Albany Utilities reports 88% AMI deployment; staff warns continued nonresponse may lead to disconnection

Albany Utilities reported to its utility board that it has installed advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) on roughly 78,720 of about 89,831 meters and that remaining exchanges — about 11,111 meters — face technical, access and customer-resistance barriers that could lead to service interruption for nonresponsive accounts.

Kendall Hodge, an Albany Utilities staff member leading deployment updates, told the board the program is about 88% complete overall. "So far, we've exchanged 78,720, and we have about a little over 11,000 remaining," Hodge said. He said the project total was revised from a previously stated 91,947 meters after scrubbing inactive and abandoned accounts.

The remaining work is split by commodity: Hodge gave counts of roughly 6,143 water meters (about 56% of the remaining population), 2,494 gas meters and 2,474 electric meters. He said a contractor identified as H2O will handle about 3,700 of the remaining water replacements, with Albany Utilities staff performing the larger residential and commercial meter swaps. "Vermex/Burmex has completed pretty much all of the water meter exchanges that we've given them," Hodge said, adding that the contractor is near "substantial completion" of its contracted work.

Why it matters: AMI meters provide remote reads and voltage and flow data that can reduce estimated bills and detect…