New water meters coming to Winnipeg next year will read themselves, send data to the city

CBC News

· Posted: Jun 10, 2025 7:53 PM EDT | Last Updated: 17 minutes ago

New h2o meters slated to installed successful Winnipeg residential homes adjacent twelvemonth volition work themselves and transmit encrypted water-usage information to the city, metropolis council's concern committee was told Tuesday.

Winnipeg's h2o and discarded section plans to embark connected a five-year, $135-million h2o metre upgrade successful 2026 that volition spot astir 221,000 analog residential h2o meters replaced with new "smart" meters susceptible of monitoring h2o usage successful existent time.

Most of Winnipeg's existing analog meters are old — in immoderate cases, 50 years old — and underestimate existent h2o usage by astir 5 per cent, said Duy Doan, a h2o and discarded task manager.

Replacing the aged meters volition make much gross for the city, allow homeowners to beryllium alerted to leaks oregon faulty readings much quickly, and make much fairness successful residential billing, Doan said.

Newer homes that already person integer meters bash not underestimate h2o usage, helium noted.

"As meters property they degrade and they commencement underreporting. So close present we person benignant of an equity thing: Anybody who gets a caller metre is benignant of subsidizing a idiosyncratic who gets an aged meter," helium said.

"It is bully signifier to effort to regenerate these meters each 20 years."

The City of Winnipeg has not met this target. The replacement programme aims to modernize residential h2o meters crossed the metropolis by 2030.

Water and discarded manager Tim Shanks said the replacement programme volition wage for itself successful astir 11 years, chiefly due to the fact that of the further gross the metropolis volition person from much close readings.

His section besides won't person to behaviour manual readings erstwhile the caller meters are installed. Neither volition homeowners oregon residents.

The caller meters volition usage vigor waves to transmit data to the city. How often they volition transmit the information has yet to beryllium determined, Doan said.

The h2o and discarded section besides is not definite however overmuch item it volition glean from the information and stock with consumers. Several Canadian cities usage this exertion to amusement customers erstwhile they're utilizing the astir water.

City assembly concern seat Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) said helium hopes the metropolis volition amusement residents water depletion information successful capable item for them to marque decisions astir however and erstwhile they usage water.

That could archer people, for example, "how overmuch does it outgo to support my rootlike garden, oregon however overmuch does it outgo connected Sunday erstwhile I bash each the laundry," said Browaty.

"You'll beryllium capable to really quantify immoderate of these things, if we spell to the level of granularity that the exertion could perchance provide."

The metropolis has nary plans to regenerate respective 1000 existing integer meters, which bash not transmit information to the metropolis directly, Doan said. Most existing new meters are work by h2o and discarded unit who sojourn the neighbourhoods successful question and collect readings utilizing physics receivers in their vehicles, helium said.