An Advanced Meter is a totally electronic meter with no moving parts. WAPA has been using solid state meters for many years. Older electro-mechanical meters (with a visible rotating disk) are no longer made. Electronic meters are inherently more accurate. The Advanced Meter also has the capability to communicate through a network to report usage as well as alarms that might exist at the meter.

Advanced Meters can monitor and report conditions that might otherwise go undetected. Advanced meters can report issues having to do with power quality or even power outage so that WAPA can more proactively handle problems.

While there are no initial changes, WAPA expects to be able to offer features that give customers greater insights such as alerts and notifications regarding usage. Another example that might be offered is the ability for customers to choose their billing date to more easily align with financial capabilities.

There are no specific reasons for customer bill increases due to having an Advanced Meter. There are always pressures and costs associated with the delivery of electricity that may impact the bill. The deployment of Advanced Meters is expected to increase efficiency in several ways which would hopefully mitigate some of the upward pricing issues.

WAPA is planning to start deploying Advanced Meters in the summer of 2026. St. John will be deployed first with the timeline expected to be about a month. After St. John, a brief evaluation period will ensure the St. John deployment is functioning as expected before moving forward. Deployment will then continue simultaneously on St. Croix and St. Thomas. The full rollout is expected to be completed over approximately a year.

Advanced Meters have been deployed by the millions. There is a Safety section on our website project page for more information.

Advanced Meters provide a significant amount of information, but they are limited to your usage of power. Meters can’t tell how or what the power is being used. They also do not contain any customer account information.

The installation process is designed to be smooth with only a short, temporary power interruption of no more than 10 minutes with no other expected impacts to service.

No specific preparation should be necessary unless your meter is behind a locked area or you have pets that could pose a problem for the installer. If your meter service is in disrepair, you should proactively make any necessary repairs so that the meter can be installed safely.

On the project web page there is a section on how to verify installer identities.