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Letters - Hydro answers, and readers take on Smart Meters

New meters have benefits says BC Hydro rep, while others only see only the downfalls
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New meters have benefitsRe: Readers angry at meters, Amy 3-9:

I want to thank our BC Hydro customers for their patience as we move to modernize our electrical system so we can better meet the growing demand for safe, reliable power. Over one million Smart Meters have been installed. With a project of this size, it’s not going to be perfect; we acknowledge that and appreciate your patience.

The new meters provide a lot of benefits: faster power restoration when there’s an outage, new tools to help save energy and money, and reduced costs with savings passed to our customers.

Customer feedback is very important to us, including the tough questions. A colder winter coupled with a rate increase at the time new meters were installed caused some to ask if the higher bill is a result of the new meter. All concerns brought to our attention are investigated. What we are finding is that bills are often consistent with past use; or there has been a manual misread of the meter. If neither of those are the cause, we look at every other possible source, including the meter. Over half of the inquiries regarding high bills this year have come from customers with the old meters, not new Smart Meters.

Out of over a million new meters installed to date, a very small number experienced any problems. The beauty of the new meters is that the vast majority of these problems are being caught by system checks and do not affect customer bills. When our Smart Grid is operational, it will be easier to detect problems and fix them much faster.

Ted Olynyk, Mgr.Community RelationsBC HYDRO

 

Bills double

A friend and I were discussing this matter before I saw your article. Both our hydro bills have doubled, with no increase of energy usage. One of my Facebook friends is in danger of becoming homeless because of it. He says that if they become homeless, they'll be moving into Christy Clark's office. I think we all deserve an apology and a rebate.

Geneva HagenVictoria

 

Arrogance

I have given up telephoning large corporations because of my aversion to speak and listen to robots. So I wrote to BC Hydro and also withheld a portion of my bill because a 500 per cent increase was just too much. The answer to my letter came yesterday: a reminder to pay the amount withheld! Not one word acknowledging my inquiry. Arrogance Par Excellence!

Richard Reiter,Victoria

 

We need to be heard

Thank you for getting some momentum going in respect to these ridiculous “Smart” Meters. Hydro bills have gotten out of control even before these stupid meters. These ministers, executives, etc., in power are getting out of touch. People have to get a lot louder and angrier. Keep up the good work, we need a voice to be heard.

Dave Dickie,Victoria

 

Rate hike plus

I wonder if enough people just paid the sum of last year’s bill, plus the 8.5 per cent rate hike, plus 5 per cent to allow for errors, would Hydro make an effort to address our concerns?

Geoff Barnard,Victoria