SaskPower to begin piloting commercial smart meters

Smart meters will start makingan official comeback in Saskatchewan soon.

On Thursday, SaskPower president and CEO Mike Marsh announced a plan to install around 500 commercial and industrialsmart meters in a pilot programto monitor the technology and its software over the next year.

Smart meters can transmit data without the need for a meter reader on the site.Marsh said SaskPower has spent the past three years testing the new meters.

• Smart meters making a comeback in Saskatchewan after massive recall
• SaskPowersays smart meter company will pay back $24M in cash

"We worked hard with the meter industry," he said.

"We are very, very confident that we have a very, very, goodmeterspecification and one that has the highest standard in the industry today."

Safety testing completed, utility says

The utility's highlighting of safety comes after the provincialgovernment ordered 105,000 metersberemovedfrom homes and businesses in 2014 after more than half a dozen electrical firessparkedwidespread concerns.

Marsh said the new meters have been developed and tested according to standards set by the manufacturer, Sensus Corporation the same supplier as the previous batch of meters andthe utility itself.

The utility says the testmeters will be installed at sites belonging to two industrial customers and SaskPower and SaskEnergy sites.

Residential smart meters still on horizon

Marsh said Thursday it will likely take another year to a year and a half for residential smart meters to be deployed again.

The utility is currently developing a residential smart meter with SensusCorporation, he said.

"In the beginning when we negotiated the settlement with them, they agreed to continue to work with us to provide a meter that met our specification and they continue to work with our team today," said Marsh.