B.C. Hydro says it will seek interim approval from the province’s independent power regulator to start charging monthly fees for people who refuse new smart meters.
Hydro said it expects to get the temporary OK from the B.C. Utilities Commission in time to start charging customers as much as $35 a month to opt out of the smart-meter program by the end of the year.
“We expect an interim rate for the fees to be in place by Dec. 2,” said Hydro spokesman Greg Alexis in a statement.
“It’s similar to how we do general rate increases. We charge an interim rate and if the [commission] makes changes, we would adjust accordingly on a customer’s future bill.”
The utilities commission gets the final say on whether the Hydro smart- meter fees are reasonable, and if they should be allowed.
“There is no smart meter process in place, and there has been no application,” commission spokeswoman Christine Bienert said in an interview.
Hydro said it intends to submit its application “in the coming weeks.”
“The application would also include a detailed breakdown of our proposed fees,” Alexis said.
A panel of commissioners will then review the application and allow for either written or oral public feedback, Bienert said.
The applications process can take anywhere from a month to more than a year, she said.
Hydro announced the smart meter opt-out program in July, after fierce opposition by some residents left the $1-billion provincewide program with more than 60,000 holdouts.
Critics said they were worried about the smart meter’s wireless radio transmissions negatively affecting their health, while others complained about being bullied into accepting the meters by installers.
The Crown power corporation sent letters to customers this month outlining the fees, which it said are necessary to offset the expense of manually reading meters for customers. The new smart meters wirelessly transmit power data directly to B.C. Hydro.
Customers can keep their old analog meters for a $35 monthly surcharge. Or they can choose to accept a new smart meter, pay $100 to disable its radio transmitter, and then an additional $20 a month for manual readings.
Hydro has said the fees will only cover costs, and aren’t intended to generate a profit for the corporation.
Other critics have pointed out that some remote Hydro customers already read their own meters on Hydro’s behalf, and will be charged an extra meter-reading fee without any benefit.
That only happens in “exceptional circumstances” in remote areas where access to the meter is obstructed, especially during the winter, Alexis said.
“Even in these exceptional circumstances, the information customers provided still had to be verified in the field at a later date by an employee, so there is still a cost,” he said.
“The fees include more than reading the meter.”
Hydro said it will have to install additional telecommunications equipment to work around customers who choose to keep an old meter, as well as retain old staff and equipment.
Hydro pointed out that the utilities commission recently approved an application from Fortis B.C. to use smart meters in parts of the province, including an opt-out program in which customers pay associated costs.
