By AP/KWMU
Peoria, Ill. – St. Louis-based Ameren plans to implement an automated meter-reading system for more than one million electric and gas customers in the Metro-East, as well as in central and southern Illinois. The move will eliminate the need for human meter readers.
An Ameren spokesman says the company hopes the new system will improve its response to power outages and drastically reduce the number of estimated bills.
Along with the Metro-East, the automated meter system will be expanded in cities including Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign-Urbana, and Carbondale.
The expansion will start in March and be complete in 2009. When complete, Ameren will have 2.4 million automated meters in its service area.