Smart Water Meters Coming To Bellevue

BELLEVUE, WA - The City Council this week approved a $20.2 million contract to install smart water meters at homes in the city. The meters are able to detect leaks and allow for remote meter reads, according to city officials.

In late spring 2019, up to 1,000 meters will be installed around the city as part of a pilot program. If all goes well, the meters will be rolled out citywide in fall 2019. The city wants to complete the entire project by 2020.

With the meters installed, the Bellevue Utilities Department will get hourly data on water usage in the city. Homeowners can also monitor this data and adjust usage accordingly.

Smart meter programs across the country have been met with skepticism and concern over data privacy. According to city officials, the water meter data will be encrypted on a network maintained by Cisco Systems. The city promises that no personally identifiable data will be transmitted from the smart meters (as a whole, the network is known as an "advanced metering infrastructure" or AMI).

The city's 20-year smart meter technology contract was awarded to the technology company Itron, which is based near Spokane.

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