Hawaiian Electric Co. customers on O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island may be saying goodbye to their meter readers.

The company has signed a 15-year agreement with a company that makes automatic meter-reading systems and hopes to deploy the wireless reading equipment starting next year to 430,000 residential and commercial electric customers.

The company announced yesterday that it decided to use the remote reading solution made by Sensus Metering Systems after completing a two-year test in which thousands of "smart" electric meters were deployed in a variety of settings on O'ahu.

Hawaiian Electric earlier this month filed an application with the state Public Utilities Commission for approval of a $98 million plan to install the automated meters between 2009 and 2015. Besides the meters, the system also includes installation of 19 tower sites, a data management system and integration with the utilities' customer systems.

"We're hopeful that we can start rolling this out next year," said HECO spokesman Darren Pai.

He said the company expects to cut $25 million in operating expenses once the system is fully installed, with improved meter readings, energy theft reduction and less labor costs.

At that time, the company will have phased out field representatives who currently read the meters by transitioning the workers to other positions at the three utilities that Hawaiian Electric operates.

Pai said a decision will be made later about deploying the technology on Lana'i and Moloka'i.

The system manufactured by Raleigh, N.C.-based Sensus allows on-demand reads, remote connect and disconnect services, and notifications of outages and restoration.