ALBERTA

http://albertasmartmeters.ca

 

 

City gathering info after Ontario removes some smart meters

BY GILLIAN SLADE ON JANUARY 27, 2015    [email protected]    @MHNGillianSlade

In the wake of Ontario removing 5,400 remote disconnect smart meters, Medicine Hat’s electric utility is investigating whether it needs to take action as well.

There are 8,500 Sensus smart meters installed in Medicine Hat —iConA Generation 3.2,equipped with a “remote disconnect” feature.

“We had a conference call on Friday with the electrical safety authority. We’re in the information gathering stage trying to figure out why they applied that in Ontario,” said Wilbur McLean, city communications.

There was no new information, research or testing on which Ontario made its decision, but rather on what was happening in other jurisdictions, said McLean.

He says they wanted to know if a fire marshall report in 2013 specified this particular make and model.

“Their response was that they were a mix of models,” said McLean. “We asked a lot of pointed questions … that would compel us to change what we’re doing now. We didn’t find anything new in that regard.”

There are also plans to talk to Underwriters Laboratories and the manufacturer, Sensus.

“We will learn as much as we can and then make a decision from there,” said McLean.

The city sent a total of 40 meters to Underwriters Laboratories for testing, 20 of each type including the remote disconnect ones, and the results were identical, said McLean.

A month ago the city said all the smart meters had complied with tests done by Underwriters Laboratories and council approved continuation of the installation program two weeks ago.

The 5,400 meters being removed in Ontario are Sensus smart meters,iConA Generation 3.2,equipped with a remote disconnect feature. There were no reported incidents related to the smart meters in Ontario.

In July last year Saskatchewan halted its smart meter program and removed them after eight unexplained minor fires. SaskPower has since removed the Sensus meters in question from homes and businesses there.  A settlement with Sensus regarding the cost was negotiated.

http://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2015/01/27/city-gathering-info-after-ontario-removes-some-smart-meters/
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Smart meter fires in Saskatchewan prompt Medicine Hat to halt switchover

 Updated: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 12:30:05 GMT | By CBC News, cbc.ca

http://news.ca.msn.com/local/calgary/smart-meter-fires-in-saskatchewan-prompt-medicine-hat-to-halt-switchover

The city of Medicine Hat has put a stop to installing automated electricity meters after problems cropped up in Saskatchewan.

SaskPower put its smart meter program on hold because eight caught fire between May and July this year.

In all cases, the failures only affected the outside of a home and no one was hurt.

The meters, supplied by U.S.-based Sensus Corp., allow utility companies to bill consumers for the power they use every month rather than relying on estimates between meter readings.

Medicine Hat officials said the protocol for converting to automated meters includes three safety checks to make sure sockets aren’t worn or deteriorating, plus a silent alarm that sends a signal to the utility if the socket temperature gets to 80 C.

However, officials said they want to get more information before proceeding with the city’s meter program.

http://news.ca.msn.com/local/calgary/smart-meter-fires-in-saskatchewan-prompt-medicine-hat-to-halt-switchover

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/Calgary/ID/2461258731/

 

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City on the hook if smart meter starts fire: IBA 

BY GILLIAN SLADE ON JULY 30, 2014.

http://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2014/07/30/city-on-the-hook-if-smart-meter-starts-fire-iba/

Wilbur McLean, communications for the Utility department, holds one of the Sensus smart meters being installed in Medicine Hat.–NEWS PHOTO GILLIAN SLADE    [email protected]    @MHNGillianSlade

The City could be held responsible if a smart meter results in a fire, and should therefore be diligent about the associated risks, says the Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta.

“The City has to take a hard, hard look at this. They now know that there are problems and if they continue to install them they are increasing their liability,” said Gord Cowan, president of the Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta. “If there is a meter installed that does fail, and the house burns down, the City’s insurers are going to have to pay for that. I would venture to say the City’s insurers are taking a pretty hard look at this.”

Saskatchewan halted installation of its Sensus smart meters after eight devices malfunctioned, causing the meters to melt or catch fire.

