Advanced Metering Infrastructure
The City is upgrading its utility metering system with Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), which is commonly referred to as “smart meter” or “smart grid” technology. AMI allows a utility to digitally read utilities meters to measure energy and water usage at a home or business. AMI allows customers to view hourly energy and water usage online and receive leak alerts.
Download AMI Interval Data FAQ(PDF, 2MB)
Benefits for Customers
- The ability to track ongoing utility consumption data to make informed decisions about energy and water use
- Enabling the timely detection of water leaks
- Better supporting customer adoption of solar panels, energy storage, and electric vehicles
- Reduced power restoration time for outages
Benefits for CPAU
- Enabling implementation of time-of-use (TOU) electricity rates
- Providing near-real time data on energy and water consumption and voltage information
- Hassle-free transfer of service, eliminating the need for appointments to turn service on or off
- Enabling enhanced responsiveness to maintain equipment, which will result in higher levels of electric reliability
- Faster detection of electrical outages, causes, and shorter restoration time
- Reduced operational costs
- Better distribution system management, leading to greater reliability
Once Your Meter has been Upgraded
You will have access to hourly/daily energy consumption in your MyCPAU and water consumption in your WaterSmart portal within a few days of your usage. You will be able to get alerts about possible leaks on your property through the WaterSmart portal.
How AMI Works
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) uses radio and cellular signals for data transmission from utility meters. The City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU) is upgrading its electric meters and adding AMI radios to existing water and gas meters. AMI technology has become standard in the utilities industry.
An advanced meter tracks your use of electricity, gas, and water. Unlike old meters, it wirelessly sends data to the CPAU service center. Thus, CPAU staff don’t need to visit your home or business for monthly readings. The advanced meters collect hourly and daily usage along with voltage information. Advanced meters are digital. They are often more accurate than mechanical meters, which degrade and slow down with age. Advanced meters must meet strict design standards, and CPAU regularly tests them to confirm their accuracy.
An electric advanced meter fits into the existing size and shape of the meter base currently at your location. Radios installed on existing gas and water meters will also be located next to existing meters. Meter location will not change. There is no direct charge to customers for the meters, just like other utility system upgrades. Meters, like other equipment upgrades made to the utility system, are part of CPAU’s capital expenditure and have been included in budget projections.
AMI Project Completion Timeline
We anticipate that 95% of gas and water meters will be upgraded by the end of December 2025. The remaining 5% have issues like obstruction, lack of access, and required equipment repairs. Due to inventory issues, some upgraded electric meters have taken longer to source, and we expect to have those 95% installed by end of April 2026. The remaining 5% for all three utilities should be completed by end of 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What type of data will be collected from my meters and my home, and how securely will my data be stored?
Only your utility usage and voltage information will be collected from the meters. The suppliers of AMI equipment, software and cloud-based data hosting service are respected and reputable companies that meet all applicable national, state, and industry standards on personal information privacy and cyber-security controls.
Can I opt out?
Eligible residential customers can opt-out of the AMI program for electric and gas meters. There is no opt-out option for water meters.
- AMI Opt-Out Fee for C-1 rate schedule: $100 one time set up charge and $25 monthly processing fee
- AMI Opt-Out Fee for C-4 rate assistance schedule: $50 one time set up charge and $10 monthly processing fee
To inquire about opting out, please call Utilities Customer Service at (650) 329-2161.
Identify an advanced meter on MyCPAU
Once an advanced meter (AMI) has been installed the usage screen will update with interval data.
How do I navigate to a different interval level?
The main usage screen defaults to the Monthly view. You can move to the next interval by clicking on the Icons for Daily, Hourly, 15min (electric only). You can also click on the bar graph to drill down to the next interval.
How do I change the date range?
- To change the date, click on the period date range to open the calendar
- The monthly display will show 13 months of billed usage
- The Daily display will default to the days in most recent service period
- The Hourly view will show one day of usage
- Electric’s 15min display will show one day of usage
Why do I have a drop down with different meter numbers?
- With the installation of an advanced meter, all electric meters were exchanged. The drop down allows you access to any usage that took place on your previous non-advanced meter. With gas and water, a meter exchange was not always required.
- Graphs available for the previous 13 months.
- 36 Months of historical data is available for export.
Viewing on a phone or tablet
- Display will be minimized. For example, the menu will not show the tiles you will see a "hamburger" icon to click on to make a selection for the different pages
What to expect with an advanced NEM1 photo voltaic meter
Billing for NEM 1 Photo Voltaic is based on the monthly net value of usage and excess solar generations. With a new advanced meter Customers can see them separate between the usage that occurred as well as the generation that took place prior to the values being netted.
Commercial customer with demand
Customers will be able to access their daily peak demand in addition to their monthly billed demand charge.
What does an advanced meter look like?
Electric meters have been replaced with either a Stratus IQ meter or Aclara KV2C depending on the application
Gas and water meters have been retrofitted with AMI radios. The meter themselves remained the same unless the age of the meter required a standard end of life replacement.
How do I read my electric meter?
- Advanced meters will flash 4 screens. Look in the upper left corner to identify the screen
- Screen 001 kWh register for what the customers uses.
- Screen 002 Photo Voltaic system has sent back if they have PV otherwise it will be all 000000
- Screen 003 instantaneous amperage – how much is being used at the moment
- Screen 004 the voltage the meter is seeing
What is my meter number?
You can find your meter number directly on the meter, your invoice or on MYCPAU on the usage screen.
Bill: 
Meter: 
Can advanced meters connect to devices in my home?
AMI meters work independently and cannot be connected to appliances or smart home devices.
Who can access my data?
- You- access your usage data on MYCPAU https://mycpau.cityofpaloalto.org/portal/
- Customer Service- If you are inquiring about your invoice by phone or email a customer service representative may view your usage history to provide an answer to your inquiry.
- Customer Service Billing Specialist- May review usage history if an invoice looks too high or too low from historical averages
- Select Utility Departments - will have access to aggregated usage information for rate analytics/efficiency programs/transformer load analysist
Could my signal get crossed?
No, each meter has a unique Radio ID or “Flexnet ID”.
Will my billing cycle change?
No, bill periods remain between 28-34 days.
Do you need to access the meter?
Yes, all meter access and obstruction rules can be found here.