HOUSTON \u2013 The Houston City Council is set to vote Wednesday on whether to appropriate an additional $5,500,000 to an existing contract for the city\u2019s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system \u2014 bringing the total contract value to $43.5 million.<\/p>\n
The funds would come from the Water and Sewer System Consolidated Construction Fund and go toward the city\u2019s contract with Sensus USA, Inc., which has been managing the installation of the AMI network since 2020.<\/p>\n
Contract background<\/p>\n
The original contract was awarded Nov. 24, 2020, under Ordinance No. 2020-0992, for a 10-year term with a maximum contract amount of $38 million. An initial funding amount of $18.5 million was allocated at the time.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time the contract has been amended. In October 2024, city council approved an additional $16,054,610 appropriation under Ordinance No. 2024-0768 \u2014 though that amendment did not increase the maximum contract amount.<\/p>\n
To date, the city has spent $34,322,180.55 on the project.<\/p>\n
Why more money is needed<\/p>\n
According to Houston Public Works (HPW), the additional funding is necessary due to increased material costs, higher equipment pricing and rising operating expenses \u2014 cost escalations that were not anticipated in the original contract scope.<\/p>\n
The additional $5.5 million is expected to sustain the department\u2019s AMI operations through the end of 2027.<\/p>\n
What AMI means for Houston<\/p>\n
Public works said the AMI system is more than just a meter upgrade. Both the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) require the service, which is designed to minimize the risk of loss of life and property due to flooding during extreme weather events.<\/p>\n
Under the contract, Sensus USA, Inc. provides all tools, materials, equipment, labor, training and supervision necessary for the AMI network and its Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. Software maintenance and upgrades are covered under the SaaS agreement, while installation of individual meter reading devices and infrastructure is handled by HPW field personnel and\/or contractors.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 The Houston City Council is set to vote Wednesday on whether to appropriate an additional $5,500,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,4626,58,57,8045],"class_list":["post-472241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-city-council","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-water-meters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}