Study saves money and power.Participants in electricity conservation experiment cut consumption by 11.5% during peak times.
Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun
BC Hydro customers broke some of their bad habits and saved money this winter in a pilot study on electricity conservation, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
Hydro will announce today that about 1,850 residential customers participating in a conservation study collectively lowered their electricity consumption 11.5 per cent during peak hours last winter.
The results have very favourable implications for Hydro, which has been instructed by the provincial government to make B.C. "energy self-sufficient" by 2016, and will need a strong conservation effort by British Columbians to meet that target.
There was a strong inducement for the study participants to cut back - in the peak evening hours between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., they were voluntarily paying electricity rates two to five times higher than the standard 6.9 cents-per-kilowatt-hour residential rate. According to a summary of the pilot data, some of the savings came in the form of deferred consumption - dishwasher use dropped to nine per cent from 31 per cent during peak times, for example.Other savings were outright cuts in consumption - such as a conscious effort to turn off unnecessary lights and minor appliances.
Hydro wants to run the program again this winter and proposes to introduce an additional pricing scheme that beggars even last winter's top peak rate of 36 cents per kilowatt hour - a "critical peak pricing" rate of 50 cents per kilowatt hour that would apply during "extreme" winter cold snaps.
Hydro also provided so-called "smart meters" to consumers, who got minute-by-minute meter readings on portable hand-held devices inside their homes. The meters do not actually regulate consumption, but conventional wisdom among utilities is that ratepayers using them tend to use less electricity because they serve as reminders to conserve.
Along with critical pricing, Hydro wants to expand the study to include what it calls "load control."
Some pilot participants would have their home thermostats and electric water heaters wired into a BC Hydro-controlled system, and cede control of those devices to Hydro during peak winter demand days in order to conserve electricity. They would have the ability to override the controls, but would have to take active measures - such as a phone call to Hydro or a visit to the Hydro website - in order to have the final say on the temperature in their homes.
Utilities in Florida and California are already introducing load control systems, while Ontario is planning to install smart meters in homes throughout the province.
Hydro must always have on hand enough generating capacity to meet peak demand, so a reduction in consumption means it can delay the addition of new power supply to the provincial grid and save money for customers.
Hydro estimates that if every residential customer reduced consumption by 7.6 per cent during the four winter months, enough energy could be saved to power 44,000 homes.
Hydro president and CEO Bob Elton said in a prepared statement that time-of-use electricity rates and smart meters "will help lead British Columbia towards energy self-sufficiency" and curtail its dependence on imported energy during winter. "Smart meters allow customers to track their electricity use, and by making a few lifestyle changes, make a big difference in energy savings," Elton said.
Hydro media relations advisor Gillian Robinson said Hydro was pleased that a majority of participants - 63 per cent - met the conservation challenge. "Habits are hard to break. At the end of the day, 63 per cent were able to change their usage and conserve enough to actually save money." She noted that there will be a settling-up of accounts for all participants later this year. Hydro covers costs for anyone paying more than they would have under the standard residential rate.
Since the peak period ended in February, participants have been paying a full-time rate one-third lower than the standard residential rate - and those who managed to keep consumption down during winter are now, in effect, creating savings they will be allowed to keep.
Guy Dauncey, executive director of the B.C. Sustainable Energy Association, described the reduction as "a very beneficial result." "It shows that if we can reduce our peak demand across the board in British Columbia by 10 per cent, that actually enables our peak power production to be lowered by 10 per cent," Dauncey said. "So this has major significance. It also shows a good opportunity for people on lower incomes to save money by being flexible in their behaviours."
