BC Hydro representatives visited 100 Mile House on July 27 to talk about its new Smart Metering Program at a South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting.
The meters will be installed at locations that receive electricity from BC Hydro, so the program covers almost every home, business and public building in the province.
In a PowerPoint presentation, BC Hydro deputy project officer Fiona Taylor explained the meters will send wireless service information in both directions, allowing the Crown corporation to monitor service on a real-time basis, and offering customers options for gaining personal information seen only to them.
She told the 40 members and business leaders in attendance the smart meters will modernize the aging electro-mechanical meters that haven’t been upgraded in 50 years, improve information and repairs when outages occur and transmit hourly usage information to BC Hydro three to six times each day.
When there are outages, Taylor added this will automatically notify BC Hydro of power outages as they occur, rather than relying on customers to call in reports.
The program also eliminates BC Hydro’s current bi-monthly manual meter readings at homes and other service locations, she noted, offering more accuracy for the in-between months where usage is estimated on monthly invoices.
It will also indicate where power is possibly being used, but not paid for, such as in cases of theft, including when it is stolen for drug grow-ops, Taylor explained.
An in-home feedback tool will be available for customers to purchase to monitor their own usage on an ongoing basis, aiding in power conservation.
She said customers with that capacity can view their current consumption at any time, and by adjusting the loads, such as turning appliances off or on, can then determine the “energy hogs” in their home or building.
There is also an option for customers to be notified of power outages on a Smartphone (a high-end mobile phone with advanced computing and connectivity ability), she explained, such as for a business owner who needs to know quickly if the power goes out after hours.
The lower operating costs of the smart meters will also benefit taxpayers, she noted.
Customers will not incur any extra costs on their bill for meter installation or in the rates, Taylor said, adding that isn’t necessary because the program presents a “good business case.”
She also discussed the level of privacy maintained and health and safety factors of the meters, in order to reassure those who may have concerns about those issues.
BC Hydro communications & public affairs manager Cindy Verschoor and Taylor also fielded questions from the group.
The question-and-answer session touched on aspects, such as the low costs to replace the smart meter (around $100), its life span of between 20 and 25 years, the bidding method used to select the British Columbia contractor installing them, and the schedule to have that underway across the province by this fall.
For more information on the Smart Metering Program, visit the website at www.bchydro.com/smartmeters.
See also the related story on page xx of this paper.
