BC Hydro - general discussion

[spanky123]

Originally Posted by VicHockeyFan

I'm always amazed how they don't really know what happened, at least not right away. Back-up systems just pop into place I guess. Crazy.

Or they know but just aren't saying. With that many customers out there is more than likely some with equipment damage and blaming it on an "act of God" is always a lot cheaper! Airlines like to do that as well.

[sebberry]

I love how they don't know what it is and the system fixed itself.

But on the other hand, I'm not so sure I like that the system has become self aware.

[Holden West]

A co-worker was in the dentist's chair in Oak Bay when the power went out. Patients were lucky the doc didn't drag out the old foot-powered drill.

[Benezet]

I was amused by the early communique from Hydro — they said it was a "distribution circuit failure". I wonder if they wrote that with a straight face......

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by Holden West

A co-worker was in the dentist's chair in Oak Bay when the power went out. Patients were lucky the doc didn't drag out the old foot-powered drill.

I hope that's not like when the instructor hits the killswitch when your cutting board is midway through the thickness planer in eighth grade woodshop.

[sebberry]

Fire guts Mission home after BC Hydro smart meter installed

BC Hydro claims a Mission homeowner is ultimately liable for a fire that originated at the base of a smart meter one day after it was installed.

A report by the Mission fire department said the blaze, which destroyed Trish Regan’s house in the 7900-block of Burdock Street and leaped to the roof of a neighbouring home on June 15, originated at an insulating “lug” in the lower left corner of the meter base. The report says the terminal, which attached the meter base to the home, appeared cracked and “radiated heat to combust the wall at or near the meter base.”

[...]

Link

[sdwright.vic]

So I live in a apartment building where smart meters have been installed. FORTUNATELY my hydro bill has stayed the same, BUT some in my building (including the resident manager) has had their bills increase 3 times what they where before. When the resident manager called to complain, the service agent asked what she was paying before and what she is paying now ($34 a billing cycle to $90+, note that hot water AND heat are included in our building), he states well your just lucky that you where getting under billed for so long! So half the building is still getting "under billed" while the other half has has dramatic rate increases. Do they know what they are doing? Not really "customer service" either. Wonder what it took to get the agents to drink the hydro kool-aid?

[sebberry]

I wonder if the people who haven't seen rate increases with the new meters were being billed accurately with the old ones.

[sdwright.vic]

Originally Posted by sebberry

I wonder if the people who haven't seen rate increases with the new meters were being billed accurately with the old ones.

I really can't see why they would not off been. A meter reading should be a meter reading, right?

[pherthyl]

Originally Posted by sdwright.vic

I really can't see why they would not off been. A meter reading should be a meter reading, right?

It's so hard to tell if there's an actual problem. Of course the only people that mention it on the internet are the people whose bills went up.

What we need is comprehensive statistics for all of Hydro's customers. Are bills on average higher, the same, or lower before/after the smart meters? I'm guessing if it was higher they would never release the info though (even if it was just because the old meters tended to read low.

[cakeman]

Originally Posted by sdwright.vic

BUT some in my building (including the resident manager) has had their bills increase 3 times what they where before. When the resident manager called to complain, the service agent asked what she was paying before and what she is paying now ($34 a billing cycle to $90+, note that hot water AND heat are included in our building), he states well your just lucky that you where getting under billed for so long!

Out of curiousity, if you dont mind my asking, what was your bill for a similar billing cycle?

My experience repairing electronic and mechanical equipment says that measuring devices require service and calibration. Has anyone here ever actually seen Hydro taking an old Analog meter out and replacing it for calibration purposes?

cakes..

[cakeman]

Originally Posted by sdwright.vic

I really can't see why they would not off been. A meter reading should be a meter reading, right?

Well, if I understand this conversation correctly, No..

I mean if the old analog meter was over or under reporting, then installing a freshly cal'd unit could cause a change in billing to correct whichever way the out-of-cal analog unit was skewing the reading.

cakes..

[sdwright.vic]

Cakes..
I am on level billing so I have been paying $42 a cycle. Actual bill had been $36-$38 a month. And my level billing is up for review next month. So to the last year I have paid $420.00 so far with only about $385 actual. I have never seen a old machine replaced. BUT my bill has stayed the same regardless of analog / digital. About half in my building have gone to being the same as me to over $90 a month. Once again the building has a boiler so heat and he is included.

[LJ]

Originally Posted by sdwright.vic

Cakes..
I am on level billing so I have been paying $42 a cycle. Actual bill had been $36-$38 a month. And my level billing is up for review next month. So to the last year I have paid $420.00 so far with only about $385 actual. I have never seen a old machine replaced. BUT my bill has stayed the same regardless of analog / digital. About half in my building have gone to being the same as me to over $90 a month. Once again the building has a boiler so heat and he is included.