Coun. Bill Cocks, who chairs the energy committee, is not concerned about liability based on the information he’s been given to date.

“Not based on what I have been told to date,” said Cocks. “I’m assured by my department, the people that I rely on, that our equipment is state-of-the-art and that we haven’t had these problems. As I understand it they have to be properly installed and we have not had any such issues here. It is something I think we need to be aware of but we have had no problems here at all.”

In Medicine Hat, 29,000 meters have already been installed, and the project is almost complete.

A total of 15 smart meters have had to be replaced so far, said Wilbur McLean communications for the energy division.

Medicine Hat’s Utility decided on Monday to contact SaskPower to clarify the situation and determine if its Sensus meters also have an alarm that triggers if the device reaches a temperature of 80 degrees, said McLean. Whether that contact has already been made was not clear Tuesday.

The temperature alarm is one of three possible triggers, that would alert someone to a potential problem, said McLean.

The News asked Sensus for information about the alarm component in the device and whether this would alert the homeowner if there was an issue. The News was referred to McLean for details.

SaskPower is offering to change smart meters for the original meters for any of its customers that request this.

“We (in Medicine Hat) are not offering that at this point,” said McLean.

There are four prongs on the reverse side of a smart meter. Those prongs go into jaws of sockets located on the existing meter base, which is generally located on the side of a house, said McLean.

Disturbing those jaws in the process of removing an old meter has the potential to cause the sockets and prongs to overheat. There is the potential for this to occur even if an old style meter is installed, McLean said.

“We’ve been led to believe there is no reason for concern,” said Coun. Julie Friesen, vice-chair of the energy committee. “If there continues to be evidence of problems we need to do our due diligence and re-examine this.”

Philadelphia suspended its $650-million smart meter installation program in August 2012. It ultimately replaced the Sensus meters with ones manufactured by a Swiss company, Landis & Gyr AG.

Portland experienced three smart meter fires and will refit 70,000 installed residential meters. It’s rollout of Sensus meters began in 2008.

 

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Itron To Supply To ATCO Gas

By Zacks Investment Research on April 14, 2011

Itron Inc. (ITRI: 54.30 -0.33 -0.60%) begins installing the first  of  1 million 100 G Datalogging gas ERT modules for Alberta based ATCO Gas. Over a period of four years Itron will take care of all the processes starting from project management to end point installation.

http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2011/04/14/itron-to-supply-to-atco-gas/

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http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_E/threadview?m=tm&bn=5996&tof=17&rt=2&frt=2&dir=b&ri=172223&n=43_v6HMGRX.EI3bVvy8LfA–

First it was PG&E now Alberta’s have smart meters in doubt

12-Jun-10

EDMONTON – Some players in Alberta’s electricity industry are warning the province that moving too quickly to implement smart-meter technology could be a dumb strategy.

Rural electrification associations and consumer groups say there must be more cost-benefit analysis undertaken before the province gives advanced metering the green light. They warn the costs to purchase, install and operate the hardware and software required for an automated two-way network that enables consumers to more efficiently manage their electricity use may outweigh the savings the system provides.

Some say Alberta doesn’t need such a system — at least, not now. The Alberta government directed the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) in March to review how smart grid technology can be used to modernize the system. Several utility companies, including Epcor, have already announced plans to install smart meters in Alberta homes to provide consumers with real-time electricity pricing. But the co-operatives that provide electricity to rural residents in southern and central Alberta advise caution, saying there are no documented advantages to implementing smart metering in this province and no documented costs for the system.

“This is a real good idea, but it has gone astray,” said Sheldon Fulton, a consultant who studied the issue for the central Alberta and South Alberta Rural Electrification Associations. “The concept is valid but the implementation is just bizarre. It’s not consistent with achieving the objective.”

Fulton said what other jurisdictions are doing won’t work in Alberta because of the electrical system and largely rural-based population.

Alberta doesn’t have the peak load problem other jurisdictions have because its large industrial users already have time-of-use metering that enables them to shift their load to off-peak hours when necessary, said Fulton, who is also executive director of the Industrial Power Consumers Association of Alberta.

