'Smart' meters to monitor home energy use

- Every household in Ontario will be fitted with a smart electricity meter under a $400-million program to bring "a revolution" to the use of energy by encouraging consumers to draw power at cheaper, off-peak hours, Premier Dalton McGuinty said recently.

Directly or indirectly, consumers likely will pay the cost of the meters, which the government hopes to reduce to about $100 a unit.

Mr. McGuinty said current government estimates indicate the meters will add $2 or $3 a month to hydro bills, "but we'd like to get it lower still."

The meters, which are to be put in all of Ontario's four million households - including apartments -- over the next six years, record the time when power is drawn as well as the amount of power used.

Electricity drawn between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays will cost considerably more than power drawn in other hours after businesses have shut down.

As a result, consumers who draw electricity during peak hours will face hydro bills that are much higher than those playing by the government's new rules and doing their dishes, laundry and other household chores in the evening or overnight.

"If we can get you to put the dishwasher on after 10 o'clock and we can reward you by making sure that electricity is less expensive at that time of day, then we've got a wonderful, new, revolutionary system in place," Mr. McGuinty said.

The meters now cost $400 a unit, but the Energy Ministry estimates the cost will come down to $100 when more companies start making them.

The ministry, the Ontario Energy Board and local distribution companies will develop a scheme to put them in homes without hitting householders with a fresh charge, a government official said.

"The more we reduce our demand for electricity, the less we'll need to spend increasing supply by building new sources of power," Mr. McGuinty said.

The government estimates that between $25-billion and $40-billion is needed for new or rebuilt generating plants in the next 15 years to meet projected demand.

New Democratic Party Leader Howard Hampton called Mr. McGuinty's announcement "a public-relations scam that will deliver little in the way of reduced hydro use. . . . It doesn't come close to providing the financial incentives Ontarians need."

Progressive Conservative energy critic John O'Toole said the Tories had put in place the structure for conservation measures.

And he warned consumers that despite Mr. McGuinty's words, "You're going to be paying more for electricity."

Mr. McGuinty revealed the new drive for conservation at Cedarvale Community School in Toronto's west end, where pupils of a Grade 6 class had sent proposals for energy conservation to Energy Minister Dwight Duncan in response to last August's blackout.

Next spring, the government and the Ontario Energy Board will introduce the new system for pricing electricity sold to households and small businesses, which account for 50 per cent of all power demand in the province.

When it takes effect, the system will push consumers to emphasize conservation or pay the price.

Initially, Mr. McGuinty said, about 800,000 homes will be fitted with smart meters by 2007 to help them cut their power use. This is the target year set by the government to shut down all five of the province's coal-fired generating plants, which provide about 25 per cent of Ontario's power.

The drive for conservation comes because the government must access every source possible to ensure that the province continues to have enough power.

Ontario now has about 30,500 megawatts of generation capacity. Normally, about 15 per cent of this is under routine maintenance.