Toronto spending millions to replace failing water meters, with more problems expected

A utility bill for more than $1,000 is shown. A Toronto resident received the bill after their water meter transmission unit failed. (CTV News Toronto)

City staff say they have entered into an “urgent” non-competitive contract to replace thousands of failing water meters which are clunking out earlier than expected – and more failures are anticipated.

“The rapidly increasing and premature failure of over 150,000 of the City’s 470,000 Meter Transmission Units (MTUs), at a far greater rate than expected, has created a significant challenge for Toronto Water,” city staff say in a report before the Infrastructure and Environment Committee this week.

The situation requires “immediate action” in order to ensure “accurate, timely and efficient City water utility billing and customer service,” staff say, noting that the flood of premature meter failures is expected to continue.

The issue emerged in the summer when some customers noticed that they were receiving water bills that were two or three times as much as expected.

Staff say the city has spent around $5.5 million for replacement meters in a contract with Aclara Technologies LLC (Aclara) so far.

Most of the city’s water revenue comes from metered water consumption. In 2015, the city switched over to an automated meter reading system to capture and transmit water consumption data for billing. The proprietary system was expected to have a 20-year lifecycle.

However the meter transmission units (MTUs) which relay data from individual meters to the city’s central system via radio frequency have been failing much earlier than expected.

“A significant number of the City’s MTUs are failing prematurely, well before their expected 20-year service life,” staff say in their report. “Currently, over 30 per cent of the City’s 470,000 MTUs have failed. This has led to water utility billing and customer communication challenges, affecting the City’s ability to maintain an appropriate level of customer service.”

Even more units are expected to fail heading into the winter months, staff say.

“Failures are expected to continue at a current forecasted rate of 5,000 to 8,000 MTUs per month, with higher failure rates anticipated during the winter months as compared to summer,” the report says. “This trend is expected to continue until all the originally installed MTUs are affected.”

The city has switched to billing affected customers according to usage estimates. However that solution is not ideal, as customers are billed based on past usage.

Supply chain challenges and the fact that the units which need to be replaced are now obsolete “have significantly limited the availability of replacement stock,” staff say.

“Aclara, the supplier of the City’s MTUs, has phased out production of the MTU type and associated installation kits compatible with the City’s AMR system. These factors are making it more difficult for Toronto Water to secure replacement units in a timely manner.”

While $5.5 million has already been spent to replace the failing units, it’s not yet clear how much the failing system will cost the city.

The committee is expected to consider a confidential attachment to the report at its meeting this week.