NB Power’s smart meters have been in the news quite a bit lately, mostly for negative reasons. After 50 years in the electrical trade, we’ve seen many transitions in our industry, but this one has been particularly challenging for our community. In our professional opinion smart meters are a positive change but there have certainly been real problems with the rollout.
Why would we want smart meters to begin with?
Smart meters are digital power meters that serve two main functions: measuring electricity usage and communicating that information automatically to NB Power. These devices are quite sophisticated compared to the old analog meters we’re used to.
The measurement aspect works similarly to traditional meters, but with significant improvements. The old meters simply tracked total consumption, whereas smart meters take readings every 15 minutes and record not just how much power you’re using, but exactly when you’re using it. This detailed data provides a much clearer picture of consumption patterns.
The communication system is what makes these meters truly “smart.” They send data to NB Power using radio frequency signals, similar to what your cell phone uses. What’s particularly interesting is that it’s a two-way communication system – NB Power can also send signals back to the meter. This eliminates the need for manual meter readings.
These meters also come with several important features that improve service reliability. They can detect power outages instantly, meaning NB Power knows immediately when your power goes out, rather than waiting for customer calls. They’re also equipped to detect any tampering or theft attempts, and the utility can connect or disconnect service remotely when needed.
One of the most valuable aspects we’ve seen for our commercial clients is the ability to view their usage patterns through an online portal. By logging in to your account on NB Power’s website you can see your usage in almost real-time.
Growing pains
NB Power have recently come clean about some serious billing errors in their system. Some customers were hit with bills double what they should have been paying. The root causes vary: in some cases NB Power manually entered readings and made mistakes in that process, while in at least one other case a customer had the wrong meter number on their account and were likely paying someone else’s bill. (Source)
The provincial government ordered a third-party audit into metering and billing accuracy in January 2025, responding to these complaints about unusually high bills. Initial findings didn’t show widespread issues with the smart meters or billing systems, but NB Power have admitted the review isn’t complete. They’re still comparing data between legacy and smart meters, and investigating specific customer cases. We’re now expecting the final audit report in April 2025. (Source)
The billing situation has been further complicated by significant rate increases. New Brunswick residents have seen their electricity rates jump by over 9% in both 2024 and 2025. To put that in perspective, the average household is paying about $244 more in 2025 compared to their 2024 bills.
You can check for yourself in the NB Power customer portal, but be aware that it shows both your usage in kilowatt-hours as well as your bill in dollars. If you look only at the dollar amount you may end up thinking your consumption has increased when this isn’t actually the case.
Cold hard data
One of our electricians at J&D has a Schneider home monitoring unit installed at his house and has been closely monitoring results compared to the NB Power smart meter. This is of course only a sample size of a single household, but his findings exactly match the smart meter’s readings.
The catch is that his energy consumption did actually increase significantly compared to last year: in Jan/Feb 2024 he used 3246.9 kWh but in Jan/Feb 2025 that jumped to 4394.1 kWh, an increase of more than 30%. Needless to say, his power bill went up quite a lot, but the smart meter’s readings were accurate: the added consumption was caused by temperatures in southeast New Brunswick being colder than usual for weeks on end. These graphs from WeatherSpark illustrate the difference quite clearly: notice how low the temperatures are, and how they were sustained for much longer than last year.
If you combine that with the roughly 10% higher electricity rates compared to last year, it’s no surprise that power bills went up in a big way – but that isn’t because of smart meters. In the case of our electrician we’re looking at a roughly 40% bill increase due to colder temperatures and higher power rates. Sure, there have been smart meter glitches in a few isolated cases, but by and large this is simply a case of higher pricing combined with cold temperatures: a perfect storm for high power bills.
