Wapa

With 29% of WAPA Bills Estimated, Senators Call for Immediate Action and Alternatives Like Prepaid Billing

Deficient meters, estimated bills, and back billing, sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars, continue to frustrate customers of the Water and Power Authority, acknowledged WAPA CEO Karl Knight when he appeared before Monday's meeting of the Committee on Government Operations, Veterans Affairs, and Consumer Protection.  WAPA's challenges include the wholesale failure of its Advanced Metering Infrastructure system, leading to the inability to read many meters remotely. This forces WAPA staff to have to go into communities to read meters manually. However in some instances, meters cannot be read at all, causing WAPA to guess bill amounts for some customers based on past trends. Approximately 29% of bills are currently being estimated, testified WAPA Chief Financial Officer Lorraine Kelly. WAPA hopes that the issue can be remedied soon, having contracted Itron to completely rebuild the territory's AMI system. With funding secured from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, WAPA ...