CONSUMERS ON HOOK FOR $1B

He said the savings will likely only be a couple of bucks a month and the cost of implementing the system — which he estimated at $1 to $1.5 billion — will be borne entirely by consumers on their electricity bills.

“We’re talking $1 billion to $1.5 billion to implement, but that’s only spread out between commercial and residential consumers,” he said.

While the cost to install the meters is estimated to be about $800 per unit in urban centres, it could run as high as $10,000 in rural areas, he said.

Pat Bourne, general manager of the central Alberta Rural Electrification Association, said there would be no benefit to installing the system for the association’s 8,300 members.

“Basically, if the benefits exceeded the cost or even equalled the cost, it would be different, but they don’t,” she said. “There is nothing wrong with being on the leading edge, but the bleeding edge — Albertans don’t want to be there.”

In a paper the rural electrification associations submitted to the AUC, they say the infrastructure and time frames to implementation “pose a very real threat to the continued viability of rural electrification associations in Alberta.

“The requirement to provide real-time, two-way communications with rural meter sites, to capture hourly consumption and provide for automated interaction with these meter locations is unrealistic, expensive and devoid of benefits,” the paper war

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Benefit+smart+meters+doubt/3059707/story.html

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Alberta Gearing For Shift To Smart Electric Meters

May 18, 2009 1:32 p.m. EST

Alberta households will soon have smart meters for consumers who are subscribers of Enmax Corporation. The company’s chief executive Gary Holden disclosed to stockholders on Friday it has applied with the regulatory agency for permission to use the smart meters by 2010.

The smart meters, which are capable of measuring and charging electric power based on time of use will be installed in Calgary homes of its customers. Enmax will file with the Alberta Utilities Commission later this year the application to shift to smart meters.

Holden assured residents the new technology will not cause a spike in their current electric bill.

Prior to the stockholders meeting, Enmax on Wednesday released its first quarter earnings which reached $48 million. It is higher by $10 million compared to last year.

Holden, in a statement, said, “The acquisition of the Calgary Energy Center and Kettles Wind Farm completed last year contributed to our first quarter results as expected… Our first quarter results also demonstrate continued growth in our retail, wholesale and generation businesses.”

The Toronto Hydro Corporation is set to unveil its own smart meter this week, initially for 10,000 power users from Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York, but will eventually expand to all the remaining 611,000 households linked with the Ontario utility firm.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7015182500?Alberta%20Gearing%20For%20Shift%20To%20Smart%20Electric%20Meters#ixzz1ArtGSqWy

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PLC Meters installed in Alberta (2007)

FORTIS BC – AN APPLICATION FOR A CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Project

http://www.fortisbc.com/About/RegulatoryAffairs/ElecUtility/Documents/FortisBC%20AMI%20CPCN%20Application%20Dec%2019%2007.pdf

DECEMBER 19, 2007  – PAGE 27

Alberta: By mid-2007, FortisAlberta had successfully deployed approximately 26,000 automated meters

as part of a pilot program. FortisAlberta selected primarily a PLC

AMI technology for their service territory. Earlier this year, FortisAlberta negotiated a

settlement and is awaiting approval from the Alberta Energy Utilities Board for approval

to proceed with the installation of automated meters for the remaining customers.

FortisBC continues to work closely with FortisAlberta, monitoring their results and

exchanging AMI-related expertise and information.

Since 2007, approximately 508,000 PLC meters have been installed.

http://www.fortisalberta.com/residential/customerservice/meters/Pages/FortisAlberta-Meters.aspx

” PLC meters are wired to and send meter reads directly through the actual power lines, the same power lines that deliver electricity to your homes and do not use RF technology.  PLC technology operates in the Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) range of less than 0.003MHz. “

more about PLC

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Are EPCOR smart meters too smart? Edmonton customer raises privacy concerns

‘I don’t like the idea of Big Brother monitoring anything about me and electric usage is one of those things’

by Emily Fitzpatrick – CBC News Edmonton 

November 02, 2016

(When Tony Morneau got a knock on his door in September he was surprised to see a worker ready to install a smart meter.

