Five locations in Creighton will be fitted with new smart meters as part of a SaskPower pilot project.
Creighton town council approved a request from the provincial energy corporation to install the meters at five properties within the community.
Three of the meters will be at facilities owned and operated by the Town of Creighton. The Creighton Recreation, Culture and Tourism Office, water treatment plant and town garage will all be fitted with the new meters.
Two meters will be also be installed at properties on Creighton Avenue and Broderick Avenue.
Creighton mayor Bruce Fidler said SaskPower made the site selections.
“They approached us with those sites,” he said.
In July, Creighton town council received a letter from Cheryl Robertson, SaskPower director of advanced metering infrastructure, stating that the Crown corporation was interested in having smart meters placed in Creighton.
Smart meters are designed to keep track of time-of-use electricity, while being more accurate and energy-efficient than traditional meters.
The first phase of smart meter installations were done in 2014 at hundreds of homes and businesses in southern Saskatchewan. Over the next year, a small number of the meters began catching fire. More than 100,000 of the meters were removed, costing SaskPower and the provincial government around $50 million. Overheating and issues with moisture or contamination were later found to be the cause of the fires.
The next phase of the project is already underway, with redesigned meters. About 7,500 smart meters will be placed around Saskatchewan as part of the pilot project.
