Maritime Electric Mounts 1,300 Pole Collectors as PEI Smart Meter Rollout Advances

Maritime Electric, Prince Edward Island’s principal electric utility, is nearing completion of the installation of roughly 1,300 pole-mounted data collectors across the province, the communications backbone for a plan to convert about 90,000 customers to smart meters. The rollout, first reported by Lucas McInnis for CBC News on July 13, 2026, is the visible field phase of a multi-year Advanced Metering Infrastructure program approved by provincial regulators in October 2024 and budgeted at $66.8 million. The collectors gather usage data transmitted wirelessly from meters at homes and businesses, replacing the drive-by manual reads the utility has relied on for decades.

Why White Boxes Are Appearing on P.E.I. Utility Poles

The rectangular white metal enclosures now visible on poles are fixed data collectors that aggregate readings from smart meters within their range and relay them back to the utility. Maritime Electric has said the collector installation is almost finished, positioning the network to receive data once meters are swapped at customer premises. Each device forms part of a fixed communication layer that removes the need for personnel to physically read meters month to month.

The AMI and Customer Information System Overhaul Behind the Hardware

The pole work sits inside a larger program that pairs new metering hardware with a replacement of the utility’s aging billing and customer records platform. The Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission approved the combined Advanced Metering Infrastructure and Customer Information System project in October 2024, authorizing spending of $66.8 million. Maritime Electric has described the existing customer information system as nearly 40 years old, making its replacement a prerequisite for the more granular billing and usage features the new meters are meant to enable.

Itron Supplies the Metering Technology

The utility’s own documentation identifies Itron as the metering supplier, noting that the AMI meters are certified under UL Standard 2735. According to Maritime Electric, the new meters transmit at 15-minute intervals over the fixed network, which the company says represents more than a 95 percent reduction in radio communications compared with the current drive-by Automated Meter Reading units that pulse every 30 seconds. The meters support two-way communication, remote connect and disconnect, tamper and fault alerts, and remote firmware updates.

What the Meters Change for Customers and Grid Operations

Maritime Electric frames the shift as a move from monthly estimated or manually read data to hourly consumption visibility that customers can view through a forthcoming online portal. Angus Orford, vice-president of corporate planning and energy supply at the utility, told CBC News in July 2026 that the added definition in usage patterns should help customers manage consumption and identify inefficient appliances, citing an ageing freezer drawing more power than a newer unit would.

The utility also expects faster outage identification through automated meter alerts, a capability it has repeatedly tied to storm response after post-tropical storm Fiona knocked out power to nearly the entire province in 2022.

A Budget That Climbed From $47.6 Million to $66.8 Million

The project’s cost has been a recurring point of regulatory scrutiny. When Maritime Electric first applied in November 2022, the estimate was $47.6 million, before rising to roughly $64 million in late 2023 and settling at the approved $66.8 million. The utility attributed much of the increase to a shift from an on-premise software solution to a cloud-based system and to firmer supplier pricing replacing earlier high-level consultant estimates.

Federal Funding and the Rate Impact

The federal government agreed to cover $19 million of the cost through Natural Resources Canada‘s Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program, funding that was central to the project’s business case. Maritime Electric has said the remaining cost will be recovered through a rate increase it pegged at about 2.7 percent, which the utility told regulators would not take effect until the meters are in service. Phase One meter installations began in November 2025, with full Island-wide deployment targeted for 2027, at which point the utility says time-of-use rates could be studied in a later regulatory application.

Where P.E.I.’s Rollout Sits in the North American AMI Wave

Maritime Electric, a Fortis Inc. subsidiary, is a comparatively small deployment by continental standards, but it reflects a broad utility push toward networked metering. For scale, National Grid’s AMI 2.0 program covers 1.7 million electric meters in Upstate New York alongside 1.1 million in Massachusetts, and municipal water utilities such as San Antonio’s have completed comparable Itron-based conversions. P.E.I.’s roughly 90,000-meter footprint underscores how fixed-network AMI economics now reach even island-scale utilities, where storm resilience and the elimination of manual reads carry outsized operational weight.