The Canadian Smart Grid
It’s official, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—worldwide, this year has had the warmest average temperature on record for the April-to-June period.
Canada isn’t immune to the solar blast. My summertime sojourn here in British Columbia has come complete with stupefying heat. As I watched U.S. utilities deal with demand-based outages, my thoughts this past week turned to Canada’s intelligent utilities and their efforts.
I’ve been following Ontario’s smart grid path for the better part of a year as its utilities, as directed by the Ontario Energy Board, move to smart meters and time-of-use pricing. I tracked Toronto Hydro’s smart grid journey in the March/April 2010 issue of Intelligent Utility magazine. Ontario Hydro is now using time-of-use pricing, as well, as are some of the province’s other larger electric utilities.
My Ontario-based parents, pensioners on a fixed income, are already worried that their meter might not be registering correctly, in advance of their first time-of-use bill. My mother tells me she’s logging everything she does that draws more than a light bulb to ensure her meter is registering correctly. Her pre-TOU pricing cost per kilowatt-hour was 5.6 cents. Now, their prices will range from 5.3 cents (low peak) to 8.0 cents (mid peak) to 9.9 cents (high peak). She’s changing her housework schedule to take advantage of low-peak pricing for the dishwasher and clothes dryer, but still realizes she won’t save much in the change, as her pre-TOU cost was only 0.3 cents higher than her new low-peak rate.
It’s an argument I’ve espoused for awhile—those of us who have conserved energy for years aren’t going to get a big break in our electricity bill for continuing to manage our peak-use. It’s the electricity hogs who will benefit, but only if they “get with the program.” While my mother’s attention to the details of her electricity use are laudable, as she’s trying to ensure her meter reading is correct, her concern off the bat that her meter is wrong is a potential red flag. If there are others like her, Ontario Hydro may want to consider more consumer-focused information in the short-term.
Here in British Columbia, BC Hydro has initiated both smart meter and smart grid programs, with completion time frames set for 2013 and 2014, respectively. Here in the rural splendor of southeastern B.C., we are served by Fortis BC, and it’s likely going to take a little longer.
In the next province to the east, Fortis Alberta, an electricity distributor to the rural central and southern portions of the province, is replacing all of its 480,100 consumers’ traditional meters with smart meters, with a projected completion date of the end of this year. The City of Calgary’s electricity provider, Enmax, is also initiating a smart meter program.
But in my search to see what was new in Canada, it was a discussion paper by the Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance, published at the beginning of this year, which really caught my eye. Back in January 2008, the Alberta government indicated it would develop an Energy Efficiency Act as part of its Climate Change Strategy. “The way we use energy leaves a lot to be desired,” the province’s 2008 energy strategy rather succinctly stated.
In anticipation of that legislation, the Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance commissioned the paper as a way to contribute to the discussion, and offer options for how that legislation might play out for Alberta.
According to the report, the desired overall energy efficiency strategy would include: an analysis of energy use patterns and barriers to energy efficiency; increasing the availability of efficient products and services; codes and standards; legislation; awareness building (including education standards and labeling), appropriate price signals (including incentives); increasing the availability of funding or financing; and programs targeted to low-income households.
Obviously, each of these would have to be designed specifically for Alberta’s regulatory framework, but each point listed deserves attention, not only within Alberta, but within other provinces and states without energy efficiency plans already in place within their jurisdictions.
Readers on both side of the border, I’d appreciate your input. Where do Canadian smart grid efforts stand with respect to those in the United States? I look forward to your comments and your e-mails either here in the forum, or via e-mail at krowland@energycentral.com. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/katerowland2
