“Under the new rates announced this week, peak pricing will be 9.9¢ a kw/h beginning on May 1. The off-peak price will be 5.3¢ a kw/h. The Ontario Energy Board, responsible for setting the prices, said the increase will add $7.60 — or 8% — to the average monthly hydro bill.”
Currently I pay 5.8¢ per Kwh for the first 1,000Kwh, have been informed that the delivery charge will increase around 7% {3.3% of total bill, delivery is more than 50% of the bill} AND that HST will add a further 5%) So by my calculations if I manage to transfer ALL my hydro use to nighttime or weekends under the TOD metering I will save just 60¢ per month if I use 1000Kwh per month! (5.3 x 1.033 x 1.05 = 5.74)
If just 50% of my use is “on peak” my hydro bill will increase by abt $22 a month (9.9-5.8 x 500 x 1.033 x 1.05). With us old folks looking for bed by 9pm, not cooking a meal or doing the wash it looks like our already tight budget is going to take a shellacking once again.
It seems the incentive is not to be saving money on our hydro bill for using off peak but a substantial penalty for using it on peak. Given that non of us can totally eliminate the use of hydro before 9pm or after 7am your hydro bill is going to go up substantially and when all that “green hydro” get paid for at 400% to 800% the current PEAK rate (wind around 40¢, solar around 80¢) we will all be going back to cooking on the wood stove (something we here already do quite a bit off) and reading by candlelight!
As one who was original in favor of time of day metering (and still think the concept of shifting use to even consumption is a good plan) I am very disappointed that even major shifts in my hydro usage will not result in any saving to my wallet. I note here also that when originally proposed there were “mid peak” periods proposed that allowed some savings during less busy DAYTIME hours, this has been now eliminated!
One more thing - if I see one more report or flyers saying the price of hydro is in the 5¢ to 9¢ range I am going to sceam, its not as if I have a choice where I get it or that I can go to the generating station and get “a bucket of hydro”, the cost of hydro INCLUDES the delivery charge, the dept retirement payment, the line loss calculation, the “regulatory charges" AND the frigging TAX on it all!! That totals out to around 14c per Kwh at the CURRENT price of hydro.
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2917937#ixzz0lO7OfTeW
Tip of the hat to http://windconcernsontario.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/off-peak-hydro-rate-too-high-watchdog/
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