Duane Hicks
While some Hydro One customers in Rainy River District will be switching over to time-of-use (TOU) rates later this month, Fort Frances Power Corp. customers can expect them to come into effect starting July 1.
FFPC CEO and president Joerg Ruppenstein said last week that the FFPC currently is in the testing phase, connecting its billing system to the Meter Data Management/Repository (MDMR) system in southern Ontario to be sure the interface is working properly.
MDMR’s function is ensure all of the billing data is correct.
Once this testing phase is finished, the FFPC will launch a formal media campaign to educate the public on the provincially-mandated TOU rates leading up to the July 1 start date.
Ruppenstein said the transition to TOU rates are what the FFPC has been building up to for the past several years, and are the main reason for the implementation of “smart meters” here.
In a nutshell, hydro rates will vary throughout the day—being more expensive at peak times and less expensive during off-peak periods.
By knowing when these times are, people will be able to choose when and how they use electricity.
“The difference between the rate plan that consumers are on right now and time-of-use is that the time of day when energy is consumed will matter,” Ruppenstein explained.
There will be three price periods with TOU rates, classified as: “on-peak” (when cost and demand are highest), “mid-peak” (cost and demand are moderate), and “off-peak” (cost and demand are lowest).
“So evenings and weekends, for example, are your cheapest power—that will be ‘off-peak,’” noted Ruppenstein.
“The rationale is that the ‘off-peak’ power will be lower than what the current power prices are at under the regulated price plan.”
The price periods for the winter season (Nov. 1-April 30) are as follows:
•Off-peak: 9 p.m.-7 a.m.
•On-peak: 7-11 a.m. and 5-9 p.m.
•Mid-peak: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
In the summer season (May 1-Oct. 31), they would be:
•Off-peak: 9 p.m.-7 a.m.
•On-peak: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
•Mid-peak: 7-11 a.m. and 5-9 p.m.
Weekends and holidays are considered “off-peak” during both the winter and summer periods.
To compare rates from now to what they will be, FFPC customers are on the regulated price plan, meaning that for the first 1,000 kilowatt hours they use, the cost is 6.4 cents per kwh.
Above the 1,000 kwh threshold, the cost is 7.4 cents/kwh.
By contrast, the current TOU rates are 5.1 cents per kwh for “off-peak,” 8.1 cents for “mid-peak,” and 9.9 cents for “on-peak.”
The Ontario Energy Board reviews and adjusts rates every six months, and will be finalizing the summer rates by the end of April so they’re effective May 1.
But Ruppenstein estimated the summer TOU rates will remain fairly close to what they are now.
Of course, all eligible FFPC customers (i.e., those not signed with an independent energy retailer) will continue to receive the historic power agreement credit of one cent/kwh.
Since the TOU rates will vary between the three price periods, the idea is customers will be more likely to reduce their consumption at times of peak demand while shifting it to a time of lower demand, explained Ruppenstein.
“If you were not to change your energy usage habits, you would likely see a small increase on your bill,” he noted. “But it should not be a significant increase just due to this change in billing mechanisms.
“The government wants people to be more in tune with their energy-consumption habits, and give people the ability, if they were to change their habits, to be rewarded for it,” he remarked.
“If, for example, you have ‘smart’ appliances and can set timers on dishwashers, and you were to run them on ‘off-peak’ periods, you would actually save money in doing so,” Ruppenstein said.
“The government is trying to create a culture of conservation and be more in tune with their energy habits.”
Because “smart meters” will provide the FFPC with hourly consumption data, customers will notice that with each bill, they’ll be able to see how much electricity they used and when.
A little further down the road, FFPC customers may be able to access this information via the Internet.
“Smart meters” also have allowed the FFPC to switch to automatic meter reading last summer.
Instead of having someone go around to residences and businesses to get readings, the smart meters record electricity consumption information on an hourly basis and report it—via wireless technology—back to one of six data collectors that are located at strategic places in town (they work similar to cellphone towers).
These, in turn, relay that information back to control computers operated by the FFPC.
