Columbia, the primary gas company in the region, has recently completed an update of all 52,000 meters in the service area that includes Springfield, Urbana and smaller communities nearby.
The new meters can be read from up to two blocks away, company representatives said, and they’ll be using a moving vehicle to read them.
“To give you an example, using the old system, a meter reader could read 300 meters per day,” said Curt Anstead, who manages the switch to wireless meters for Columbia Gas. “Now, that same person can read 2,000 per day.”
And starting this week, the company is using the huge boost in efficiency to take readings every month.
Anstead said that in the past, the company didn’t take readings every month because of the high labor cost associated with it.
Even though billing discrepancies were adjusted the next month — so theoretically, no one paid for gas they didn’t use — “we got a lot of complaints about estimated billing,” Anstead said.
So, while the labor needed to read meters decreased six-fold by using new technology, the number of meters being read every year doubled.
According to rates provided by Columbia, a staff of one or two can now probably complete the task each month.
The new meters employ a lithium-ion battery that the company said will last at least 20 years and never need a charge. So the unit doesn’t draw electricity from the home or business it’s serving.
Then, all that’s needed to download a meter’s data is for a properly equipped vehicle to pass and take the reading.
“People will still need to let us in to check if there are gas leaks, which we do every three to five years,” Anstead said. “But this is a lot less intrusive.”
The company has added 29 cents a month to customers’ bills to help offset the cost of the new meters. But a spokesman, Ken Stamman, said the increase is a temporary measure. It shows up on the bill as part of a $2 surcharge to finance new construction, he said.
In addition to Springfield and Urbana, automatic meter reading will begin this week in Enon, New Carlisle, South Charleston, Yellow Springs, Mechanicsburg, Fairborn and London, the company said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0353.
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