Subject: Trouble with water meters in Baltimore
According to a February 2018 staff report to WSSC commissioners, the City of Baltimore spent $180M to convert to AMI smart meters. The Baltimore Sun reported in October 2016 about Baltimore's resulting switch from quarterly to monthly billing. Fox 45 reported in 2015 that the winning bid was $100M higher than another bidder resulting in a 45% rate increase.
Baltimore City runs the water system that serves both Baltimore City and Baltimore County. It was revealed at last month's commission meeting that Baltimore County remains on quarterly billing and only 1/3 of the County's water meters were converted to AMI.
The Baltimore City water system has been plagued with issues since the conversion. It was reported that some customers, such as the Ritz Carlton luxury condo residences had never been billed for water since the conversion resulting in millions in missing revenue. Water billing was halfted for months in 2019 by a ransomware attack on the city. In Baltimore County, customers have not received water bills since the 2020 pandemic began.
Earlier this month it was reported that the Baltimore City Department of Public Works plans to outsource water meter reading, installation & maintenance to smart meter vendor Itron for $12.9M. 63 employees will be laid off.The union that represents the workers is pushing back,blaming faulty equipment and training.
Itron is one of the companies that bid for WSSC's AMI smart meter project.
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