Switch to TOU rates held off

Duane Hicks

Due to unforeseen technical issues, the Fort Frances Power Corp. won’t be making the transition to time-of-use (TOU) rates until further notice.
“There will be a delay with our time-of-use roll-out,” said FFPC president and CEO Joerg Ruppenstein, explaining there are information technology-related “system integration issues.”
“If you have a PC, it would be the equivalent of dealing with Microsoft,” he noted. “Their issues are pretty much totally out of our control.
“Our best guess would be another one to two months before we can go live.”
Ruppenstein said other northern utilities, including Kenora, Sioux Lookout, and Atikokan, are experiencing the same delays.
“We’re dealing with the software vendor,” he remarked.
“They ran into some computer programming issues and they’re working away to get these issues resolved to allow the systems to integrate.”
Utilities across Ontario have been mandated to make the transition to TOU rates, but Ruppenstein noted about half of them have filed for extensions.
“The complexity is enormous in making a transition like this,” he stressed. “A lot of utilities are experiencing these sorts of growing pains as they try to move forward and transition their computer systems together.”
The FFPC apologizes to its customers for the unforeseen delays, and any confusion they may cause, said Ruppenstein, adding the FFPC will be sure to let the public know when they’re “100 percent certain we are transitioning.”
The tentative transition date for TOU rates was July 11 but this could not be met due to the software issues.
As previously reported, the switch to TOU rates will mean FFPC customers will pay for electricity according to what time of day they use it (referred to as off-peak, mid-peak, and on-peak hours).
Ruppenstein reminded FFPC customers that the time of day at which they use electricity is not affecting their rates at this point, and will not be a factor until TOU rates come into effect.
“Time of day does not yet matter,” he stressed.
“At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is how much use—time of day does not matter yet.”