EPCOR is replacing its 370,000 electricity meters throughout Edmonton….

Morneau opted out of the smart meter program, but doing so came at an extra cost.

He’ll be charged an extra $15.20 on his electric bill each month.

“Why does a company like EPCOR who makes millions and millions of dollars in profit, feel it necessary to charge people who opt out of their smart meter program $15.20 a month.

“It makes no sense when they have a website that allows customers to enter their own data.”…

Morneau says he’ll continue to opt out despite the cost, he’d rather keep his information private.)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/are-epcor-smart-meters-too-smart-edmonton-customer-raises-privacy-concerns-1.3832266

 

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winnipegPost

MANITOBA

www.hydro.mb.ca

Manitoba Hydro’s AMI Pilot Project

We ran an AMI pilot project from 2006 to 2009. Although the pilot is over, the smart meters remain in service to provide information for customer moves, inquiries, and other operational activities. We have about 4,500 radio frequency electric smart meters in Winnipeg and about 200 power line carrier electric meters near Landmark, MB. There are also about 950 natural gas smart meters in Winnipeg. The pilot helped us understand the issues with installing, operating, and maintaining an AMI system.

https://www.hydro.mb.ca/corporate/facilities/smart_meters.shtml

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Manitoba Hydro First to Deploy New Advanced Metering

and Communication Technology from Itron; OpenWay(TM)

by Itron Provides Utilities with Two-Way,

Open-Protocol Solution to Support Advanced Metering, Demand Response and ”Smart Grid” Applications.

June 29 2006

SPOKANE, Wash.Usa — Itron (NASDAQ:ITRI) announced today that Manitoba Hydro, energy provider to more than 500,000 electric and 250,000 gas customers in the province, will be the first utility in North America to deploy OpenWay(TM), an advanced metering and communication technology being developed by Itron.

 

Manitoba Hydro’s project utilizing OpenWay technology will begin in September and includes 5,000 new OpenWay CENTRON(R) electricity meters that will be installed in selected areas of the Winnipeg metropolitan area and will expand to include 1,000 natural gas meters in early 2007. The project also includes Itron Enterprise Edition meter data management software and related applications. Manitoba Hydro will assess the performance of the OpenWay network architecture as well as validate the business case for advanced metering and a possible deployment of the technology on a broader scale in the future.

“It has become clear to us that advanced metering technology and related software will be an important asset in enabling Manitoba Hydro to achieve key objectives set forth in our corporate strategic plan, particularly in the areas of conservation and stewardship, delivering customer value, financial performance and employee safety,” said Bob Brennan, Manitoba Hydro’s president and CEO. “We believe that Itron’s vision for advanced metering is well aligned with our own and we’re very pleased to partner with Itron on this groundbreaking project.”

OpenWay, together with Itron software, will enable Manitoba Hydro to deliver greater customer value through improved system reliability, enhanced energy conservation and the ability to offer a broad range of new services. Services include flexible rate plans, time of use rates, customer “in-home” energy use display, load control and management services, remote electrical service disconnects and reconnects and faster response times for power outages and restorations.

“While today’s network AMR solutions provide utilities with numerous advanced metering applications and benefits, some of our utility customers have told us that their advanced metering requirements cannot be met effectively by current offerings in the marketplace,” said Malcolm Unsworth, senior vice president of Itron’s Hardware Solutions group. “OpenWay is being designed and developed to address a broader spectrum of technology requirements and business objectives for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and demand response outlined in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Ontario Energy Conservation Leadership Act of 2005, and initiatives in California, Texas and several other states.”

OpenWay by Itron combines two-way communications to each meter with an open-protocol, standards-based architecture, enabling utilities to select communications technologies best suited to their needs based on cost, availability, and other considerations. Manitoba Hydro has chosen to utilize Itron’s OpenWay radio frequency (RF) local area network architecture to communicate with its meters. In addition to RF, options include power line carrier (PLC), broadband over powerline (BPL), as well as many other public, private, wired and wireless IP-based communication networks operating as standalone or in combination.

