Ubits April - June 2025
p Craig Coyne, advanced meter field investigator
Then and now: A look at the advanced meter project In 2019, Tacoma Public Utilities initiated a modernization effort, recognizing the need to go beyond providing and billing for services. Our utility invested in modern technology to replace aging and obsolete meters with more accurate ones that could track critical asset health information to enhance our system’s resiliency and reliability, improve our forecasting and modeling for growth and demand management, and provide customer benefits now and into the future. A critical part of the transformation involved upgrading over 180,000 aging electric meters and 107,000 water meters to a proven, reliable, and secure platform. These upgrades enabled TPU to roll out a range of customer-focused improvements, including: Monthly customer billing
In this issue 1 A look at the advanced meter project
Remote electric service reconnection
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Detailed water and power usage data
Tacoma Water wins big in May
Automated meter readings Improved reliability through faster outage and leak detection The advanced meter project involved more than just replacing meters. TPU built a robust communications network and implemented a utility data management system to efficiently capture and process data. The project team evaluated every related process, from service delivery to billing, to ensure a smooth integration with SAP, our customer billing software, and the new MyAccount customer portal.
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8 Service Awards recipients celebrate 2,830 collective years