Victoria, BC, Canada --- (METERING.COM) --- January 11, 2013 - BC Hydro has been given an extension of one year, to the end of December 2013, to complete the installation of its smart meters.

To date the company has installed 93 percent or 1.73 million of the 1.87 million smart meters. However, shortages in qualified labor, equipment and specialized meters, plus customer concerns, prevented the installation of all smart meters by the end of 2012, according to ministry of energy, mines and natural gas statement.

The additional time will enable BC Hydro to complete the work and address as many customer concerns as possible before finalizing the smart meter installations.

BC Hydro is installing Itron’s OpenWay smart meters, with installation by the BC-based Corix Utilities.

BC Hydro expects its smart metering installation to deliver $1.6 billion in benefits over 20 years.

BC Hydro intends to provide incentives for customers to obtain feedback tools, including in-home displays, programmable thermostats and energy management software products. Customers will also be able to access their consumption information on the company’s Power Smart website.