ENVIRONMENTAL INTERSECTION used in total with smart ”Time-of-Use” meters and introduced time-of-use electricit y rates so a l l electricit y consumers have a financial incentive to adjust their consumption patterns. The advantages of encouraging electricity consumers to adjust when they use electricity are so large that many jurisdictions have introduced a range of demand response incentive programs. Again, Ontario is a leader in this area and has launched a range of voluntary incentive programs. For homeowners and small businesses, the Peaksaver prog r a m u s e s ut i l it y- c ont rol le d thermostats or switches to cycle down central air conditioning units during peak times in the summer that have negligible impacts on indoor comfort. To date, about 190,000 units have been installed and have the ability to reduce peak demand by about 100 MW. For larger companies, the Ontario Power Authority has offered a range of Demand Response programs that provide financial incentives to participants; the most recent is capable of reducing demand by more than 250 MW. Among the features of this program is the ability of approved “aggregators” to sign up smaller electricity customers to receive incentives to change their consumption patterns. And for the largest users (over 5 MW), the new five Coincident Peaks program provides them an incentive to reduce their demand on the five highest peak hours of the year. As they can never be sure when these hours will occur, they typically reduce their demand by as much as 50 hours/ year. Last summer, this program resulted in a peak demand reduction on the hottest day by 560 MW. Large c o n s u m e r s a l s o p a r t i c ip a t e d i n Ontario’s Operating Reserve market which contributed 259 MW. Ontario companies such as Embala and Rodan are also leading the way in t he development of innovat ive pro duc t s a nd s er v ic e s t h at he lp consumers take advantage of lower costs of electricity during off-peak times automatically. More can and needs to be done to further enhance these programs. The price differential between on-peak and off-peak electricity, currently less t h a n 2 :1, s h o u l d b e i n c r e a s e d ; increasing it to 4:1 is estimated to triple the drop in peak demand. More
of the fixed costs of electricity (now provider. Once informed, f ind the more than ha lf the average bil l) best way to participate so you can should be converted into variable begin saving money while doing your c o s t s to p r o v i d e e v e n s t r on g e r part for the environment. If your motivation to use more off-pea k province does not yet have demand p ow e r. OPA’s d em a nd r e s p on s e response programs and time-of-use program rules can be improved and rates, ask them to investigate the t h e i m p o r t a n t r o l e p l a y e d b y advantages. BS&S aggregators can be better supported. But most important, it is up to you. Peter Love is an Associate at Elenchus and an CARMA_CondoBusiness_01-19-2009_CS2--F.pdf Find out more about these programs Adjunct 2/3/09 Professor5:41:35 at YorkPMUniversity’s Faculty b y c o n t a c t i n g y o u r e l e c t r i c i t y of Environmental Studies.
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