As SaskPower rolls out more smart meters across the province, there has been 246 of these installed in Lloydminster among both commercial and industrial customers. The crown company adds that 46 residential customers in the Border City are signed up for the program in January.
SaskPower also noted that 17,000 volunteers were involved in the pilot project and the new meters will allow them to detect when an outage occurs. Currently, SaskPower relies on customers to report outages.
Minister Responsible for SaskPower Don Morgan sees the smart meters as an important part of their efforts to build a modern power grid.
“These meters will allow SaskPower to respond to outages faster, ensure accurate billing, and provide customers with detailed information about power use to help them save on their bills.”
SaskPower President and CEO Mike Marsh said they were pleased with the results of the pilot and are looking forward to making the benefits of smart meters available to everyone.
“We are beginning the program with a number of farm and rural customers because they typically receive a meter reading once a year, unlike SaskPower’s urban customers, whose meters are typically read every three months.”
Customers across the province will receive their smart meters during the next few years as supply allows.
More information can be found on the SaskPower website.
