Savannah City Council votes to purchase infrastructure aimed to improve water meter reading

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - The City of Savannah is bringing more of their water meter reading technology up to speed.

A move they say will improve billing accuracy for the city’s customers.

Savannah City Council voted Thursday to approve the purchase of what’s called an Advanced Metering Infrastructure, which will allow for nearly 80,000 water meters to be read electronically instead of manually.

One of the big drivers behind this conversion to a more modern meter reading system is the accuracy.

Right now, there are thousands of city water customers who have meters that have to be manually read, which is also very labor intensive. The new system allows customers to receive data about their water consumption and monitor and manage how much they use.

Savannah City Manager Jay Melder also explained Thursday where the majority of the funding for the new tech is coming from.

“We’re using our federal ARPA funds to be able to invest in our infrastructure here. We’re not charging our water customers for this service. And I think it’s important, the city received roughly $57 million worth of ARPA funds, and every cent of that fund is going to projects in the community,” Melder said.

The city manager also pointed out the transition to the new meter reading technology won’t cause any disruptions in service.

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