The British Columbia Utilities Commission is allowing FortisBC to update more than a million residential, commercial, and industrial gas meters in the province.

It’s moving ahead with  new advanced gas meters and the installation of the necessary communication components to enable automatic meter readings, among other features. Meter replacement is expected to begin this year.

Fortis says the new tech enables more accurate and convenient billing processes, reduces meter reading costs, and will be more user-friendly for the customer to access their energy consumption information.

It will also allow the company to remotely shut off portions of the gas system for maintenance or in the case of a natural disaster.

It comes at a cost, though, with Fortis saying it will result in an estimated delivery rate increase of 0.442% per year.

That would mean, for example, an approximate $29-dollar increase in delivery costs, per year starting in 2027, for the average residential customer.