Options offered if you don’t want a smart meter
Posted July 18, 2013 4:12 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – The BC government confirms smart meter holdouts will be able to opt-out, but it will cost them. How much exactly is unclear since the province and BC Hydro won’t say.
However, there’s a possible hint in an application to the BC Utilities Commission from Fortis, which is asking for the right to charge a one-time $110 fee, along with a $22 bi-monthly charge.
Sharon Noble of the Coalition to Stop Smart Meters doesn’t like the message it sends.
“If you’re telling someone they have to pay so they are not going to have something on their house that they feel is dangerous [then] that’s extortion.”
The province says those who still don’t have a smart meter will have three options:
– Choose the standard smart meter at no cost
– Accept a digital meter with the radio off. This option will be subject to a one-time cost to modify the meter plus a monthly fee to read the meter
– Keep the old analog meter, which will be subject to a monthly fee that will include both the extra cost of reading the meter and the cost of instituting duplicate systems
There may be as many as 60,000 homes without smart meters, but those who already have one installed can’t have it removed.
Noble says young families and seniors may not be able to afford the extra cost. “That is a bullying tactic, to force people to take these things because they cannot afford not to take them. They can’t afford to pay the fees.”
The province says any fee would be reviewed by the commission.
