FortisBC has begun community engagement to upgrade its gas meters, exploring potential ways they can add new customer benefits and improve reliability of service.
Representatives from FortisBC will be in Cranbrook on Monday, October 28, 2019, from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm at the Prestige Rocky Mountain Resort to engage with the public about the initiative.
“This project would help us build a stronger, more reliable system to deliver natural gas to homes and businesses across British Columbia,” said Douglas Stout, Vice-President of Market Development and External Relations with FortisBC. “Upgrading to advanced meters would modernize our gas infrastructure. The new meters would allow us to better monitor and manage our system – for example FortisBC could remotely detect and respond to gas leaks.”
The Advanced Gas Meters project would upgrade more than one million meters for natural gas customers between 2022 and 2026 as FortisBC is looking at a number of projects to improve the resiliency of the natural gas system in B.C. homes and businesses.
According to FortisBC, the gas meter technology in B.C. has not fundamentally changed in over 100 years, noting that the new meters have no moving parts, are smaller, and will have a longer lifespan. FortisBC said the advanced meters use sound waves to measure gas usage and send that information wirelessly to their headquarters.
“The new meters would offer benefits for customers such as access to daily updates on gas use and the convenience of not having their gas service shut off during future meter exchanges,” added FortisBC.
The natural gas provider is hosting community engagement sessions across B.C. in October and November with the only East Kootenay session slated for Monday, October 28, 2019, in Cranbrook.
An application will be filed to the British Columbia Utilities Commission for approval in 2020 to greenlight the project, and if improved, the installation of the new meters could begin as early as 2022.
More: Advanced Gas Meters Project (FortisBC)