For most customers, the electric meter is easy to forget—until it doesn’t work the way it should.

Over the past few years, WAPA began seeing an unusually high number of failures in the existing electric meters across the system. Those failures caused WAPA to switch to a more manual process which resulted in delayed readings, estimated bills, and in some cases bills that reflected longer-than-normal billing periods. For customers, that felt confusing and frustrating—and we heard you.

After a thorough investigation, WAPA determined the most responsible path forward: a full systemwide replacement.

The Electric Meter Replacement project targets the root cause of the billing inconsistencies that some customers have experienced. By replacing every meter, WAPA is rebuilding the foundation of how electricity use is measured, communicated, and billed.

The replacement process will begin in summer 2026 and conclude in 2027. At the same time, WAPA is upgrading the systems and integrations that support these meters to ensure they communicate accurately and consistently with WAPA’s billing system. The new meters will maintain remote-reading capabilities, just like the current system, but with significantly higher performance expectations built into the vendor’s contract.