City of Surrey Implements Metering Incentive Program

To help homeowners conserve water and save energy costs, the City of Surrey has  implemented a voluntary water metering incentive program. Under this $9 million program, Corix provided and installed high tech water meters, meter reading and customer communications services.

“The public outreach program that outlined the benefits of metering over flat rate services was key to the City of Surrey making the switch to water metering,” said Brian Nichol, Corix Automated Meter Reading (AMR) Specialist. “We provided consumers with all the information on the benefits of metering and the details of the voluntary incentive program. In addition to free water meters, the benefits included accurate water utilization information, which enabled consumers to manage their water consumption prudently – the key to conservation and, in many cases, decreased costs.”

Building on the success of the meter program, Corix has also been able to provide additional water utility services to the City of Surrey. 

“One was a Meter Rectification Program,” added Brian.  “We undertook a full inspection program covering almost 600 sites, upgrading them to City standard. Older, direct read meters were replaced, as required, with accurate, state of the art AMR systems. Meter vaults were also inspected and improved as part of this program, facilitating future maintenance.”

Corix also took on meter reading, maintenance and testing, as well as new construction installations. 

“Corix currently reads all of the City of Surrey’s water meters, covering some 40,000 meters per year,” noted Brian.  “In addition, in the course of reading the meters, we also provide ongoing repair and upgrade services to ensure correct, current and complete metering results. That includes providing both on and off site meter testing, to ensure complete accuracy in readings.”

“We also took on installation of meters in all new construction,” concluded Brian.  “By law, all new residential units in the City of Surrey require water meters. Corix is contracted to install all of these water meters to 2008. To date, we have successfully completed approximately 2,400 installations per year to new residential buildings in Surrey.”

Posted August 2007