NYC Automated Water Meter Reading Network

🤖 AI-generated summary · 🔎 Last verified 2026-07-26

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

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Radios on roughly 831,000 properties report readings four times a day, and an audit found that layer accurate and secure. The worn mechanical meters underneath were not: 17,094 accounts were still billed on estimates.

Outcome🔄 Ongoing

Evidence🏛️ Official

what does this mean?

The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →

Run byNew York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)

Scale🏙️ City-wide

Cost$68.3M (2008 Aclara installation contract)

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 17 more in New York City · 💧 Water guide · 📡 Data & IoT projects

New York's water utility awarded Aclara a $68.3 million contract in July 2008 to fit its roughly 831,000 metered properties with low-power radio transmitters that report readings four times a day to rooftop receivers. DEP had installed more than 820,000 by 2012 and says estimated bills fell nearly 60 percent that fiscal year; the network sent 47,787 leak alerts in 2025. A 2013 Comptroller audit found the radio data accurate and secure but the meters underneath often not, with 17,094 accounts still billed on estimates. DEP began replacing the first-generation devices in December 2024, and some customers are estimated again while they wait.

Live 📅 since 2008

📊 Impact

Estimated bills down nearly 60% in fiscal 2012; 47,787 leak alerts issued in 2025, preventing roughly 1.7 billion gallons of waste (DEP figures)

🎓 Lesson

Automating the read does not fix the meter. The Comptroller found the radio layer accurate and secure while worn mechanical meters underneath kept producing bad bills — and the transmitters themselves needed wholesale replacement after about fifteen years.

📡 Data & IoT Water Sensors & IoT

Sources

↗ NYC DEP — AMR contract award (press release 08-17, 23 July 2008)Supports the award date, Aclara as vendor, the $68 million value, approximately 831,000 metered points, the roughly three-year installation schedule, and the network design: low-power radio transmitters sending readings to rooftop receivers, tied into the city wireless network NYCWiN. Also states the stated goals of eliminating estimated bills and giving early warning of leaks.

↗ NYC DEP — AMR installation and leak notification progress (press release 12-95, 2012)Supports substantial completion and the operator-reported results: 'DEP has installed AMR devices for more than 820,000 of the agency's 835,000 ratepayers'; 'In Fiscal Year 2012 estimated bills were down nearly 60%'; 31,600 leak notices sent, roughly $26 million saved; 232,000 customers registered on My DEP Account. Self-reported figures, not independently audited.

↗ NYC Comptroller — Audit Report on the Reliability and Accuracy of the Automated Meter Reading Data Administered by DEP (7A13-060, 4 October 2013)The independent counterweight and the source for the contract period and value. Finds 'The AMR data transmission from the AMR device to the AMR database is accurate and secure' but that 'many meters do not record accurate readings, resulting in inaccurate billing'; 17,094 of 818,176 installed meters still on estimated billing; approximately 33,463 meters (about 4 percent) without AMR at all.

↗ CBS New York — Protest Held At City Hall Over NYC Water Bills (28 February 2012)Supports the contemporaneous billing controversy: a City Hall protest over bills that rose sharply after AMR installation, with Councilman David Greenfield quoted, 'People can't afford to have their water bill go from $3,000 to $10,000 overnight.' DEP responded that the readers are accurate. Press account only; no quantified error rate is established here.

↗ NYC DEP — Launch of the citywide AMR device upgrade programme (press release 24-045, 2 December 2024)Supports the replacement of the first-generation network: more than 600,000 AMR devices to be upgraded over three years, starting in Greenpoint, at no charge to property owners. Describes the AMR device as the grey box that wirelessly transmits meter readings to DEP four times a day.

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↗ NYC DEP — Fix a Leak Week release (press release 26-003, 16 March 2026)The currency check and the source for the 2025 impact figures: 'In 2025, DEP issued 47,787 leak alerts' that helped prevent approximately 1.7 billion gallons of wasted water, more than $29 million in potential savings. Confirms My DEP Account and leak alerts are still operating in 2026, and that 230,000 of the 600,000+ devices have been replaced.

↗ The Rockaway Times — New Yorkers Face Estimated Water Bills as They Await Meter Upgrades (23 January 2025)Supports the return of estimated billing during the device swap, including DEP's own statement that 'If an estimated bill is found to be incorrect — once an actual read of the meter is obtained, the bill will be adjusted up or down as appropriate.' Local weekly; the claim that every meter in the five boroughs needs a battery replacement is attributed to call-centre staff and was not confirmed by DEP, so it is not used in the entry.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇰🇷 Seoul's Digital Water Meter Rollout · Seoul New York put 820,000 meters on radios in four years from 2008; Seoul started in 2022 and expects citywide coverage only by 2040. 🇯🇵 Osaka Water Smart Meters and Remote Reading · Osaka Osaka had 81 trial meters in 2019 and puts citywide rollout in the 2030s; New York is already replacing the radios it fitted in 2008. 🇰🇷 Busan Remote Water Metering · Busan Busan reached 27.7% of connections in seven years; New York finished in four and is now replacing every radio it fitted.

Explore the wider context

📟 A Reading Is Not a Decision 📖 District metering area (DMA)📖 Non-revenue water (NRW)📖 Prepaid metering

📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “NYC Automated Water Meter Reading Network” — New York City, United States. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/nyc-amr-water-metering/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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