The City of New Westminster is currently upgrading its electrical metering equipment, which is nearing end-of-life, with a more capable metering system known as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). All of the City's meters must be replaced in order to comply with Measurement Canada accuracy requirements.
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Customer Benefits
Advanced meters are one part of a collective system upgrade. Once the new system is functioning as a whole, advanced meters will support a range of features and capabilities.
Benefits to you include:
Having greater insights into your energy usage will help you reduce energy waste and save money
Outage response times will be faster and more targeted
Enhanced safety features will help protect your home and community
The utility will have improved operation efficiency and will reduce costs over time
A modernized grid will support innovative technologies such as electric vehicles and solar panels
Reduction of the City's carbon emissions
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About the Project
The City's existing metering equipment is aging, becoming obsolete, and costly to maintain. Our infrastructure needs to be upgraded to meet the demands of our growing community. AMI will be better able to support the dynamic needs of a modern grid and will accommodate new and sustainable technologies that are part of New Westminster's climate emergency response.
The contract for the Advanced Metering Infrastructure project was awarded to KTI Utility Services for the supply and installation of the new meters, and to Harris Computer Systems for the IT infrastructure.
The exchange and installation of residential AMI meters were completed in July 2025. The City is now proceeding with the deployment of commercial meters, with completion expected by early 2027. Affected businesses will be notified in advance of installation activities.
Safety and Privacy
Safety
Your privacy and safety are important. Advanced meters communicate using safe, secure low-level radio signals. The signals from the meters are much lower than common household devices such as:
Wi-Fi routers
Cell phones
Microwave ovens
Baby monitors
All electrical meters must pass strict safety and accuracy measures established by federal authorities such as Health Canada and Measurement Canada. The meters we have selected are compliant with all appropriate standards set by Health Canada.
Exposure to radiofrequency energy below Health Canada's established limits is safe. The limits are set far below the threshold for all known established adverse health effects.1 There are no health risks from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) from advanced meters. Your exposure to radiofrequency EMF from advanced meters is very low.2 This is because:
Advanced meters emit relatively low power signals
There is distance between your body and advanced meters
Advanced meters transmit data in short bursts, not continuously
When advanced meters are not transmitting a signal, they do not emit radiofrequency EMF
Privacy
We place a high priority on customer privacy, and we must protect your personal information by law. All personal information collected is managed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Protection of Privacy Act, as it has always been. Our vendor, and our internal teams, will all work together to ensure your information is kept private.
We are replacing our equipment so that we can keep providing reliable, cost-effective service to our customers. The City's existing electric metering infrastructure is aging and becoming costly to maintain. Installing modern equipment will create the foundation to support new and innovative sustainable technologies such as electric vehicles and customer generation.
Our current meter and advanced meters both measure electricity consumption. However, instead of each meter being manually read roughly every two months, advanced meters will transmit this information at more frequent intervals across a secure, wireless network. This will result in more timely information which will allow the utility to manage the flow of electricity throughout the city's electrical system and measure the quality of power being delivered more efficiently. Advanced meters can also automatically detect power outages leading to quicker response times.
We're replacing our equipment so that we can keep providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective service. Once advanced meters are installed and the upgraded system is functioning as a whole, we will benefit from a range of new features and capabilities. Working as part of a modern grid, the advanced metering system will:
Provide you with more information about how much and when your household is using electricity, so that you can better understand how that use affects your bill.
Increase accuracy of power outage information and location, resulting in quicker outage response and restoration.
Improve operational efficiency and reduce the City's utility costs over time.
Ensure that the electricity system continues to evolve with modern safety standards, so that hazards such as overloaded meters and power theft can be better detected.
Support economic growth and new job opportunities in the green energy field.
AMI is the necessary first step to enable innovative sustainable technologies such as electric vehicles and solar panels.
Advanced meters are a critical step to modernizing the City's electrical grid and will enable the New Westminster Electrical Utility to continue to provide reliable service as well as offer new features and benefits to customers. Detailed consumption information from advanced meters will help customers make more informed decisions about their energy consumption, which can lead to more savings.
Advanced meters communicate using safe, secure low-level radio signals. The signals from the meters are much lower than common household devices such as Wi-Fi routers, cell phones and baby monitors.
All electrical meters must pass strict safety and accuracy measures set by federal authorities such as Health Canada and Measurement Canada. The meters we have selected are compliant with all appropriate standards and operate far below exposure limits set by Health Canada.
Advanced meters measure electricity use. They can measure this in time blocks, e.g. kilowatts per hour, which can help you better understand how your use affects your bill. No personal identifiers, such as names or addresses are stored within the meter and they will not indicate which appliances you're using.
We place a high priority on customer privacy and we must protect your personal information by law. As always, all personal information collected is managed in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Our vendor and our internal teams will all work together to ensure your information is kept private.
Installation for residential and small commercial customers began on September 16, 2024, and was completed in 2025. The second phase of the project covering commercial and industrial sites is expected to begin in fall 2026 and be completed by early 2027.
All meters in the City are being replaced to meet accuracy and certification requirements set by Measurement Canada. The option to apply for a radio-off meter was only available during the initial deployment phase and is no longer available.
The installation of AMI meters is a necessary component of our infrastructure upgrades. All costs will be covered through our regular capital budget, unless you have opted for a radio-off meter.
Once the system is functioning as a whole, customers will be able to track their electricity usage online. More information about this tool will be shared once it is available.
Time-of-use billing is not something the City is pursuing at this time.
Other than clearing the area around the meter of any obstructions, you do not need to be present during the installation. A brief power interruption may occur while the old meter is safely removed and replaced.
On average, AMI meters transmit data for less than one second at a time. They are not constantly communicating the way that other wireless devices do (cell phones, tablets, Wi-Fi routers, baby monitors, etc.). The data packets they are sending are very small so it takes very little time. Our meters communicate once every four hours.
