TORONTO—Numerous media reports over the past week have revealed that Hydro One, the Crown agency responsible for delivering electricity to Ontario homes and businesses, is throwing in the towel on 36,000 of its smart meters in rural areas across the province and will be sending in personnel to manually read those meters, just like in the “old days.”
An interesting question that immediately came to mind in The Expositor office was: are any of those meters on Manitoulin? The answer from Hydro One is: “we don’t know.”
“Smart meters measure when and how much electricity customers use, and transmit this information through a secure network to the Independent Electricity System Operator who then transfers the data to utilities for billing,” explained Tiziana Baccega Rosa, senior media relations advisor with Hydro One. “In some parts of Hydro One’s service territory and for some customers, the communications network is not strong enough to consistently transmit the information.”
Ms. Baccega Rosa went on to note that, “Hydro One has reviewed individual meter reading and communication reliability and has requested to move certain customers to manual meter reads where necessary. Hydro One received approval from the Ontario Energy Board for this request in March 2015.”
The utility began notifying customers who will now have their meters read manually in December 2015, she went on to explain, confirming that “approximately 36,000 customers will now have their meters read manually.”
But due to the fact that the 36,000 customers who will have their meters manually read are spread across the province, where the utility has approximately 1.2 million subscribers, breaking down where each of those customers are regionally has not been done. “They are really very dispersed,” said Ms. Baccega Rosa. She went on to confirm that the manual reading was to commence “immediately.” Customers whose meters are being read manually were informed that this would be happening back in December.
[socialpoll id=”2325369″]
The cost for smart meter installation and use is $.79 per month and applies to all Hydro One customers, supplied Ms. Baccega Rosa. “The charge was approved by the Ontario Energy Board through to October 2018 as part of Hydro One’s distribution rate filing. There will be no change in fees for these customers as they will now need to have their meters manually read.” So there will be a very small savings for those customers.
Stéfanie Power, media relations officer with Measurement Canada, explained that the electricity meters used by Hydro One must “be approved for use in Canada by Measurement Canada as meeting the requirements of the Electricity and Gas Inspection Act; have their accuracy verified as being in compliance with the requirements of the Electricity and Gas Inspection Act before being placed into service; and have their accuracy verified based on a mandatory inspection frequency.
But she went on to add that, “only the measurement aspects of smart meters are approved and verified by Measurement Canada, but Measurement Canada investigates complaints of suspected inaccurate measurement involving financial transactions based on measurement, including those related to residential electricity meters.”
“If a homeowner suspects their electricity meter may not be measuring accurately,” writes Ms. Power, “they should first contact their utility’s customer service department and ask them to investigate. If they are not satisfied with the actions taken by their utility, homeowners may contact their nearest Measurement Canada office and ask to have their meter tested. While Measurement Canada does not charge for this service, the utility may charge for the removal from service of meters for testing.”
Whatever the findings of Measurement Canada, the agency “only reports on the findings of its investigation,” noted Ms. Power. “It is up to the parties of the transaction to determine what subsequent actions are to be taken.”
Information on how to file a complaint is available a www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/mcmc.nsf/eng/h_lm00007.html.
Tom Imrie of Kagawong, who has been a vocal critic of Hydro One, had a very negative experience in dealing with Hydro One when a smart meter was installed at his cottage, replacing the older meter that had served him for years. Mr. Imrie said that he wound up being hit with a massive energy bill when the utility claimed that his old meter had inaccurately read his energy usage, according to the information being sent by the new smart meter.
“I didn’t notice anyone reading the meter when they removed the old one with what looked like a giant set of tongs,” he said, having observed the entire process of the replacement of his old meter with the new smart meter. But later, that old meter was to cause him significant grief.
“They hit me with a bill for $600,” he recalled. That charge was based on a reading from the old meter that had been removed from his cottage, but when he complained and was sent an image of the old meter, something didn’t look right. “I had stained my cottage brown with a spray gun and there was overspray on the meter,” he said. The meter in the photograph he was sent did not have any such brown overspray on it, he told The Expositor.
Mr. Imrie wound up paying the bill, and continues to have issues with Hydro One’s billing even up to the current day. He recalled the chair of Hydro One taking part in a teleconference two years ago where the issue with smart meters came up.
Mr. Imrie is not among those customers who were informed that their meters would now be manually read.
