A municipal utility near Sacramento, California has deployed more than 120,000 smart meters as part of a multi-year improvement project.
Roseville Utilities said the effort was completed three months ahead of schedule. The meters will support residential and customer engagement by the city’s electric and water utilities.
“Modernizing our metering system is a game-changer for both the environment and our customers,” said Sean Bigley, Roseville’s assistant environmental utilities director. “It allows us to monitor usage patterns better, reduce waste, and offer more personalized support to our residents.”
The meter upgrade uses advanced metering infrastructure and introduces a two-way communication system for electric and water meters. City employees will no longer need to visit homes or businesses to read meters physically; they can send commands through the network to connect services and perform maintenance virtually. Ultimately, the project is expected to yield faster customer service resolution and smarter billing information.
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The City of Roseville signed a 5-year contract with Itron in 2018 to adopt the company’s OpenWay Riva IoT advanced metering solution. At the time, Roseville also intended to use Itron’s Total Outcomes, which includes back-office IT infrastructure and cloud-based Software-as-a-Service applications, such as meter data management and analytics. The contract with Itron was to not exceed $17 million. The city also contracted consulting services from UtiliWorks.
Roseville Utilities began piloting around 800 smart meters in 2023. City officials said the project would enable additional applications such as Volt/Var optimization, demand side management, theft detection, high impedance detection, transformer load management, and tools to manage distributed energy resources.
Customers could opt out of the smart meter upgrade for a one-time fee of $119 for the installation of a non-communicating meter and a $15 recurring monthly fee. Roseville Utilities said it would upgrade meters once an opt-out customer vacated a property.
As of 2022, U.S. utilities had installed 119 million smart meters, equal to about 72% of total meter installations. A recent study estimated the U.S. would reach 94% smart meter penetration by 2030.
This story includes reporting from Smart Energy International