BC HYDRO’S $1 billion smart meter program, which it says will actually save money, has arrived here.
Corix Utilities, a contractor to the provincial crown corporation, began swapping out old meters for new ones on Monday.
Ron Bowman from Corix Utilities, the company installing the meters in the area for BC Hydro, said there are more than 42,000 meters to install.
He expects the work in the region to take until March of next year to complete.
There were 23 jobs created for the project, and technicians were hired locally, receiving two weeks of training at a facility obtained for the project in Thornhill.
Week one for the new technicians was orientation on electrical theory and safety, and week two was practical application practice.
Bowman said the actual installation of the new smart meters is very basic.
“These meters are just plug and place,” he said. “There is no wiring.”
Residents will receive written notification from BC Hydro about three weeks in advance letting them know their meter is to be replaced.
A technician will knock on the door of a residence to let the occupants know he or she is there, and to warn of a brief power outage that will happen during the switch, lasting for under a minute.
“This is a great opportunity, and a great project for BC,” Bowman said.
Gary Murphy, program director for the BC Hydro smart meter program, told council recently that smart meters are required by the Clean Energy Act and are replacing ones that are very old and at the end of their life.
The meters will give BC Hydro more information on power usage than it has now.
The crown corporation says that will ultimately save money for it and consumers because it will mean having to purchase less power.
Murphy said BC Hydro loses large amounts of money each year because power is stolen to supply marijuana grow ops.
Smart meters will read power usage every hour, which can help people figure out how to cut their energy costs by looking at what appliances they’re using when usage rises during the day, he added.
Contrary to the belief that BC Hydro will use this information to know what customers are doing, Murphy said that’s not true.
The meters will just show the amount of usage on a graph similar to what is shown on bills now, so it just shows fluctuations in usage and nothing more, he said. “What people do with energy is their business, not ours,” he said.