Smart meters help small business save on electricity output: North Bay Hydro installs first smart meters in the North.

• Author: Ulrichsen, Heidi
• Position: SPECIAL REPORT: ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Once smart meters are installed throughout Ontario, they can be used by small businesses as tools to manage electricity consumption, according to North Bay Hydro's chief operating officer.

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Smart meters, also known as interval meters, give customers a comprehensive report on their electricity consumption throughout the day, said Todd Wilcox. Conventional meters simply keep a record of how much electricity is used in a month.

Because those using smart meters are charged more for consuming electricity at peak times, and less for non-peak times, businesses are forced to be more vigilant about how electricity is used, he said.

"Technology is a way for us to control costs. For example, programmable thermostats are excellent. When you leave at 5:30 pm, your ventilation and air conditioning system cycles down automatically," Wilcox said.

"In the summer, when it's really warm outside, you can choose to set the temperature inside a little warmer and reduce your electricity consumption."

North Bay Hydro is set to install the first smart meters in Northern Ontario starting in May as part of a pilot project.

The utility is looking for 10 small business and 20 residential customers to test out the technology for a year. Participants will not notice a change in their bills for now, said Wilcox.

North Bay Hydro just wants to study how customers respond to receiving more information about their electricity consumption, he said.

"What we're trying to do is install the meters and record consumption, and analyze different pricing options that are available. We want to use it as an education process to make people familiar with what their profile looks like throughout the day."

Smart meters are read by the utility either through a wireless receiver attached to towers or a technology which passes the information through a daisy chain of contact from meter to meter, he said.

As of the end of February 2008, 1.1 million smart meters had been installed in the province. The provincial government wants all electrical customers to have a smart meter by the end of 2010.

Customers at 13 utilities in southern Ontario, including Hydro Ottawa and Milton Hydro, have already received smart meters over the past two years, but this is the first time they have been tested in the north.

At one southern utility, the use of smart meters had an effect opposite to what was expected. Electricity consumption actually went up six per cent while customers' bills...