BC Hydro has selected Clevest Solutions Inc. of Richmond, B.C. to assist with the deployment of smart meters throughout the province of British Columbia. Clevest will provide a software solution to enable a safe and efficient roll-out of meter installation.

While Vancouver-based Corix Utilities will be installing the majority of the 1.8 million smart meters across the province, BC Hydro will be using Clevest to assist with the deployment of communications infrastructure for commercial meters as well as some residential meters.

Over 10 million meters worldwide have already been deployed assisted by Clevest’s software toolkit. The software solution helps to:

• schedule and dispatch workers for smart meter installation and post-deployment maintenance work
• ensure customer and worker safety with special alerts for customers on life support, priority accounts and dangerous sites
• locate deployment teams and see their current work status in near real-time
• barcode scan, photo-capture and GPS asset location capture during installation
• integrate with other information management systems to ensure no data is lost.

In addition to Corix and Itron, Richmond-based Clevest joins its partner, internationally renowned Capgemini as suppliers to BC Hydro’s Smart Metering Program.

Starting in July, BC Hydro will begin replacing existing BC Hydro customer meters with a modern, fully integrated, smart metering system. Smart meters will help to ensure BC Hydro can continue to deliver safe, reliable and cost effective electricity to customers across the province.

All customers will receive advance notification that smart meters are coming to their community, including a letter from BC Hydro a few weeks prior to their installation date notifying them of the exchange. Installation will be simple and will only take a matter of minutes, and in most cases customers will not need to home.