COUNTY News:
The Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has announce that utility bills for the month of July are delayed, and customers are currently unable to access the Automated Meter Infrastructure (AMI) service portal, managed by Sensus, to view consumption data.
DPU has been working with Sensus since July 1 to automatically transition all residential meters to Time of Use (TOU) and residential demand. The transition required software updates and remote meter conversions.
Once the meter conversion was completed, staff began verifying and entering the final reads under the previous electric rate structure.
This process turned out to be more complex than expected and took staff longer to resolve. Residential customers’ bills will be mailed on Thursday, July 23, and will be due Aug. 15.
Customers in Cycles 34-43 who have either opted out of AMI or who have meters that are not all AMI meters will receive a bill covering service from July 1 through the scheduled July read date. These bills will be mailed out on July 30 and have a due date of Aug. 24.
Beginning Aug. 1, meter read dates for residential AMI customers will be realigned to maintain consistency with the new rates.
The updated meter read schedule is:
- Cycles 10 through 15 (White Rock): Read on the 1st of each month
- Cycles 20 through 23 (Eastern Area & Townsite): Read on the 8th of each month
- Cycles 30 through 35 (Western Area towards North Community): Read on the 15th of each month
- Cycles 40 through 43 (Mesas): Read on the 22nd of each month.
DPU staff continues to work closely with Sensus to address ongoing customer access issues to the AMI service portal. At this time, a date has not been provided for when this issue will be resolved.
“We understand how frustrating this has been for our customers, and we are working to get this resolved as soon as possible,” said Deputy of Finance and Administration Joann Gentry. “Customer meters are relaying read data back to our central data hub. The issue seems to be in displaying that same information on individual portals. We first noticed our solar customers weren’t seeing all their data, and we notified them directly. Then, we heard from non-solar customers last week that they were having problems accessing information on their AMI portals as well.”
The AMI service portal provides utility customers with insight into their consumption data for electric, gas, and water services. Currently, customers are seeing either a spinning wheel that never loads or the portal loads and displays all zeros.
Meters were reconfigured to be read under time of use and residential demand rates on July 1. Reports of access issues occurred about two weeks after that reconfiguring.
“Everything went well during our testing phases over the last several months,” Gentry said. “The access issue has the Sensus team a little perplexed,”
Customers can access their billing portal, which is maintained by billing software Tyler Munis. Any customers with questions about their usage are encouraged to reach out to Customer Care at 505.662.8333 or CustomerCare@losalamosnm.gov.
