Utility companies and municipalities have long struggled with customers conserving water because in general, the more water their customers use, the more revenue companies and public works departments make.
Clinton-based water utility Connecticut Water, which serves nearly 300,000 people in 60 cities and towns, has decided to take a stab at a different approach.
Under the company’s recently launched 2016 Water Drop Challenge, which it says could be the first of its kind in the country, customers who reduce their consumption in the coming year by 10 percent or more will receive a $30 rate credit.
The company said it will absorb the cost of the customer credits, which could cost as much as $300,000, but it hopes to eventually convince utilities regulators to consider such programs in future rate case filings.
CT Water’s average customer household uses 170 gallons of water per day. A daily reduction of 17 gallons next year will be enough for the average customer to earn the credit, the company said.
If every customer hits the goal, it would save around 60 million gallons of water. CT Water said that’s enough to fill a line of 5,000-gallon tankers stretching from Farmington to Boston.
Margaret Miner, executive director of Rivers Alliance of Connecticut, praised the program.
“We believe all water utilities should be able to support both good quality infrastructure,” Miner said in a statement.
The deadline for customers to enroll in the challenge is Dec. 31. The company will accept up to 10,000 customers who have lived in their current addresses since Jan. 1 and who have individual water meters. Apartments and other dwellings where the landlord pays the water bill are ineligible.
