Enersource Hydro Mississauga, one of Ontario’s largest electrical distribution companies, is moving forward with the installation of smart meters for small Commercial and Industrial (C&I) customers in Mississauga.

Smart metering, an Ontario government initiative, enables local utility companies to upgrade metering to record not only how much energy is used but also when it was used, allowing different electricity rates to be applied during different times of the day. This empowers the customer to observe and adjust electricity use during peak times and possibly shift more use to off peak times where the cost of electricity is lower.

Enersource will be communicating with all small business customers prior to installation of the meters. Businesses should be aware that as the old meter is removed and the new one is installed, power must be turned off for a brief period. This outage will normally last only a few minutes, but in some instances the procedure will take up to a half hour.

For now, businesses will continue to be billed for electricity in the same manner as before. The government of Ontario has committed to installing smart meters in every home and business in the province, but at this time has not fully determined a commencement strategy for Time-Of-Use (TOU) rates and customer billing.