City is requiring that converted basement metered separately

[Dustin Le]

Hi everyone, I bought a house last year and converted the downstairs basement into a separate apartment. I live in this property now. I extended the water line from the utility room into the new kitchen and extended electrical there as well. Over the past 6 months I've been trying to get permits from the city (which has been a huge pain), and just today they sent me a message requiring that I separately meter the two apartments. The price list they sent me shows that the total cost to install the meters is approximately $10k-15k total (something I can't afford at all). 

I have two questions. 

1. 1. Does anyone know a way to either reduce this cost by having it done privately or a way to get around this? 

1. 2. They also mentioned something about Meter Upsizing. Has anyone had this done? What is it for? 

Thanks so much for your help.