Then we’ll get a short break - because the first Smart Meter program will be paid off - before more rising costs.
["Chop down the turbines and your hydro bill will still rise"]
By most Ontarians, our province’s hydro rates (predicted to rise by 46% over the next 5 years) are likely considered to be...
fully shocking,
fully expected,
or somewhere in between.
I’m somewhere in between because I sense Ontario’s energy demands will continue to rise for the next 20 years.
Even if rates stay the same from today onward (which they won’t) most business and residential bills will increase.
Wait, wait, wait, someone will surely say. We have the Smart Meters and they’ll help us smarten up and the bills will go down.
No, they won’t.
First, we’ll have to pay for the Smart Meter program for quite awhile. Those meters don’t come cheap. Wash your clothes on weekends only for the next ten years to save money, if you like (and I hope you will), but the cost of the program will still be on our bills. That’s a debt that will keep on giving for quite some time.
Second, the Smart Meter program is likely the precursor to the Smart Meter 2 program. Better meters. More information for the suppliers and the users. Old meters out. New meters in. More machines. More paperwork. More costs.
Third, conserve as you will (and I hope you will), your savings from your hard work will likely be swallowed up my the next rate increase and the one after that. As weel, the windows of opportunity to use the cheapest rates will close here and there, the time periods with higher rates will be extended. (You thought life was fair? I’m shocked).
Fourth, conserve as you will, the majority of major users and home owners will not. We’ve enjoyed 65 years of growing bigger and better and we aren’t likely to change. The Smart Meter might one day come with vocal chords but the majority will pay it no heed.
“Why can’t you do your work during non-peak hours?” the Smart Meter may yell.
“How many appliances and lights do you actually need?”
[Courtesy of Mojo]
“Can’t you exercise outside rather than run on a treadmill?”
“Try clotheslines. Grind the coffee by hand. Open that can of beans with one of those non-electric whatjamacallits. Don’t plug in the E-car. Walk to work fer cryin’ out loud.”
Just by listening to the Smart Meter’s frantic cries you can tell it really isn’t all that smart.
Even if a future government (let’s call it right wing and really concerned about reducing every cost known to man, especially taxes) chops down the windmills and turns up production of cheap black juice (coal-fired energy), associated costs will rise.
Likely for twenty years.
***
Live Small Pt 1: Are hydro rates shocking or expected?
Does my economic plan spell r-e-l-i-e-f?
.
2 comments:
I think you forgot that there is an additional cost saving of the smart meters, that they can be read remotely.
hydro companies might save money by dropping meter readers if 'remote reads' can be done quickly, but then there is the higher associated cost - unemployment.
i'm starting to lean toward putting the machines out of work and giving jobs back to people, at least until unemployment numbers start looking better.
cheers
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