OpenWay by Itron will provide a number of capabilities designed to meet the most rigorous of AMI business cases including: two-way communications to each meter; scalability to greater than 10 million meters; multiple-channel interval data collection; on-demand reads; demand reset; a remote load-limiting disconnect/reconnect switch; critical peak pricing and time-of-use rate updates (available on the display); mass market demand response capability; net metering for dynamic pricing environments; advanced outage detection and restoration notification; tamper and theft detection; remote device configuration and firmware updates; and local connectivity to gas and water meters, as well as in-home devices via a Zigbee(TM) radio chip that comes standard in all OpenWay CENTRON electricity meters.

About Itron

Itron is a leading technology provider and critical source of knowledge to the global energy and water industries. Nearly 3,000 utilities worldwide rely on Itron’s technology to provide the knowledge they require to optimize the delivery and use of energy and water. Itron creates value for its clients by providing industry-leading solutions for electricity metering; meter data collection; energy information management; demand response; load forecasting, analysis and consulting services; distribution system design and optimization; web-based workforce automation; and enterprise and residential energy management. To know more, start here: www.itron.com.

About Manitoba Hydro

Manitoba Hydro is the province’s major energy utility, headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The utility serves more than 500, 000 electric customers throughout Manitoba and more than 250,000 gas customers in various communities throughout southern Manitoba. Virtually all electricity generated by the provincial Crown Corporation is from self-renewing water power. Manitoba Hydro is the major distributor of natural gas in the province. The Corporation’s capital assets-in-service at original cost exceed $10 billion, making the utility one of the largest energy and natural gas utilities in Canada. To know more: www.hydro.mb.ca.

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http://tdworld.com/info_systems/highlights/Manitoba-Hydro-Itron/

Manitoba Hydro to Deploy Advanced Metering Technology

Jul 12, 2006 9:50 PM

Manitoba Hydro, energy provider to more than 500,000 electric and 250,000 gas customers in the province, will be the first utility in North America to deploy OpenWay, an advanced metering and communication technology being developed by Itron.

Manitoba Hydro’s project usng OpenWay technology will begin in September and includes 5000 new OpenWay Centron electricity meters that will be installed in selected areas of the Winnipeg metropolitan area and will expand to include 1000 natural gas meters in early 2007. The project also includes Itron Enterprise Edition meter data management software and related applications. Manitoba Hydro will assess the performance of the OpenWay network architecture as well as validate the business case for advanced metering and a possible deployment of the technology on a broader scale in the future.

“It has become clear to us that advanced metering technology and related software will be an important asset in enabling Manitoba Hydro to achieve key objectives set forth in our corporate strategic plan, particularly in the areas of conservation and stewardship, delivering customer value, financial performance and employee safety,” said Bob Brennan, Manitoba Hydro’s president and CEO. “We believe that Itron’s vision for advanced metering is well aligned with our own and we’re very pleased to partner with Itron on this groundbreaking project.”

OpenWay, together with Itron software, will enable Manitoba Hydro to deliver greater customer value through improved system reliability, enhanced energy conservation and the ability to offer a broad range of new services. Services include flexible rate plans, time of use rates, customer “in-home” energy use display, load control and management services, remote electrical service disconnects and reconnects and faster response times for power outages and restorations.

“While today’s network AMR solutions provide utilities with numerous advanced metering applications and benefits, some of our utility customers have told us that their advanced metering requirements cannot be met effectively by current offerings in the marketplace,” said Malcolm Unsworth, senior vice president of Itron’s Hardware Solutions group. “OpenWay is being designed and developed to address a broader spectrum of technology requirements and business objectives for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and demand response outlined in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Ontario Energy Conservation Leadership Act of 2005, and initiatives in California, Texas and several other states.”

