BC Hydro will have another year to install the remaining smart meters left in its job jar.
The deadline to get the rest in place has been extended to the end of 2013, the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas said Thursday.
In Prince George, roughly 2,000 of the meters still need to be installed while they're now in place at 38,000 locations around the city, a BC Hydro spokesperson said.
Province-wide, 93 per cent or 1.73 million of 1.87 million smart meters are now in place.
"Shortages in qualified labour, equipment and specialized meters, plus customer concerns, prevented BC Hydro from fully installing all smart meters in 2012," the Ministry said.
"The additional time will enable BC Hydro to complete the work and address as many customer concerns as possible before finalizing smart meter installations."
Smart meters, which allow electricity consumption to be verified remotely and thus save significantly on monitoring costs, are expected to pay for themselves by delivering $1.6 billion in benefits over 20 years.
"Research has shown that some of the new tools available through smart meters will enable customers to conserve up to 15 per cent in energy costs," the Ministry said. "Smart meters will make possible new conservation tools like secure online customer accounts and optional in-home devices that will provide homeowners with up-to-date information about power use.
"Once smart meters are fully installed and operational, they will also let BC Hydro know of an outage immediately, so power can be restored faster."
