Smart meters could strengthen P.E.I.'s power grid, but rollout will take years, says Maritime Electric

Smart meters could help strengthen Prince Edward Island's electrical grid, but none have been installed on the Island and it will take years after the work begins to complete the transition.

Thomas Arnason McNeil, senior energy coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, told CBC News that as demand for electricity grows in P.E.I., smart meters could offer a solution.

These devices are designed to let power utilities charge different electricity rates throughout the day — you'd pay more to use your dryer during peak hours and less when demand is low, for example.

"And so you're kind of incentivizing people to shift what's called load shifting from these peak times of the early morning and the late afternoon into off-peak times — middle of the day and the evening," he told CBC's Island Morning.

"Then we're really starting to smooth out some of the peaks that we're seeing that can cause outages."

In the fall, the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC) approved Maritime Electric's plan to transition its more than 86,000 customers to smart meters. The commission authorized the company to spend $66.8 million on the project.

Maritime Electric CEO Jason Roberts said the company is in the process of ordering smart meters, so no customers have been switched over yet.

Before the new meters and variable rates can be implemented, the utility needs to update its customer information system software, install the meters at the homes and premises of nearly 90,000 customers, and set up a communication system between the meters and the software, he said.

"It takes a while to get thousands of kilometres of lines that we need to reach our customers. So that's going to take a number of years," Roberts said.

He said the utility can't just come up with new variable rates right away, since it will need to first understand the energy usage patterns of P.E.I. customers once the smart meters are in place. The company is watching how other regional utilities, such as Nova Scotia Power, are handling their smart meter programs.

Beyond smart meters

In addition to smart meters, Maritime Electric is pursuing other solutions to P.E.I.'s energy challenges.

The utility has applied to IRAC for approval to expand its power generation using fossil-fuel technology, proposing a $427 million investment in a combustion turbine, a battery for energy storage systems, and internal combustion engines.

"Typically, these private investor owned utilities that have made their money in the same way for decades and decades are prone to looking for an easy solution," McNeil said.

"I think that that's kind of a very unimaginative solution to the problems that you're facing in P.E.I. There are other ways to ensure the stability of the grid that don't necessarily involve firing up a ton of gas."

McNeil pointed to the Summerside Sunbank project as an example of a more sustainable approach, "where you see huge deployment in terms of their solar projects and in terms of battery storage…

"When you have things like local renewables, local battery storage that can store that power and that can be deployed to people who are nearby, that's kind of an ideal scenario in terms of ensuring reliability," he said.

Roberts said battery storage has benefits, but it also has limitations compared to traditional dispatchable power generation. The utility's $427 million proposal to IRAC outlines plans to install 150 megawatts of dispatchable generation.

Batteries can provide power for only a limited time, he said. Some last two hours, others four.

"So when you think about the cost of a battery relative to having actual dispatchable generation — similar cost, but you've got four hours versus a generator that can run for days and weeks on end."