OpenWay by Itron combines two-way communications to each meter with an open-protocol, standards-based architecture, enabling utilities to select communications technologies best suited to their needs based on cost, availability, and other considerations. Manitoba Hydro has chosen to use Itron’s OpenWay radio frequency (RF) local area network architecture to communicate with its meters. In addition to RF, options include power line carrier (PLC), broadband over powerline (BPL), as well as many other public, private, wired and wireless IP-based communication networks operating as standalone or in combination.

OpenWay by Itron will provide a number of capabilities designed to meet the most rigorous of AMI business cases including: two-way communications to each meter; scalability to greater than 10 million meters; multiple-channel interval data collection; on-demand reads; demand reset; a remote load-limiting disconnect/reconnect switch; critical peak pricing and time-of-use rate updates (available on the display); mass market demand response capability; net metering for dynamic pricing environments; advanced outage detection and restoration notification; tamper and theft detection; remote device configuration and firmware updates; and local connectivity to gas and water meters, as well as in-home devices via a Zigbee radio chip that comes standard in all OpenWay Centron electricity meters.

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Manitoba AMI Pilot Project Announced – April 2008

http://www.cga.ca/events/documents/ManitobaHydroAMIPilot-TedCotton.pdf

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Manitoba AMI Plan – November 2006

http://www.hydro.mb.ca/regulatory_affairs/electric/gra_08_09/Appendix%209.1-2006%20Power%20Smart%20Plan.pdf

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Centra Gas Manitoba – AMI – February 2010

http://www.hydro.mb.ca/regulatory_affairs/electric/gra_2010_2012/Appendix_24.pdf

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saskdatacollection

Saskatchewan

Crown utilities moving into ‘smart meters’

by Will Chabun – Leader-Post – June 06, 2012:

www.leaderpost.com/technology/Crown+utilities+moving+into+smart+meters/6736137/story.htm

A joint project by two Crown corporations to use “smart meters” to measure the electicity and natural gas flowing into customers’ buildings is moving to a new stage.

SaskEnergy and SaskPower announced Tuesday that their “advanced metering infrastructure” (AMI) project for electrical and gas meters will be tested in the town of Hanley, between Regina and Saskatoon.

Once the Hanley project is completed and assessed, the two Crown corporations will move on to a larger-scale test project in another, bigger community yet to be picked, SaskEnergy spokeswoman Vanessa Beaupré said.

Next they’ll be attaching smart meters and gas modules to all customers’ buildings by some point in 2013 – 500,000 in the case of SaskPower and another 350,000 for SaskEnergy .

“It’s going to be an awful lot of work, but worth it,” said Beaupré, who said installation of the modules for SaskEnergy will cost about $35 million up front, but is expected to pay for itself over 10 years in savings. SaskPower figures its cost will be around $190 million with a slightly longer payback period.

Looking across Canada, Lloyd Crookshanks, manager of advanced metering infrastructure, said Saskatchewan is in the middle of the pack in converting to the new system, which will be sufficiently large that the utilities will have to hire a contractor to do the work for them.

Both utilities currently bill customers by estimating their energy use and doing periodic checks to reconcile estimates with actual use.

With the new meters, data will be streamed directly by wireless technology to collectors on a cellphone tower. “From there, we’ll back-haul it to our own information system,” said Crookshanks.

Hanley was chosen because it has different types of energy customers, good wireless communications and nearby SaskPower and SaskEnergy offices.

SaskPower will install 400 units and SaskEnergy another 50 this summer.

SaskEnergy figures the changes will take only about 10 minutes and will involve no interruption in service. “There is nothing that people need to do to prepare for it,” Beaupré said.

SaskPower says installing its new electrical meters should mean “a power disruption of no more than five minutes”.

“That’s why this AMI project is so important – because we’ll no longer need to use estimates or get meter readings,” she said. “Now, we’ll be able to get it without a technician going to visit it. That’s the difference: It’s an automated system.”

