Sommerville Road resident Gerald 'Mack' Brown wants to know why the B.C. Hydro smart meter on his property has displayed an error message for more than a month without the utility knowing or doing anything about it.
Brown first noticed the meter was displaying, "fat Error 7," on Jan. 21. On March 2, the meter was still displaying the message.
"Isn't the point of the smart meters so that B.C. Hydro will know that stuff automatically?" Brown said.
Brown said his smart meter was installed in the fall, but in January he experienced three power outages.
In 2011 B.C. Hydro announced it would spend $930 million to replace all the conventional, mechanical electricity meters in the province with smart meters. Once the network is completed - scheduled for the end of this year - the smart meters are expected to wirelessly communicate power consumption, outage and other information to B.C. Hydro.
B.C. Hydro spokesperson Bob Gammer said until the wireless smart meter network goes live at the end of 2012, smart meters are still being checked manually by meter readers.
"At this point, no, we're not getting information from the meters," Gammer said.
Gammer said he encourages anyone who believes their smart meter is malfunctioning to call 1-800-BCHYDRO.
