Hydro Utilities

[The85]

Hydro Utilities

Photo from Canard

A thread to discuss hydro, including about the Region's 3 Hydro Utilities and anything related to Hydro One, OPG and IESO.

Websites:

Waterloo North Hydro (Waterloo, Woolwich and Wellesley)

Kitchener Wilmot Hydro (Kitchener and Wilmot)

Energy + (Cambridge and North Dumfries and NEW as of January - Brant County)

Hydro One

OPG

IESO

[The85]

Happy May! Hydro rates increased as of May 1st.

I heard on 570 News this morning and read on CBC that the rate increase is being blamed on lower than expected electricity use over the winter.

This irritates me for more than just having to pay more per month on my bill. I get (and don't necessarily have a problem with) paying more to recover true costs of generating and transporting electricity on modern infrastructure and more 'renewable' sources like wind and solar. I'm happy too that the coal plants in Ontario have been decommissioned.

What bothers me is that it is being blamed on lower than expected usage. To me, this is OPG, the Ontario Energy Board and whoever else is responsible with setting rates talking out of both sides of their mouths. You cannot avoid all of the government advertising to reduce power consumption, do an energy retrofit to your home and get several rebates, use time of use billing, get rid of your old inefficient fridge with free pickup and disposal, etc. etc. etc. However, when usage across the province actually drops, what did they expect?? Sure it can be attributed to warmer winter weather, but the province has come no where near the record 27,005 MW peak measured on August 1, 2006 according to the IESO!! Surely more efficient use of energy has helped in the drop.

I'd be interested to hear some other perspectives on this.

[notmyfriends]

It is hard for them to message properly that's for sure; they have fixed costs and variable costs that they try to have covered through a variable cost medium (usage). They would be better off with a mixed costing system, but that is hard to set up fairly, or even know what fairly means. Basically, sure they want to encourage lower usage, but yes that means the usage rate needs to go up in response. Tough spot to work from.

[darts]

Happy May! Hydro rates increased as of May 1st.

I heard on 570 News this morning and read on CBC that the rate increase is being blamed on lower than expected electricity use over the winter.

This irritates me for more than just having to pay more per month on my bill. I get (and don't necessarily have a problem with) paying more to recover true costs of generating and transporting electricity on modern infrastructure and more 'renewable' sources like wind and solar. I'm happy too that the coal plants in Ontario have been decommissioned.

What bothers me is that it is being blamed on lower than expected usage. To me, this is OPG, the Ontario Energy Board and whoever else is responsible with setting rates talking out of both sides of their mouths. You cannot avoid all of the government advertising to reduce power consumption, do an energy retrofit to your home and get several rebates, use time of use billing, get rid of your old inefficient fridge with free pickup and disposal, etc. etc. etc. However, when usage across the province actually drops, what did they expect?? Sure it can be attributed to warmer winter weather, but the province has come no where near the record 27,005 MW peak measured on August 1, 2006 according to the IESO!! Surely more efficient use of energy has helped in the drop.

I'd be interested to hear some other perspectives on this.

As I understand it, it is because the fixed costs of delivery are included in the variable part of the bill (electricity cost). Moving more of the fixed cost onto hydro bills as a fixed cost for having an account would increase the price to average homeowners. Since it is a part of the variable rate larger usage customers end up subsidizing average homeowners. 

They can make the change but it would be messy, some people would pay a lot more and some people would pay a lot less.

[timc]

This same situation is playing out with our water bills too. Conservation has reduced usage, but we still need to pay to maintain the pipes in the ground.

On the other side of things, it seems like gas bills already have high fixed costs. At our house, less than 50% of the gas bill is usage.