When I lived in Powell River (1997-2001), BC Hydro was already doing time-of-use billing.

Don't fool yourself. If they think they can generate more $$ with t-o-u billing, they will. These types of promises mean NOTHING!!!! Remember, NO HST? They just have to convince the government that it will generate more $$ that can then be added to the provincial budget and viola, Time-of-Use billing for everyone!

We're already getting screwed by the lower rate/higher rate system because unless you're a single person without reef tanks, there is almost no way to avoid being mostly billed at the higher rate. It's even worse for us since we share the Hydro bill with the people upstairs and so that lower limit is reached very fast with two households using it up, and then everything else is billed at the higher rate.

Personally, I'm not too worked about the wi-fi signal. It's the open door to T-O-U billing that scares me. I KNOW its just something they don't want people to think about but its in the works. Guaranteed. If they already find it worthwhile to do it in a tiny community like Powell River for well over a decade, how the BC Hydro execs must be drooling at imposing the same billing policy on the rest of us poor saps. And then you'll really be seeing a lot of reef tanks going on sale as people can no longer afford their electric bills.

A 20-30% jump will be a tipping point for a lot of reefers (if not the reefers themselves, then their non-reefing spouses).

OK, enough of an essay. Didn't want to join the debate till I saw what everyone is worried about over smart meters.

Anthony

There is no free lunch
 

We have A/C for our house, and the biggest draw on that is in the evening in the summer. The back (kitchen and family room, and master bedroom upstairs) faces the northwest, so worst possible scenario if they bring this in. However, if we can see our electricity draw over a day, or better yet in real time, on our computers, then we still have a chance to manage it, and minimize those costs. Our house is fairly large, so retains its heat (and coolness) for quite some time. Maybe we can cool it a few degrees extra, just before the higher cost time kicks in.

We also have a hot tub that runs all winter, and we could set a timer to shut that off at peak times (unless we are using it).

In the end we all have to pay for whatever BC Hydro costs are (since they aren't allow to make a profit). So if this allows them to lower their costs, and reduce the amounts of electricity they have to buy at peak times from Alberta (yes, BC is a net importer of electricity), then I am all for it.

Careful not to confuse time of day billing with tiered use billing. Not sure how long ago it was implemented here, but BC Hydro has been billing us on a two tier system for a while now. Rounding numbers up to the nearest cent, they charge me 7 cents per kW.h for the first 1376 kW.h. If I use more than that during the billing period, step 2 kicks in at 10 cents kW.h. So far I haven't reached step 2 during any billing period to date. This type of billing provides users some incentive to not waste energy, since it's to your advantage to try & stay within the step 1 bracket.

The City of Vernon has started the same billing method for water use, with Tiers A, B & C. Needless to say, once you hit Tier C with water use, things get a little pricey per M3. There won't be quite as many lush green lawns in the Vernon area in the years to come. Not necessarily a bad thing, since the Okanagan is an arid place in the summer & water is a precious resource in these parts.

As far as power rates go, we're fortunate in BC to have some of the lowest rates anywhere. We're spoiled & it's easy to get up in arms about potential rate hikes. I think what I'm trying to point out here is that regardless of smart meters, there are plenty of ways for the government & utilities to squeeze the $$$ out of the taxpayer & user, smart meters themselves are not going to change that fact. Best thing to do is take advantage of the functions the smart meter makes available to you the user in order to monitor usage & in the end, cost of what you use.

I'm not confused. Tiered billing is happening in the Lower Mainland. Time-of-use billing is being used in Powell River. I understand the difference.

I have no beef with Tiered billing if it was fairly applied. In our case, they should double our Tier 1 allotment since we have two households on one bill. They don't. That means we have most of our electrical usage billed at Tier 2 since two families are using the same meter.

There's lots of systems that automatically do that. In Europe they pay $0.35kW/h and up, it is very common there to have appliances with delayed starts, like washer/dryer/dishwasher. They also have electric water heaters that will let the water cool off a few degrees during peak pay periods, same with furnaces, fridges, etc. Over here it would probably cost more to implement those things than you would save, but there are options for it.

Well, by the time they bring this in here (will be a tough political battle first), maybe I will have a honking large controller for my reef stuff that I can also use to run my house.:biggrin:

I wish! I still have lots of magpies and crows hanging around that don't seem to mind. Maybe when I get my lawn installed in the summer it will keep the weeds away!

There is no political battle....they want to ...they do. There is no law or legislation needed to add a smart meter and TOU billing. Most people wont make too much noise ...if you do you may delay the inevitable....but it is inevitable.

Hah,... You don't know BC. The media will team up with Vanderzalm, and they can stop (or reverse) anything here...., just to prove they are really in charge. It doesn't matter if it is good or bad for us.

no...all im saying is its the future. Electricity production doesnt happen instantly on demand. TOU makes sense and every electicity meter in the world will be TOU smart meter eventual....that and its green. So stick your heels in all you want but eventually you will have no choice.