Well this is interesting and if I were at BC Hydro I would want to investigate.

It would be worthwhile to swap meters with one of your neighbours who did experience an increase and see what happens. If his goes down and yours goes up, Houston, we have a problem. In that case all the meters would need to be removed and calibrated. I find it difficult to believe that all the meters wouldn't have undergone calibration testing before leaving the manufacturer.

In other jurisdictions where there are "time of use" peak power charges this can result in a large increase and the homeowner didn't even know he was on that plan. Others speculate that homeowners are somehow being charged for electricity on the providers side of the meter, i.e. you are being charged for power delivered to your house but not necessarily used.

[sebberry]

‘Unusual’ number of fires, smart meters linked
Ontario fire marshal says faulty base plates could be the cause, similar to Mission blaze

Smart meter installations are the suspected cause of an “unusual” number of fires similar to a recent electrical fire at a home in Mission, according to a recent investigation by the Ontario fire marshal’s office.

BC Hydro is in the process of a $1-billion installation of the meters, which use wireless technology to transmit information about electricity consumption to power utilities, following the lead of provinces and states including Ontario and California.

[...]

Source

[sdwright.vic]

Originally Posted by LJ

Well this is interesting and if I were at BC Hydro I would want to investigate.

Interesting that you think BC Hydro would want to investigate when they are so busy sticking their head in the sand pretending nothings wrong!

[Sparky]

We sold a house at the end of last month and wanted to get the meter "read". They told Mrs Sparky to write down the reading and phone it in. It was a smart meter.

I thought they were supposed to be able to read that from their office?

[sebberry]

They will once the wireless network has been set up. They're still reading them all manually.

[Bernard]

The smart meters are only one part of the system, they also need the local infrastructure to collect the data and the computer systems in place to deal with the data. The meters on the houses is only a small portion of the whole program

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by LJ

In other jurisdictions where there are "time of use" peak power charges this can result in a large increase and the homeowner didn't even know he was on that plan. Others speculate that homeowners are somehow being charged for electricity on the providers side of the meter, i.e. you are being charged for power delivered to your house but not necessarily used.

Huh? That doesn't make any sense. Electricity is a bit like piped water, if it is "delivered" to your home, but not used, you can't really be billed for it, it won't pass the recording point.

Sparky, help us here, would not the new electronic meters using electrical induction measurements be pretty darned fail-safe, calibration-wise?

[Sparky]

Yes, the calculation process should be very accurate compared to the old meters.

The technology of the older meters was born before I was.

[LJ]

Originally Posted by VicHockeyFan

Huh? That doesn't make any sense. Electricity is a bit like piped water, if it is "delivered" to your home, but not used, you can't really be billed for it, it won't pass the recording point.

Sparky, help us here, would not the new electronic meters using electrical induction measurements be pretty darned fail-safe, calibration-wise?

Yeah I know, it doesn't seem to make sense but what else is causing such odd readings. It could be, emphasis could, that the sensor is sensitive enoough that the "potential" electricity is being partly measured by the it without you ever using it. Just a little tiny bit of AC radiation leaking through but doing so day in and day out. Sort of like the water drip that doesn't seem like much but winds up wasting gallons of water.

[sebberry]

A bit of "phantom" power "leaking" through would have to be consumed by something - my light switches have little LEDs in them that are lit even when the lights are turned off. Small little draws like that might account for a few dollars per month, but certainly not a 50% increase in the hydro bill.

[sdwright.vic]

Well the issue for me is that my resident manager wants me to call in and tell Hydro that my bill has remained the same with no increase will others have gone up. Does she think I am crazy? LOL

[cakeman]

Originally Posted by VicHockeyFan

Huh? That doesn't make any sense. Electricity is a bit like piped water, if it is "delivered" to your home, but not used, you can't really be billed for it, it won't pass the recording point.

Sparky, help us here, would not the new electronic meters using electrical induction measurements be pretty darned fail-safe, calibration-wise?

Electronics Technologist in a past life.. not a sparky.. so Im not sure if my experiences correlate directly between fields..

Power can also be consumed by inefficiencies in the system. Corrosion builds between contacts, some power is consumed overcoming that resistance.. I expect its possible, especially in older houses for parts of the system to develop parasitic leakages? So while you may have all the lights off... there is still some small (or sum of many small) usage(s) going on..

.. and no I would not assume the meters to be failsafe at all.. theres circuitry and microprocessors.. any of which can fail fully or partially at any time and cause oddball readings.. loss of unit specific cal may cause a fallback to factory settings.. hell, could be bugs in the code.. once saw a large network of satellite transmitters all fail because somehow, no-one accounted for leap years in the firmware..

Cakes..