Michael Comstock: Will re-sellers outsmart smart meters?

If everything goes as planned our new lifestyle will smooth out the demand for electricity. Which means the Time Of Use pricing loses its value. Is that a win-win or a lose-lose?

By Mike Comstock –

Your cost of electricity will be slowly climbing over the foreseeable future, as the Ontario Energy Board adjusts Hydro rates twice a year.

Toronto Hydro has busily installed “smart meters” that can be read electronically and price the electricity by the time of day. The idea is to smooth out the demand for electricity by encouraging us to use more in off peak periods.

For fixed income seniors and other money-focused families Toronto Hydro’s “time of use” (TOU) metering could change the schedule of home life. The peaks cost periods are just when we are waking up for breakfast and getting off to school or work, and then later when we want to sit down to dinner with the family.

Nov. 1 begins the Winter Weekdays, time-of-use where the highest prices are between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and again in the evening 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The cheapest rate is overnight from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next morning.

Thrifty folks will be time shifting like crazy. Our new dishwasher must have seen this coming as it has a delay start so we can set it to come on at 2 a.m. Sears and Wal-Mart are now selling a new type of power bar with a timer so it can come on at night to charge your phone, batteries, power tools or whatever. Does anyone still have a plug-in clock?

I can foresee dark and quiet mornings, getting up at 6 a.m. to make breakfast, run the washer/dryer, get things going before the peak costs you almost 50% more. I’m not the best communicator in the morning. My wife says, “Hello” and “How are you?” That’s one too many questions for me in the morning.” But waiting for dinner conversation, when dinner has changed to after 9 p.m., might not be better. And after dinner it’s right to bed; you have to get up at 6 a.m.!

This is a night owl’s holiday. Taking a siesta during peak periods should make a comeback. We will be hanging out at the pub or working late, while we wait for the new dinnertime and auto-thermostat to bring the heat back up in the condo.

Stimulating consumerism: If you can’t get a gas stove and hot water tank you will soon be looking for a new induction range. Pasty microwave meals and barbequing will become more popular.

If you have kids this would be a good time to buy those stationary bicycles that generate power for their computer homework, video games and your TV. A solar panel might be an excellent Christmas present this year.

Of course all weekend is off peak, so get those electricity-using chores done Saturday and Sunday. Charge up your electric bike or car on weekends and cook meals for the week ahead.

If everything goes as planned our new lifestyle will smooth out the demand for electricity. Which means the Time Of Use pricing loses its value. Is that a win-win or a lose-lose?

Oh, and just to screw with our acceptance of the energy conservation values here, there is a wholesaler option. Direct Energy will sell you a contract with a single rate just a little above the off peak rate. The availability of this floating price bypasses the TOU queue. It also bypasses my belief that the program has been well thought out.