(Submitted/SaskPower)

By Cam Lee

Smart meters coming to Nipawin

Nipawin to receive SaskPower smart meters in June

May 9, 2024 | 3:38 PM

SaskPower smart meters will soon be coming to Nipawin.

Residential smart meters are currently being installed in communities like Cumberland House, Creighton, and Red Earth Cree Nation, according to SaskPower media relations spokesperson Joel Cherry.

“In early June we are going to start working in Nipawin, as early as the first week of June we could be present there,” Cherry told northeastNOW.

About 6900 meters will be installed in Nipawin starting next month, and Cherry said Hudson Bay will have meters installed in August, while Melfort’s meters are due to be installed in October.

Cherry said smart meters are the building block of a modern power grid, as SaskPower can pinpoint outages more quickly, rather than relying on customers having to call in outages. He added customers will see many benefits from smart meters.

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“It gives you insight into your own power usage, it provides detailed information about your power usage on a daily basis, you could use that to help conserve power at home and lower your bills.”

Smart meters also remove the need for estimated bills, said Cherry, allowing SaskPower to charge the customer for the exact amount of power they use.

SaskPower will drop off cards to homeowners in mailboxes to let them know they will be coming to install the meters. Most installations will take place during business hours, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Crews will knock on the door to see if anyone is home, and the entire installation only takes about 15 to 20 minutes, according to Cherry. The power to the home will have to be turned off for that time.

SaskPower has a section on their website to answer questions about the smart meter installations. A decade ago, the company removed 105,000 smart meters after fires were reported in several units. SaskPower’s website has a FAQ section entitled ‘Do smart meters start fires?’ Their response:

‘No. In 2014, we experienced problems with smart meters of a completely different type. Dust and moisture were getting inside the meter seal, causing them to fail. We now test for exactly this issue in any type of meter we install.

One house fire occurred during our meter installations in 2014. This was the result of an electrical fault, but no smart meter was ever installed at this home.

Since 2021, we’ve successfully installed more than 83,000* smart meters across the province without any issues. These new meters are safe and have been rigorously tested. They meet new specifications that have been developed for our province and go above and beyond industry standards.’

*as of Dec. 31, 2023

–

Cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @northeastNOW_SK