Our View

Our View

Time to make move to curb utility losses

With the technology available today, it makes perfect sense for West Memphis caretakers of our public money to stop the financial hemorrhaging caused by a bunch of freeloading cheats who have gotten away for years by avoiding paying what they owe on overdue utility bills.

West Memphis Utilities has lost millions of dollars to customers skipping out on paying their monthly utility bills. Heretofore, the inability of utility staff to recover what is owed by customers who have racked up hundreds of dollars leaving town or cleverly changing their name on new deposits or getting a friend or family to re-apply for utility services has been absolutely frustrating and unacceptable.

While it is true electrical rates in West Memphis are said to be the lowest in the state that is absolutely no excuse whatsoever to tolerate a nonchalant attitude in dealing with this theft problem and moving to automated electric meters as a means of insuring utility customers pay for services rendered should be implemented as soon as possible.

Recently, West Memphis city council members and utility commissioners gathered to hear Greg Johnson, president of Katama Technologies Inc.

explain an Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system, and tell how this city’s utility can drastically improve, not only the major theft problem but also eliminate door-to-door meter reading that has an enormous cost associated with it.

While good paying, legitimate utility customers can continue paying their monthly utility bills as they have always done, this new system is specifically designed for what Johnson politely described as “customers on a cash budget”.

So, what is being considered is converting every utility meter to AMI at an estimated cost of between $3.1 million to $3.7 million that can be amortized over a five year period. It was pointed out West Memphis spends about $975,000 annually to support current electricity and metering in the city. With this AMI system cost to the utilities will decreased to as little as $160,000 annually, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars in theft prevention.

The AMI system works similar to pre-paid phone programs. Customers with the inability to come up with substantial deposits to open a new account can apply for what is known as “pre-pay drop consumption”. Through the use of an app on their mobile phones customers can have access to their energy consumption and know exactly when their pre-paid account needs to be replenished before their electricity is turned off. Shut-offs and reconnects can be done within a matter of minutes simply by a simple computer function.

The system also allows for customers to set up proactive messaging that tell them when balances dip to a certain level.

It was encouraging to note that this very same system is moving to operation in Conway and Hope as well as North Little Rock. We also told that Jonesboro has begun an AMI electric pilot project.

The bottom line in all this is that this is showing to be a win-win situation for West Memphis Utilities as well as its customers and based on what we know decision-makers should waste no time moving forward with its implementation.