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There are no safety concerns over SaskEnergy gas meters.
The extremely dry conditions in some parts of the province have caused so much ground shifting that the movement is pulling the copper wires from SaskPower meter boxes which can spark a fire.
But that won’t happen with the gas lines because they actually benefit from the dry soil.
“When soil is dry, especially those heavier soils, they move away from the pipeline connections and give us more flexibility,” SaskEnergy, Director of Communications, Dave Burdeniuk explained. “So actually for us, drier is better.”
SaskEnergy has been receiving about 15 calls a day from customers concerned that the gas meter is tilting or seems to have moved.
But the meters now used in Saskatchewan actually have wireless modules built within them that, if tilted beyond 30 degrees, will trigger an alert sending a signal that it needs to be checked.
The meters are designed to withstand movement and ground shifting up to that point.
“When you look at a natural gas meter, as the pipe comes out of the ground, there’s a series of elbows, we call that a swing, and that swing will actually let the meter swing back and forth, with a lot of flexibility,” Burdeniuk said.
SaskEnergy is more concerned about significant wet ground which, when coupled with the thick soil seen in places like Regina, it sticks to the gas mains and be difficult to deal with.
SaskPower has continued to send inspection crews out checking homes to address any issue with the meter box.
