A technology issue has caused Plano’s entire water meter system to collapse. The problem will cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for staff to manually read water meters for two years.
Similar issues with the company Aclara’s transmission technology have been reported in other cities across the continent.
The technology from Aclara uses transmission units to send readings from the water meters to data collectors, so the city can calculate water bills. With the technology, the city no longer needed to send staff to walk routes and read water meters for monthly billing and service transfers.
In 2019, Plano entered a nearly $10.2 million four-year contract with Core & Main LP, an equipment supplier, for transmission units from Aclara, whose parent company is Hubbell. In 2021, this contract went up to more than $10.6 million.
The meter transmission units normally have a 20-year lifespan, city documents show. But in November 2023, the city noticed the units’ batteries were depleting early and they were failing to send data.
For a year, the city’s vendor investigated the issue, and in November 2024, sent out a software fix to the transmission units. The software was defective and over 73,000 meter transmission units stopped working. The entire system collapsed, documents show.
The problem is not with the water meters themselves, said Steve Stoler, Plano’s director of media relations, but the meter transmission units on the meters.
“The city is further investigating the issue and intends to hold accountable those responsible for the expenses,” Stoler wrote in a statement.
The city now needs around 20 staff to manually read the city’s meters, and the Customer and Utility Services division has only six field technicians.
At a Feb. 10 meeting, City Council approved $345,000 this fiscal year and $420,000 the next to pay a staffing agency in McKinney for temporary staff to manually read the city’s roughly 88,000 water meters to properly bill water customers.
Money for the temporary staffing will come from the city’s water and sewer fund.
Minneapolis faced similar technology concerns with Aclara, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported, and Toronto is spending millions of dollars to replace the company’s failing transmitters, according to Canada’s CBC News. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection works with the company, too.
The city did not respond to questions about replacing the transmission units or if any water bills were affected. Aclara and Core & Main did not immediately respond for comment Wednesday evening.
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Tech Issue Collapses Plano Water Meter System
Plano City Council approved spending $765,000 over two years to have temporary workers manually read the city’s roughly 88,000 water meters to properly bill water customers.
