SaskPower CEO Robert Watson resigned from his post on Monday following the release of the investigation into the handling of the Crown corporation’s smart meter program, which was scrapped earlier this year following a number of fires.
The investigation’s findings were released on Monday and concluded “customer safety was not given high enough priority by SaskPower.”
The investigation found that customer safety was not a concern that played into the implementation of the smart meter program until after complaints of fires from the meters arose, and safety did not become a “matter of central importance” until June 2014. Smart meters were never installed by SaskPower in Estevan.
“Overall, the company’s risk management process was found to be lacking. While SaskPower did identify a number of risks, the possibility the meters could actually short out and catch fire was not considered until similar fires at the Philadelphia Electric Company became public,” said the report.
An afternoon press release on Monday from SaskPower said “(the investigation) noted the rollout of smart meters did not meet the high standards that customers have come to expect of SaskPower or SaskPower’s own standards, referring to eight unusual meter failures that resulted in overheating or melting on or at the meter site.”
SaskPower was advised that it should buy small batches of meters through a stepped procurement process, install them gradually and watch for problems.
“The company did not do that,” said the report. More than 100,000 meters were purchased in a three-week period, and the program was initiated on a large scale.
After the PECO fires were reported, changes to the smart meter program were made, and SaskPower increased its efforts to detect faulty sockets, enabling an extra temperature sensor and assurance from the manufacturer, Sensus, that the meters were safe.
After losing the contract to Sensus in December 2011, a meter manufacturer warned SaskPower of past problems with Sensus.
The report found there were “so many false alarms for overheating, SaskPower could not investigate them all.”
The provincial cabinet has reviewed a summary of the findings and the government has directed the Crown Investments Corporation to ensure that SaskPower removes all Sensus meters by March 15, 2015 at the latest; ensure that SaskPower implements all of the consultants’ recommendations; and work with all the Crowns to ensure they are applying the lessons from this incident across the Crown sector.
