Abilene's new smart water meters so accurate they are causing higher water bills
ABILENE, Texas — Abilene residents are calling the City to question water bills they received following the installation of new smart water meters.
"A lot of calls concerned about their bills going up," said Amanda Pope, Public Information Officer for Abilene Water Utilities.
KTXS received calls from several viewers about the same subject.
Todd Lawrence was one of them.
He says his last two bills were $200 higher than his average monthly bill.
"I just didn't believe I used that much water," said Lawrence.
The City has been sending out detailed statements to residents who are seeing higher bills with the installation of the smart meters.
The statements reflect hour by hour usage and how much water is being used during that time period.
"The smart meters are far more accurate in reading water usage that the analog meters we were using for years," said Pope.
The new meters also detect small leaks and irrigation systems, something the old meters were not doing accurately.
The City says they may have lost lots of money due to inaccurate billing using the old meters.
Abilene Christian University has begun a study on the old meters to determine how much revenue was lost.
