HAMPTON ROADS — Since February 2021, Newport News Waterworks (NNW), the water supplier for Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson, York County and parts of James City County, has been in the middle of a two-and-a-half year-long project to replace all 130,000 water meters in its service area with smart meters.
The new smart meters have the ability to communicate its readings electronically, thus ending the need for NNW to send technicians out to read meters in person every month.
“Smart meters reduce the number of trucks on the roadway and the department’s carbon footprint, while eliminating monthly visits from meter readers,” said Yann Le Gouellec, Director of NNW. “This full deployment of smart meters is an infrastructure improvement that will speed up issue resolution and identify problems in our system sooner for the benefit of our customers.”
Other benefits to installing smart meters include access to more timely and detailed usage data as well as quick and easy service connection or disconnection. NNW will also be able to identify unusually high usage incidents and possibly contact customers before they receive high bills.
Thirty days prior to installation, residents will receive a notification postcard in the mail and a door hanger with specific instructions at at their home. On the day of installation, a technician will knock on the door to notify the occupants that the water will be shut off for no longer than twenty minutes.
NNW has already completed the installations in Upper York County and parts of Newport News. For more information on the new smart meters, including a map showing when water meters in certain areas are scheduled to be replaced, checkout the NNW website.
