SWEPCO, Shreveport water department switching to smart meters (2024)

Shreveport utility meter reading is getting smarter but it isn't getting cheaper.

Shreveport residents' water and electricity meters all are due for upgrades over the coming years which will make them more accurate and eliminate the need to visit backyards to read them. Southwestern Electric Power Company smart meters already are being installed in Bossier with plans to change out Shreveport meters throughout 2024 while the Shreveport Water Department recently secured funding for its smart meter project though it still will be some time before that program reaches homes throughout the city.

Residents won't have to do much to facilitate the changeover, but the water department expects more accurate meters will make some bills a little more costly while SWEPCO is charging a monthly fee for eight years for the new meters—and to not have them.

SWEPCO began installing its smart meters in October in areas of north Bossier Parish where the utility had conducted its pilot program, according to spokeswoman Michelle Marcotte. Meter replacement work will take place in Shreveport throughout next year.

The meter replacement doesn't require homeowners to do anything or be present for installation but they aren't free.

A surcharge took effect in September: $3.24 per month for residential customers for the first four years and $2.75 for the four years after that. There is a $6.40 monthly surcharge for non-residential customers, such as businesses, which expires after four years.

Customers can opt out, but there's a cost for that, too: a one-time fee of between $119-220 as well as a monthly fee of $22.45. Non-residential customers can't opt out of the smart meter installation.

Marcotte said the fee helps offset SWEPCO's cost for sending employees to manually read the meters of customers who opted out.

"We've installed 20,000 meters in Louisiana and we have less than 1% that have opted out," Marcotte said. "It's a smaller amount of people that cost would be spread across, that's why we have this fee."

The smart meters use secured two-way wireless communication technology to measure and record electricity usage. Marcotte said the meters give SWEPCO faster, better information about electricity usage at individual homes, such as during a power outage.

Customers can benefit from the new meters through an online dashboard which will relay to them real-time data about their own power usage, providing the information necessary to make adjustments to energy use well before a big bill lands in their mailbox.

"It's very similar to how you operate a cellphone, a laptop or even a TV remote. It's the same kind of technology," Marcotte said. "Right now, a customer, they don't know how much energy they've used until they see it on their bill. Now, you're going to be able to have a dashboard on your account ... and you'll be able to see your energy usage in as fast as 15 minutes. You can adjust if you notice you're using more energy by maybe turning your thermostat down a couple degrees so you'll use less energy going forward."

SWEPCO will send customers mail, postcards and emails to inform them in advance of installation with expected installation timelines. The process of switching out meters usually takes only a few minutes with a brief disruption to a home's electricity, Marcotte said.

Read more about SWEPCO's Smart Meter program here.

Shreveport residents' water meters also will be getting upgrades though it still will be some time before residents see them installed so they can take advantage of their features.

The Shreveport City Council last week approved funding for a contract with Sustainability Partners LLC, the company that will provide the meter reading services for the city. The digital meters mean no one will need to visit residents' homes to take usage readings.

Instead of reading its own meters, the city will contract that service through Sustainability Partners and pay the company based on the number of meters read each month over the next two decades, according to Shreveport Water and Sewerage Director William Daniel. The city will not pay for unread meters, including when there is a system error or a power outage, and the city still will be able to send employees to homes to read meters manually should there be some kind of disruption in service, Daniel said.

"We're not buying meters. We're not buying a communication system. We're buying a service. The people who are providing this service, they will not get paid until I get a read. When they get their meters in the ground and they're functioning and reading in our office, they get so many dollars per meter per month," Daniel said. "What they're delivering to us is reads so we can send out a bill. The software, they're paying for. The meters, they're paying for. The communication system, they're paying for."

Shreveport residents will not have additional fees associated with the change, but Daniel said some people may notice marginally higher bills because old water meters tend to be less accurate by recording less water use than actually occurred.

"We know we have a lot of inaccurate meters because they're old," Daniel said. "Some people will have a slightly higher bill because these meters are very accurate and very precise. As the meters we have in the ground age, they're less and less accurate."

The new meters will allow customers to view their water usage data in real time, Daniel said. He said this can help regulate water usage more quickly than waiting for a monthly bill and also may help residents detect leaks sooner.

But it still will be some time before Shreveport's 75,000 water customers see any changes. Now that the funding is in place, Daniel said most of 2024 will be spent getting the new system in place and testing it.

"The first thing is to stockpile the meters and create the communication system. Then we'll do a pilot program to make sure the communication system is picking up the readers in the furthest part of the city, and that's going to take some time," Daniel said.