The CEO of BC Hydro ordered crews to stop installing smart meters if account holders who said they opposed the devices were not home.
A January 21 email from Charles Reid to Deputy Premier and Energy Minister Rich Coleman, obtained via Freedom of Information, said BC Hydro sent a letter to those who objected to having a smart meter.
"If they responded with still saying no, we respected that, but of course are still trying to convince otherwise," Reid wrote.
"For those that did not respond, we went to their home and if we made contact and they still said no, we respected that and did not install.
"For those that weren't home and there was no clear account holder signage on their meter to indicate objection, we installed a new meter (assumption being, they were ok since they had not responded to our letter)."
On December 27, 2012, BC Hydro announced that it would delay completion of the controversial $1 billion program by a year.
As of January 17, BC Hydro contractors had installed 1,741,633 of the devices and 86,169 work orders were on hold – an increase of almost 8,000 since a November 8, 2012, presentation to the board of directors that claimed 4.7% (or 78,211) work orders were on hold.
That presentation mentioned 95 threats had been received, but did not offer details.
"Mass meter deployment is on track to be substantially complete by end of December 2012, other than deferral list customers and other limited exceptions," said a November 2012 Smart Metering and Infrastructure Program status summary.
"Approximately 1.6 million meters have been installed as of mid-October 2012. The transition to Cisco routers is largely complete."
Approximately 105,000 meters were expected to not be installed by the December 31, 2012 deadline. While 80,000 were for customers on the deferred work order list, another 25,000 were for labour/equipment/access/interference reasons.
The BC Hydro records were disclosed May 15, the day after the BC Liberals won re-election. The government has not disclosed what additional costs will be incurred by the delay.
BC Hydro spokesman Greg Alexis said Wednesday that as of May 15, 1,808,384 smart meters had been installed, but 86,000 remain on hold. Of that, 65,000 are delayed by “customer request.”
