In today’s Globe and Mail, Karen Howlett reports that consumer electricity prices are set to rise by 25% by the end of 2011, or, for the average consumer, about $300 per year. The hike has to do with the combination of the implementation of the HST, (adding an additional 8% to your electricity bill), the recent change to time of use pricing, and most importantly, the awarding of $15 billion in renewable energy contracts for power generation in Ontario.
While the consumer side of me groans at the increase in electricity prices, the environmentalist side of me applauds the government for its forward-thinking and responsible decision to promote green power. Well, I only partially applaud. I’m not particularly crazy about the HST.
Here are a few tips to help you adjust to the new, higher costs:
- Time of Use pricing has recently come into effect. You’ve been given the opportunity to use your electricity more wisely by doing all of your chores at night when lower electricity prices are in place. If you’ve never used the delay buttons on your dishwasher or washing machine, now is the time to start.
- Put your kill-a-watt to work, find your power hogs and get rid of them, change your light bulbs to CFLs, or try out some LEDs, and buy power strips with built-in timers so you’re not using electricity when you don’t need it.
- Do as the Europeans do — if you’re not in a room, turn the lights off.
- Take advantage of savings available on the every killowatt counts website to add ceiling fans and EnergyStar rated air conditioners and power strips, if you don’t already have them.
::via The Globe and Mail
Why aren’t they using their obscene profits to pay down their debts? Is this profiteering?
I live in an apartment and I put up solar panels and fight time of use pricing by using my battery bank. I am off grid in the middle of civilization. I have sandwiches or cold salad sometimes for dinner. Also you can cook using tealights – it’s actually cheaper than electricity. You can’t fight the system – it’s too broken and is collapsing. Vote with your dollar. Put up cheap solar panels and go off grid. Free electricity – no tax. Roflmao. Ontario hydro = epic fail. Bankruptcy part 2 coming soon.
Candu was the biggest economic fail in history and mc guinty wants to build more? The tritium the candu’s release into Ontario’s drinking water must be affecting mc guinty’s brain.
I heat my house with hydro.i can not afford it anymore,but who will buy my house?at work i have hade to take 2 pay cuts in the last year alone.poor getting poorer.
Believe it or not, Ontario Hydro is giving their employees increased benefits. $3000 for each family member for Laser Vision Correction. Who is paying for this increased insurance?
That’s funny. I did all the things listed above and my rates have gone up to $400 a year and my family lives in a town house. The rich will stay rich and the poor will get really poor. I love how this article makes the consumer think if we do all these things to reduce energy we will reduce energy costs. When that is not the case. And also we are now being told when to do our laundry and run our dishwasher in a “free” country. If we do laundry or turn up the heat or air conditioning during “peak times” we will be penalized. The only ones who are free are the ones making the rules and the ones making the rules don’t care because they can afford to pay during peak times and probably have a maid doing their laundry anyways!
This means my disabled wife as to be worm during the day.Air conditioning is only going to be for the rich whats new in this country
Give me a break!
Higher hydro rates benefit only one group of people…Hydro bureaucrats and union workers. Meanwhile the ordinary joe is being told to save costs by reducing hydro usage. That’s like a mechanic telling you to turn up the radio to cure a noisy muffler.
Trying to suggest that higher wages and more bureaucratic regulations which result in higher consumer costs are somehow related to a greener planet is of course ludicrous and an insult to one’s intelligence.
Here’s a suggestion. Cut the number of bureaucrats at Hydro One in half, reduce union and management wages by at least 30%, stop including a return on investment in customer rates and stop treating consumers like they are idiots by suggesting that they can reduce their bills by turn off electricity they are not using. That’s like telling someone they can reduce their food costs by not buying so much food.
I’m glad you you think increasing hydro rates is such a good thing. It is obvious you can absorb the increase without leaving yourself in in a position of choosing between food and heat. Why didn’t you include skyrocketing the cost of Hydro One workers compensation? The largest number of employees making in excess of $100,000 a year in Canada. All of the ideas you have suggested might save the average homeowner $50.00 a year. Cant people like you ever see both sides of an issue?