FAQs

It is important that you have an account set up with your billing company first. To find billing companies, also known as retailers, in your area, visit the Utilities Consumer Advocate or call them at 310-4822. If you have an existing billing company, simply contact them to begin the request and have your Site ID ready. If you're in our service area, your billing company will send FortisAlberta an order to install the meter. Once we receive the order, installation takes up to three business days.

The Site ID is a 13-digit number specific to your site, like a serial number for your electricity, and is required to install a meter.

To get your Site ID, call 310-WIRE (9473). When you receive your Site ID, you'll need to provide the information to your billing company, also known as your retailer. To find billing companies in your area, visit the Utilities Consumer Advocate website or call them at 310-4822.

We don't bill you because we are a wire service provider, which means we maintain the power lines, poles and meters in our service area.

For questions about your electricity consumption, call us at 310-WIRE (9473). You can view your electricity consumption online by registering for My Account.

For questions about your electricity bill, contact your billing company. To find billing companies, also known as retailers, in your area, visit the Utilities Consumer Advocate website or call them at 310-4822 .

Your electricity usage information is communicated to us over power lines once per day. Once we receive and validate your electricity usage information, we send it to your billing company (also known as your retailer).

If you have questions about your meter reading, please call us at 310-WIRE (9473).

• Your meter has a digital readout that has dashes that move left to right across the   bottom of the display when electricity is being used. If those dashes continue to move with all breakers off call us at 310-WIRE (9473) . We’ll arrange for a Power Line Technician to check the meter.
• If the dashes stop moving, you can try to pinpoint which breaker is using more power. To test this, have one person at the breaker box and one person at the meter:
• Turn on each breaker on and off, one at a time.
• Watch for when the dashes move more quickly for one breaker than another. This will give you an indication of which breaker is using the greatest amount of power, and could indicate an issue unless that breaker is expected to be using more power.

If you can’t pinpoint the problem after the breaker test, it’s best to contact an electrician to determine the cause of the higher power consumption.

Estimated Time of Restoration (ETR) is based on information we receive from our field crews. This estimate is impacted by the number of outages in your area, the extent of repairs required, changing weather conditions and/or the distance of travel required by our Power Line Technicians.

Generating your own power might be right for you if you:

• Use the generator for commercial purposes
• Have an emergency back-up power source
• Generate environmentally friendly “green power”
• Offset the cost of electrical bills
• Produce enough electricity to sell the excess back to the grid

In addition to FortisAlberta, you’ll work with these other regulated organizations:

• Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC)
• Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO)

There are six main costs:

• Pre-Application starting at $500
• High Level Distribution Study ($4,000 + GST)
• Detailed Distribution Study ($10,000 + GST)
• Transmission System Interconnection Study, if required, to coordinate with the Transmission Facility Owner (TFO) ($10,000 + TFO study costs)
• Distribution Design and Construction costs (varies). Costs vary depending on how complicated the project is. Connection charges can also vary depending on the type of generation and how close your site is to our existing distribution system.
• Any required charges from third parties, including transmission costs. 

We can connect you to net billing, the net difference between the power you use and the power you create.

We can install a bi-directional meter, which measures the power you take from the grid and the power you add to it. Bi-directional meters have two displays: kilowatt-hours (kWh) delivered and kWh received. Both displays will have a Total kWh displayed in the lower left hand corner.

To read your bi-directional meter:

• When the identification on the left of the screen is 01, the main number displayed will be the imported kWh from the grid (the power you consume).

• When the identification number on the left of the screen is 46, the main number displayed will be imported kWh to the grid (the power you create). 

• When the identification number is 888, this is a segment check test.

In January 2009, the Government of Alberta introduced regulations that made it easier for Albertans to generate green electricity to power their homes, farms and businesses through micro-generation. This regulation was amended in December 2016 to increase the size of microgeneration to 5 MW. Send in an application or any questions to microgen@fortisalberta.com.

The generators themselves must use environmentally friendly fuel sources with a maximum generating capacity of five megawatts. These fuel sources can include:

• Solar power
• Wind power
• Small-scale hydro
• Biomass
• Fuel cells
• Geo-thermal

For more information on micr-generation, visit the Alberta Utilities Commission’s microgeneration page

If you are interested in generating your own renewable electricity, fill out the form on the bottom of this page.

In addition to FortisAlberta, you’ll work with these other regulated organizations:

• Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) for Microgenerator Application Guidelines
• Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO)
• Your billing company, also known as your retailer