Smart gift ideas: electricity monitors and hot water

The big deals of the early Christmas shopping season are coming to an end soon, so it’s a little late for advising on purchases, but I have been looking at some product and thought a post on what, and why, might be of interest. Like some - if not many - when I think gifts I think of addressing energy consumption, the new technology of a smarter “internet of things” (IoT), and emissions from energy use. Having served a decade in retail some time ago, I also think of selling as much as buying.

Some background on my electricity consumption history. Our current home uses much less electricity than it did when we arrived a decade-and-a-half ago. I wrote on the house early in 2015 after we’d received natural gas and installed a forced-air furnace and my beloved gas stove.

A quick narrative for the chart: from 2004 to 2007 the living space grew considerably (30+%) - efficiency improved although consumption doesn’t show it. Then the wood stove years began (about 3 full cords a years) and more of the house was renovated/insulated. At the end of 2014 gas arrives (we consume 1000-1100 cubic meters a year), and wood consumption is halved. The blip up in 2017 was due to a project by another member of the household (quite a productive one), which ended early this year and consumption is falling back accordingly. Electricity consumption is above the average for Ontario homes, but there may be very few homes at that average as those that heat water with electricity (as I do) are likely above average, and others probably below.

And then there’s cost.

enough of experts: The End of the IESO

“I think people in this country have had enough of experts...
enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.”  -Michael Gove, June 3, 2016

Gove's "enough of experts" was one of 2016's most mocked phrases. Those considering themselves on the side of angels/experts ignored the nuance, but perhaps the public did not as Gove's side won the referendum to separate the United Kingdom from the European Union, and later in the year the ultimate establishment candidate failed to be elected President of the United States despite the obvious flaws of her opponent. When people stop to examine if they've had enough of experts from organizations with acronyms, like IESO, many discover they really have.

Perhaps the people have a point, and modern "so-called experts" are simply those who benefited from the current situation. As "the victors write the history", the profiteers win the title of "expert".

It has been an eventful few months for Ontario's electricity system mandarins.

On September 1st the IESO delivered an Ontario Planning Outlook (OPO) to a rookie Minister (of Energy) - a report they were directed to produce by the former, veteran, Minister of Energy. Surging electricity rates were considered the main issue in a by-election held the same day, in which the government lost a seat that had been a traditional stronghold.
Before September was over the government suspended its Large Renewable Energy procurement, justifying the decision with, "The IESO has has advised that Ontario will benefit from a robust supply of electricity over the coming decade to meet projected demand." 
Before November was over the novice Minister of Energy was sketching out themes for a long-term energy plan built upon market concepts the IESO frequently enunciates.

By the end of November the Premier had stood before her Liberal Party and referred to high electricity prices as "her mistake."

It's important to review what created the current situation in Ontario - as I've been doing on this blog - but it's also pertinent to ask "who" did this. An old saying implores commentary to "play the ball and not the player," but eventually everything is about people.

Failed time-of-use electricity pricing in Ontario

Time-of-use electricity pricing is a hot topic since Ontario's Auditor General wrote of the high costs of the smart meter implementation in the province. The defence of the program from Ontario’s Minister of Energy appears to be spreading disinformation about rates, and multiple sources are calling for a greater differential between “off-peak” pricing and “on-peak” pricing. I'll review Ontario's time-of-use rate history, showing how the differential shrunk, and explaining why. The analysis of time-of-use pricing in Ontario’s electricity sector displays the absurd disconnect between pricing and supply policy in the province, made even more absurd by political interference.

Speaking following The Canadian Taxpayers Federation announcing a waste award to “Ontario’s Ministry of Energy for 'smart meters’ fiasco",  Minister Bob Chiarelli reportedly said:

“We did have a higher price for peak when we first introduced (time-of-use pricing) and there were a lot of consumer complaints about that...In response to consumers, we reduced the peak price and there was less of a differential and that created less of an opportunity to save more money on your electricity rates.
We’re reviewing that decision at the present time,”

There is some truth to the statement that the government responded to complaints about time-of-use, but they did so prior to 2011's election by regulating off-peak pricing to start at 7 pm - it was at 9 pm prior to the change.
I've seen no indication that on-peak time-of-use (TOU) prices were ever deliberately lowered, aside from altering the hours on-peak pricing was applied.

Smart - or not: Ontario's Regulator calls for more new meters

I looked into an Ontario Energy Board (OEB) Notice of Proposal after seeing a tweet:

The Board is of the view that, given the current metering infrastructure and pricing environment, it is appropriate to ... require a distributor to install a MIST [Metering Inside the Settlement Timeframe] meter on any installation that is forecast by the distributor to have a monthly average peak demand during a calendar year of over 50 kW.

The comments the OEB has received on the proposal are informative - as is the omission of comments from a couple of well-paid government organizations that should have an opinion.

This is, I assume, a complex subject - particularly for people under the impression all of Ontario's electricity consumers already have "smart" meters.

They don't.
The OEB proposal addresses, for better or worse, a gap in policy.

Essentially all residential consumers should now have "smart" meters reporting through designed protocols and networks.  According to the most recent OEB Annual Yearbook of Electricity Distributors, about 90% of all customers fall into the residential category, but they don't account for even 30% of overall demand.

Hydro One 3rd Quarter Report Hints at High Costs Of Politicized Electricity System

Hydro One's Press Release on 3^rd Quarter results includes a number of sentences that leave me scratching my head and wondering how much spending is necessary to keep the lights on, and how much should be attributed to the politically motivated connection of unreliable, heavily subsidized, generation.

Curiosity  seems to be in short supply these days, as the country's most read papers continue to print that bills can't have been going up due to renewables as most contracted capacity is not yet online.  They missed years of escalating delivery charges for Ontario's residential consumers.  I had previously looked at escalating capital costs (including the chart shown here, taken from an earlier article on our smart grid).  2010's capital expenditures finally leveled off, at 2009's level, but with the smart meter spending essentially completed, the recent Hydro One results don't indicate capital expenditures will be reduced.

Forecast –Misanthropic with A Chance of Perception

I noticed at The Globe and Mail site an article, on yet another Climate Change study, which began “Climate change will have the greatest effect on those least responsible for causing the problem, a new study suggests.”  The most successful parts of the planet did industrialize early, and the most productive countries have tended to be northern.  I think we could spot a coincidence, if we weren’t looking for a morality tale.  The modeling seems designed to leave the impression that wealthier societies are villains.

Time-Of-Use Pricing

Time-of-Use (TOU) pricing is being implemented in Ontario.  This should provide the personal benefits of Ontario’s spending on smart meters.  More likely, it will result in the same efficiency gains we’ve seen on our bills from the rest of the smart grid initiatives (higher line loss factors added to our usage, and higher delivery charges in general).    Electricity policy encompasses issues of security, social responsibility, economics, politics, and environmental concerns.  TOU billing has implications for all of these things.   I won’t revisit the role of the OEB in protecting, or neglecting, the Ontario consumer – it’s in the smart meter column.  I will show TOU is limited in it's ability to alter Ontario's electricity supply - a supply that is being altered in a way incompatible with the intent of TOU as a demand management tool.

Hey Kid, can you lend me $50 million for something Smart?

An article begins with "The Canadian Province of Ontario has announced plans to launch a $50 million smart grid initiative aimed at driving investment in research, capital and demonstration projects."
They didn't do that on any Government of Ontario site I can locate.

If by announced you mean whisper it in a foreign jurisdiction through a City of Guelph employee aligned with yet another organization with yet another adorable name (Ontario Clean Technology Alliance) made up of yet another grouping of different local governments - well, maybe they did announce it.

Some things not in the announcement: