A request by SaskPower to have volunteers get smart meters on their homes has worked so well that they are no longer accepting applications.

The call for 2,000 free installations of commercial smart meters was made on Thursday with more than 1,500 applications being received Friday forcing the halt.

In a release issued late Friday by SaskPower, spokesperson Joel Cherry says “A large majority of those who have signed up are residential customers. We understand that business owners are some of our busiest customers, and that they may not have had the time to sign up yet. To balance this phase of smart meter deployment, we want to ensure small- and medium-sized businesses still have the opportunity to volunteer. Because of this, we are reserving the remaining meters for business customers. Anyone who has applied for a smart meter and is unable to receive one will be given priority when more meters become available.”

SaskPower has installed 8,000 commercial and industrial smart meters across the province since 2017 and is expecting nearly 30,000 to be installed by the end of 2020.

More than 105,000 smart meters were recalled and uninstalled in 2014 after they were deemed responsible for 10 fires.