EVERETT — Snohomish County PUD commissioners approved plans Tuesday to read every customer’s meter each month as part of a solution to problems created last fall when the district switched to a new billing system.

Completely implementing the fix will take as long as six months, and cost between $13.4 million and $18 million over three years, according to Public Utility District staff estimates.

The PUD’s publicly elected commissioners are still considering whether to do the work in-house or contract it out, and how to pay for it: cash reserves, rate increases, cutting other expenses or a mix of those options.

The problem arose when the district switched to a new billing system last September as part of a multi-year plan to bring nearly all district operations into a single computer software package by German vendor SAP. The new system required the PUD to switch from billing every two months to every month. Meters are still only read every two months. Estimated electricity usage is used to calculate bills between meter readings.

The plan approved by the commissioners will add staff and equipment to read meters every month.

“While bill estimates have worked for most of our customers, we understand that for some, estimated bills have created hardships,” PUD CEO and General Manager Craig Collar said in a news release. “We’ve heard them and are responding with more frequent meter readings. As a customer-owned public utility, we want to be responsive to the needs of our customers and work to provide resources that help them.”

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.