MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – The City of Myrtle Beach is installing smart water meters and city leaders said it could help your water bill.
The city will change out the current water meters that are manually read to new smart meters that will be read electronically and the city said it will be more customer friendly.
Right now there are 21,000 water utility customers and the city said that number is only going to grow. The smart meters will help alleviate the manpower to read the meters. A radio read system will be put on top of three water towers and the project will be done in three phases. The first phase will include commercial properties like hotels and hospitals, the second phase will be Market Common and the surrounding areas, then the rest of the city. The entire project will take 4 to 5 years. But city leaders said it will allow people better control over the amount of water they’re using
“Through their smartphone, through their tablet, through their computer. They can set limits. If they want 50 gallons a day, 100 gallons a day, and if you go over that. Say it’s 50 gallons once you hit 51 gallons you’re going to get a text alert,” said assistant city manager, Fox Simons.
City leaders said it will also alert people if they have water leak. Starting in July, any new construction will have the new smart meters. The cost of the first two phases is estimated at $3.5 million.