WAPA Secures $138 Million FEMA-Funded Project for AMI System Replacement, Considers Expedited Timeline

WAPA to receive $138 million for the replacement of its AMI system, which is used for remote meter reading. The project is expected to span three years, though WAPA is exploring faster completion options; no start date has been provided.

At Thursday’s meeting of the Water and Power Authority’s Governing Board, Chief Operating Officer Ashley Bryan informed board members that the Federal Emergency Management System has approved the prudent replacement of the utility company’s failing Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system, which is utilized for remote meter reading.

Last May, a third-party analysis of the system, conducted at FEMA’s request, found that the system was primarily failing due to the degradation of capacitors in the meters themselves, primarily due to temperature fluctuations. The devices also struggled to communicate due to increased background noise on the radio frequency they were programmed to use. Then, the conclusion was that the only workable way forward was a wholesale replacement of the entire system, something that WAPA in its current state of financial fragility would need significant federal support to achieve.