Columbia’s utility customers should not expect to see an increase in their bills after smart meters are installed, but they could begin to notice savings in about three years, said Jason West, spokesperson for the city’s Utilities Department.
On Monday, the Columbia City Council approved the purchase and installation of smart utility meters for all customers. The installation is scheduled to begin in spring 2027, upgrading or replacing more than 50,000 city electric and water meters.
The smart meters are also expected to detect leaks and outages faster, leading to shorter response times for repairs.
The council approved $41.8 million to replace 53,992 electric meters and 52,747 water meters. A data collector network, management system and integrated software for existing billing and customer portal systems will also be added.
Currently, the city uses meter readers to record utility usage for monthly billing. The smart meters will automatically check utility use several times a day, uploading the data to a cloud server where both the city and residents can view it.
West said the city’s meter readers will be moved to other responsibilities within the city after the transition is made.
Over the next 15 years, the new meters are expected to save the city $71.3 million because of the increased efficiency. West expects residents to start noticing savings within a handful of years.
“Typically you start seeing something within three years, but it’s hard to predict when your base numbers are based on people’s usage,” he said.
Roughly 72% of the country already uses smart meters for electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Several studies of existing usage suggest that meters save consumers money.
According to a 2023 study by economics and management professors at three universities, electricity losses decreased an average of nearly 4% after the installation of smart meters. Over time, that could translate to savings for consumers, they found.
West said this could apply to Columbia, not only because of saved electricity but also because of the potential for rates to vary throughout the day.
“If peak usage is between 2 and 4 in the afternoon, there could be more expensive rates during that time to encourage people to use more water or electricity at a different time,” West said. “Then those rates could be lower.”
“If there’s not as much usage during say, 8-10 p.m., then there could be scalable rates for different time periods.”
Scalable rates could lead to overall lower prices for residents, West said, if customers conserve utilities when rates are high and use more when the price is low.
These changing rates would be facilitated by the frequency and accuracy of the new smart meters, West said. The amount of data a smart meter receives would allow for prices to accurately change by the hour.
“It takes measurements at very frequent intervals throughout the day and uploads them to a cloud-based system where customers would be able to log in and essentially monitor their usage throughout the day if they would like,” he said.
This would allow Columbia residents to better budget their use of utilities by letting them track the exact usage at any time.
Columbia is late on implementing smart meters, with several cities in Missouri having implemented them throughout the 2010s. Springfield finished installing them in 2023 for all utilities, including gas, water and electricity. The process took nearly a decade.
Smart meters have been effective for detecting problems, as well, with Springfield City Utilities detecting 2,980 leaks in 2024 alone. Without the smart meters, the leaks may have gone unnoticed and untreated.
West acknowledged the city’s late arrival to the technology, emphasizing local enthusiasm to finally catch up.
“We’re very anxiously excited to be able to start this process,” he said. “Columbia is kind of behind the curve in getting this technology implemented compared to a lot of communities its size, even some smaller communities. So very excited to be able to put this in place and excited about the possibilities in the future.”