More information is at www.saskpower.com/smartmeters and www.saskenergy. com/residential/AMI.asp

wchabun @leaderpost.com

© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post

Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/technology/Crown+utilities+moving+into+smart+meters/6736137/story.html#ixzz1x7iTFsvu

To contact the Author :  [email protected]

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SaskPower Removing Smart Meters

http://globalnews.ca/video/1483691/saskpower-removing-smart-meters

http://globalnews.ca/news/1483134/saskpower-ordered-to-remove-all-smart-meters-in-the-province/

Wed, Jul 30 2014 – A major development for the troublesome SaskPower smart meters. The government is ordering the crown utility to remove each of the 105 thousand units already installed in the province. It comes after eight reported fires linked to smart meters. Mike McKinnon explains how much this is going to cost.

Related Stories :

December 19, 2014 – SaskPower and Sensus hit again as 10th unit overheats

December 18, 2014 – Another smart meter fails by Clare Clancy

December 18, 2014 – Smart meter overheats and melts

October 28,2014 – Saskatchewan NDP criticizes government’s smart-meter deal to recoup costs

August 16, 2014 – Sask. revoked exemption for smart meter contractor over supervison

August 11, 2014 – 10th Smart Meter Fire hits Saskatchewan

August 8, 2014 – Ontario towns using Sensus Meters are concerned after Sask Fires

July 30, 2014 – “Grid One Solutions” installed SaskPower Smart Meters

July 26, 2014 – SaskPower Meter Explodes

July  26, 2014 – SaskPower Identifies 2 more smart meter fires (CBC)

July 15, 2014 – SaskPower halting smart meter installations after several fires (GlobalNews)

 

Saskatchewan Smart Meter Fire Review – Official Report (PDF)

 

Smart meter saga: a comprehensive timeline

http://globalnews.ca/news/1665822/smart-meter-saga-a-comprehensive-timeline/

 

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regina

Another smart meter fire in Regina

BY MARK MELNYCHUK, THE LEADER-POST NOVEMBER 7, 2014

http://www.leaderpost.com/Another+smart+meter+fire+Regina+Video/10362704/story.html#Comments

Joan Riemer was awoken by a series of loud bangs at 1:30 a.m. on Friday. She looked out her bedroom window, and saw flames in her back yard.

Riemer, who lives on Swayze Crescent in east Regina, saw that the power — a Sensus smart meter — on the back side of the house was “dripping”, setting her barbecue cover on fire. Knowing there were two propane tanks underneath, she hurried outside to move it.

“It was a good thing I was home,” she said.

“If the cover would have burned all the way down I’m not sure what would have happened.”

Riemer called 9-1-1, and soon the fire department was on scene, followed by SaskPower workers who replaced her smart meter and restore power to her home.

“Supposedly this is not a smart meter because I don’t want another one because it is very scary,” said Riemer while standing next to her new meter outside her home on Friday afternoon.

Riemer contacted SaskPower to ask if they could help with the damage the meter caused, but had not heard back yet.

The fire destroyed the meter and box and left some damage to the outside of the home. SaskPower workers had the box and meter switched out within an hour.

This is the 9th such fire in the province since the meters started to be installed.

SaskPower spokesman Tyler Hopson said investigators are still gathering information, but it seems the fire was similar to the other failures in the province so far this year.

On July 30, after eight fires, the provincial government ordered 107,000 previously installed Sensus meters be removed and replaced with older digital models.

The problems led to an investigation by Crown Investments Corporation which was critical of SaskPower’s handling of the deal with Sensus and its reaction to problems with the meters in other centres. SaskPower CEO Robert Watson resigned after the report’s release.

The report found that the Sensus meters are not sealed properly and allow moisture and other contaminants to get inside, causing the fires.

Regina had some light rain overnight.

Asked if this latest incident will prompt SaskPower to put more workers on the meter switches, Hopson said it was too early to say but resources are always looked at to determine how many people can be working on the project.

The changeover process is expected to take until March 15, but SaskPower is apparently working ahead of schedule. From Oct. 27-Nov. 2, the Crown corporation had a goal of replacing 4,884 meters but ended up doing around 5,900. So far, 40,000 meters have been switched.

Customers who wish to receive a priority meter switch can call SaskPower at 1-855-877-0975 to make the request.

Twitter.com/Melnychuk86

[email protected]

© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post