Saskatoon Light & Power sticking with smart meters

The City of Saskatoon's electrical utility says it has had no problem with smart meters, and plans to continue a massive replacement program.

SaskPower has suspended installing the new meters in its houses after a number of fires.The crown-owned utility has seen eight meters catch on fire since May. The utility has been investigating what's going on.

However, Saskatoon Light & Powersaidit's been switching out its meters since 2008, and hasn't run into any problems so far.

"We've already replaced half of our meters," metering and sustainable electricity manager Kevin Hudson said. "Some of our customers have had their meters already for six yearsand we've had no incidents."

SaskPower said it isn't clear what is causing the fires. While there has been some controversy on the credentials of the workers installing the SaskPower metres, Saskatoon Light & Power says that's not an issue here.

"We do ensure that all of our installers are trained and work procedures," Hudson said. "We've been using our own staff for doing the meter replacements, so there's no cause for concern."

Saskatoon Light & Power plans to switch over all of the city's meters by 2015. Smart meters wirelesslysend meter readings to a central location, making them more accurate.

Saskatoon is split between SaskPower and Saskatoon Light & Power.

What do you think? Should SaskPower replace your new smart meter with an old one? If you have a SaskPower smart meter, do you fear it will burst out in flames? Join the Saskatoon Morning live chat right now.

• On mobile? View the live chat here