Project Description

The City of Tigard owns and maintains over 21,000 water meters throughout the Tigard Water Service Area (TWSA), which includes approximately 2/3 of the City of Tigard, the cities of Durham and King City, and parts of unincorporated Washington County. Each meter is an essential part of Tigard’s water distribution system, being solely responsible for measuring each customer’s actual water use for billing purposes. The Water Meter Modernization Project will replace existing water meters throughout the TWSA with new meters that communicate electronically with Public Works and Utility Billing departments, streamlining the meter reading process and allowing automated alerts to staff and customers for potential meter issues or water leaks. New water meter technology allows for more transparent and accurate water meter readings, benefiting both the City and consumer. 

Tigard water meters are read every month. Approximately one quarter of Tigard water meters are read using Automated Meter Reading (AMR) technology, where the water meter communicates with vehicle mounted meter reading equipment via wireless radio signals to record water consumption data. The remaining water meters (approximately 16,500) read manually, a process that involves physically visiting each water meter location, opening the meter box, and manually recording the water consumption information into a handheld data logger. This manual meter reading process is time consuming and introduces the possibility of errors in recorded water consumption data. The Water Meter Modernization Project will replace all manually read water meters in the TWSA with AMR technology water meters. 

Project Timeline:

• 2026-2027: Staff are preparing the implementation plan for installing approximately 16,500 water meters. This cross-departmental planning effort involves Public Works Water Division and Engineering division staff, as well as Utility Billing staff, and will ensure minimal impact to customers.

• 2027-2031: Meter installations will begin in summer 2027 and continue for approximately 4.5 years until all meters within the TWSA are equipped with AMR technology. Meters will be replaced on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, and customers will be notified approximately 60 days before meter changeouts occur in their neighborhood.

Why Its Needed

AMR meters enable Tigard meter readers to read meters remotely, safely, and accurately from a vehicle, via wireless radio signals. Because a portion of Tigard water meters already use this proven AMR meter technology, this project will standardize meter reading processes throughout the TWSA. The new AMR water meters will capture the same information collected from the manual read meters faster, more accurately, and more efficiently. 

 The Water Meter Modernization Project offers multiple benefits to Tigard, our customers, and the environment, including: 

• Eliminating labor-intensive manual meter reading.

• Providing more accurate water consumption data, useful for detecting water loss and leaks in the system which will result in water and cost savings for customers.

• Reduction of ongoing maintenance needs of our existing water meters, and automatically alert City staff if a meter requires maintenance.

• Detection backflow (reverse flow) conditions and continuous leaks in a customer's water service. If detected, the City will contact the customer, allowing them to solve the issue and reduce impacts to their water bill.

• Increases daily meter read ability of a reader from 500-600 manual reads per day to as many as 4,000 reads per day, which allows staff to reallocate time to other needs, such as water meter maintenance and customer service. 

• Reduce pollution from vehicles driven by meter readers.

Installation of the AMR meters is seamless and customers many not even realize the work was completed. Find out more about the installation process on our Water Meter Replacement webpage. 

There will be no additional cost to customers to complete the Water Meter Modernization project. The project has been in the planning stage for several years and funds are budgeted for this project using the existing rate and fee structure.

Operation and Maintenance Costs:

Installation of AMR water meters across the whole TWSA will reduce operations costs by reducing the time it takes for staff to read meters, and replacement of old existing meters will reduce ongoing maintenance costs.

Contact

Ross Horton, Senior Project Engineer: 503-502-8876 | Ross.Horton@tigard-or.gov