.

“We’ll see an increase in the amounts read,” Telego said.

The billing manager said the last city-wide residential water meter replacement occurred 15 years ago, but there has never been a city-wide replacement of electricity meters.

“It will be a simultaneous installation,” Telego said.