Overview

Real-world experience is one of the most valuable tools when planning a metering programme. The following case studies highlight the benefits achieved and challenges overcome in recent deployments across different communities. They illustrate how metering has delivered tangible outcomes, such as reduced demand, deferred infrastructure investment, and improved equity, while also capturing lessons learned to refine future rollouts. Together, these examples provide practical insights that can help shape a more effective, efficient, and community-supported metering programme.

Case studies

New Plymouth District Council - 2024

New Plymouth’s universal-metering programme was about three-quarters complete at the end of 2024/25, with 19,600 of the planned 25,500 residential meters (c.77 %) already in service. The water metering data has revealed and repaired 466 private-side leaks, including a single property that was losing 60 m³ per day, roughly 200,000 cups of tea, on its own.

The city is now saving c.1.09 ML of treated water every day, enough to meet the needs of around 4,000 residents. These demand reductions let the council postpone a $4 million pump-station upgrade by at least ten years, freeing capital and operating expenditure for other network priorities.

Key Learnings

Below are key lessons distilled from past universal water-metering projects and national experience.

1. Establish a clear business case first, Build the meter programme around deferring or downsizing new sources, storage and treatment assets or avoiding abstraction consent breaches; include reduced OPEX, consent surety and equity benefits in the NPV.,

2. Communications & politics, Face-to-face sessions with community “influencers” (Rotary, Greypower, etc.) were the most effective counter to misinformation; allocate specialist comms capacity.,

3. Re-evaluate meter technology each cycle. Mechanical meters met past cost targets, but falling prices and longer battery life mean smart-meter options now warrant a fresh business-case test.

4. Keep communications simple and timely for customers, using plain language to explain what will happen, when, and why; give clear advance notice of key milestones such as meter-box installation, trial readings, and the start of billing, and always link each update back to the core message about why metering is being introduced.

5. Have strong, well-defined policies on public versus private responsibilities, setting the ownership boundary, detailing council duties for meters and their maintenance, and customer obligations for downstream plumbing and leak repair; embed these in the bylaw.

6. Treat it as a logistics project, Treat the roll-out as thousands of micro-work-sites: resource a dedicated install/liaison crew, automate the tracking of progress and quality assurance and resolve access or reinstatement issues fast.,

7. Getting the charging right matters, A 50 / 50 split between fixed and volumetric revenue has  proved enough to drive c.25 % peak-day reductions while limiting bill-shock and protect revenue. Consider “entitlement water” carefully as it doesn’t provide a strong enough incentive for change

8. Trial reads before billing, send sample invoices for 3-6 months to let households find leaks and adapt usage, and to debug billing systems.,

9. Effective customer engagement can be resource intensive. Extra call-centre and field staff, plus face-to-face sessions with community influencers, are critical to manage queries and counter misinformation during roll-out.

10. Leak detection & data, Universal metering quickly pinpoints large private leaks and cuts dry-weather inflows; Marlborough, Kapiti and New Plymouth saw major water savings.,

11. Price stability, Budget for meter-driven demand drops; smooth initial revenue shocks. Adopt a policy that spreads any first-year surplus or deficit over several years to keep charges stable.

12. Reductions in dry weather flows in the wastewater system of up to 10 % have been experienced in the programs.

The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission has also undertaken work in this area commissioning a report[1] on the lessons and perspectives of introducing water metering that provides valuable insights many that have been incorporated into this White Paper.

The 2017 Good Practice Guide by Water New Zealand, "Water Metering of Customers on Reticulated Supplies," offers comprehensive guidance on various engineering aspects, and best industry practices.. It informs policies that support clear communication with communities about responsibilities and costs, such as who pays for what—whether it be the individual or the Council—and how the system will be managed. We suggest referring to this document for much of the engineering details necessary in the establishment, rollout, operation and maintenance of a program.