Automation will be helping SaskPower offer better services to Saskatchewan, and may also result in employee role changes.

SaskPower is hoping to modernize their operation with the help of 20,000 new power metres across the province.

Just the latest in the Crown corporation's most recent rollouts on the power metre front, the new, smarter metres won't require in-person checks from Saskpower employees, in addition to quicker power outage response times.

With the automation of that role, SaskPower Spokesperson Joel Cherry said, comes some changes to employment for some SaskPower workers.

"So when the time comes, we'd work on a workforce transition plan to address any required changes, and that could definitely include options like retraining employees for new roles, but it's early in the process, and we'll cross that bridge when we get there."

The new metres will be placed primarily on businesses such as commercial and industrial customers, as well as small to medium-sized companies.

Newest additions to the smart metre program are just the latest in a plan to eventually incorporate the metres into residential areas.

Cherry said that smart metres across the country are relatively standard.

"Across Canada, about 85 per cent of metres are smart metres, and they do have real tangible benefits... [our consumers] have seen the benefits of smart metres and advanced metering infrastructure elsewhere, and they want that here as well."

SaskPower has received requests to implement the metres from around 75 per cent of their industrial and commercial consumers.

This latest round of metres are hoped to be installed over the next year as part of an around ten million dollar project.

SaskPower still needs to find a suitable metre for residential customers before their smart grid can expand to that market, and doesn't have a timeline of when that may be a reality.

It is not yet known the exact locations around Saskatchewan which will be receiving the infrastructure.