Did gov’t know smart meters dangers during pilot project?

The opposition NDP is trying to pinpoint how much the government knew about the safety issues associated with Sensus smart meters when it conducted a test-run in Hanley two years ago.

According to a timeline published in the Crown Investments Corporation (CIC) review, the field test in Hanley with 3.2 version Sensus smart meters began on June 1, 2012.  By Aug. 16, 2012 the Philadelphia Electric Company announced it was postponing its program because of overheating meters. 

The next month, on Sept. 18, 2012, SaskPower executives decided to remove the 3.2 meters in Hanley. But the actual removal didn’t take place until a month later on Oct. 16 and 17.

People in Hanley still had Sensus smart meters on their homes for one month after SaskPower executives made the decision to remove them.

“Of course there’s no other way to test them, than to put them on a house,” said minister responsible for SaskPower Bill Boyd, defending the pilot project.

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He later said, “Any time that somebody is put at risk in terms of safety that is not something the government of Saskatchewan would want to see happen. If that happened, that is wrong.” 

When asked about the delay in the removal, Boyd said he’d have to look into the timeline in greater detail. He couldn’t answer whether SaskPower executives or the government had installed the meters knowing of the fire issues in Philadelphia.

“I’m not sure whether that was the case at that point in time. We’ll have to review the timelines around that,” said Boyd to reporters Thursday.

The NDP opposition brought up the issue of meters on Hanley homes during Question Period. 

“It’s an outrage to learn that the minister knew that the test-run in Hanley was putting those people at risk,” said NDP MLA Trent Wotherspoon.

The minister could not say how long officials in the province knew of the safety concerns of the 3.2 Sensus smart meters while the Hanley test-run was being conducted.

“The SaskPower officials were saying to us any problems that were related to the meters they believed would be taken care of, in addition to that through the testing phase they (SaskPower officials) learned that there was no problems with any fires. There had not been any fires in the testing phase at Hanley,” said Boyd.

The meters that were installed throughout the province were an upgraded 3.3 Sensus smart meter.

The CIC review determined the eight fires in Saskatchewan were caused by rainwater and other contaminants leaking inside the smart meters.

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