January/February 2026 Issue

Also in this issue: Municipal Obligations for Police and Fire Employees Under the New "No Tax on Overtime" Rules     |     Municipal Utilities and Bankruptcy Practice: What Wisconsin Utilities Need to Know

Wisconsin Water Utilities Adding Value with Advanced Metering Infrastructure

Jared Walker Smith | 02.04.26

As the son-in-law of a meter reader, I have heard the old war stories: aggressive dogs, interesting lawn décor, and uncooperative homeowners. As with everything in life, the steady march of technology has changed how many (though not all) water utilities read meters and — for better or worse — the types of stories told. The late 20th century saw the rise of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), which allows utilities to remotely collect meter data. AMR reduces labor costs from physical reads, but typically still requires a utility employee to walk or drive down the street to collect data from the AMR meters via radio waves.

The new millennium saw the first large-scale adoption of another technology: Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). AMI differs from its predecessor in its improved ability to passively collect frequent and accurate water usage data, often on an hourly basis. The technology ​“is a collection of devices and systems used by utilities to collect, measure, communicate, and analyze water use data from treatment through delivery to customers.”¹ AMI further enables two-way communication between utilities and customers allowing both the utility and its customers access to near real-time usage data.

The benefits of using AMI are manifold and recent legislation supported by the League has made it easier than ever to implement AMI by eliminating the need for construction authorization from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. However, a highly unscientific sampling of Wisconsin water utility annual reports² shows that only a little over a quarter of Wisconsin utilities have started implementing or fully implemented AMI. Over half of utilities have AMR and 17% of the sampled utilities were still manually reading meters. So, for those communities who aren’t yet on the AMI bandwagon, this article shares the perspectives of
your utility colleagues on why they made the upgrade.

Customer Benefits of AMI

“AMI metering is all about connecting the customer to their usage of water from their water utility,” said Kevin Westhuis, Utility Director for the City of River Falls Municipal Utilities. This includes not only basic usage information, but ​“alerts for identification of potential leaks and running toilets, usage pattern information, budgeting purposes, and much more.” In implementing its AMI program, River Falls Municipal Utilities ​“reminded the customers that this technology is for them. Yes, the utility will also have more data about usage trends and system data, but ultimately there are huge benefits to the end user.”

With ​“real time water consumptive data,” replied Krishna Kumar, General Manager at Madison Water Utility, utilities are able ​“to detect potential water leaks early, preventing high water bills and easily avoidable water waste.” A common refrain among utilities who have adopted AMI is that property owners whose leaks otherwise may have gone undetected for days — or longer — are highly appreciative of this feature.

While a utility can alert customers of unusual usage, with AMI a utility does not have to be the gatekeeper for a customer’s data. AMI online portals give all customers who sign up the ability to monitor their individual usage as well.³ Brian Powell, General Manager of Green Bay Water, reports that large customers are the most frequent users of online portals and have used the water data for internal planning, including by tweaking processes and evaluating electrical costs, saving water and money.

When customers hear about AMI for the first time, privacy and security of the data is a common concern. A customer is limited to seeing their own data in their online portal, but the utility can see all usage data. Municipal utilities are already sensitive to the protection of municipal utility customer information (see Wis. Stat. § 196.137), and AMI is no different. Educating your customers on the protections afforded customers under Wisconsin law, and a well-trained staff on the use of AMI, usually mitigates these concerns.

Utility Benefits of AMI

“We started out with AMI because we saw the benefits for staffing,” Mr. Powell said. Since starting implementation 20 years ago, ​“Green Bay Water went right from meter readers walking up to the meters to using AMI.” This switch allowed Green Bay Water to reallocate the substantial amount of labor used for meter readings to other pressing needs. Green Bay Water’s Business Manager, Stephanie Rogers, also saw labor — and customer service — benefits for move-ins and move-outs, because ​“people often do not call when they move out. When we get a call two weeks later, we can now look back and do a bill for the final date,” rather than send a reader out two-weeks too late. This ability to look back has proven particularly popular for landlords.

Smaller utilities report similar advantages. Derek Anderson, Water Superintendent for the Village of Deerfield Water Utility, reports that since replacing its 1,185 meters with AMI meters in the last year, the utility has saved at least four days of work every month for meter reads, and even more for final move-out reads. ​“The biggest thing for the water utility is that AMI has already saved a lot of time and will save a lot of money in the future,” he responded.

Beyond a decrease in labor costs associated with meter reading, Mr. Kumar has seen how ​“AMI also helps the [Madison Water] Utility to accurately assess peaking factors enabling the Utility to right size its water infrastructure to meet both the current and future needs.” Green Bay Water agrees and uses the AMI data in system master planning. ​“We can see where the water is going,” said Ms. Rogers, ​“and break our data down by customer class and pressure zone.” This data can be put in hydraulic models to see when flows are happening and look at peaking factors when evaluating system capacity and upgrades.

“Regarding using AMI data for rate setting,” opined Erik Granum, a Principal/​Senior Consultant at Trilogy Consulting, LLC, ​“I think that more data is always better than less, and it provides information that can be used to ensure that rates are reasonable for all customers, based on generally accepted cost of service principles.” For some communities, AMI data has started showing that traditional assumptions regarding peaking factors for different customer classes may not hold true. Most AMI systems do not yet readily allow the aggregation of the massive amounts of data that AMI generates for rate-setting purposes, but there is future potential for this use.

Customer Meter Projects No Longer Require PSCW Authorization

Water utilities have benefited from a streamlined approach to implementing AMI technology since 2021 when the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, in partnership with Municipal Environmental Group – Water Division (MEG Water) and Wisconsin Rural Water Association, lobbied for the creation and passage of 2021 Wisconsin Act 86. That Act created Wis. Stat. § 196.49(5g) which exempts water public utilities and combined water and sewer public utilities from needing a Public Service Commission of Wisconsin certificate of authority before beginning customer meter installation, repair, or replacement projects. Utilities are already
benefiting. When the Deerfield Water Utility installed AMI in the last year, it only needed to convince its village board and residents of the many benefits of AMI and did not need to wait for additional regulatory approval.

Conclusion

Advanced Metering Infrastructure can change the game in how a utility designs and operates its system, how a utility communicates and serves its customers, how customers interact with their utility, and how the utility and its customers alike conserve water. While this article outlines the benefits of AMI to both the utility and its customers, there are startup and ongoing costs to the purchase, installation, and operation of the hardware and software components. However, those utilities which have implemented AMI see that the benefits that near real-time access to more data affords outweigh the costs. If your utility is looking to implement AMI, ask around — in my experience, our water utility colleagues are more than happy to share their stories.

This article was originally published in the October 2025 issue of ​“The Municipality” by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities (LWM) and is reprinted with permission of LWM.