DUMB METERS

DUMB METERS-How Gordon Campbell Wants You to Squander a Billion Dollars

  Jim Quail, Executive Director, BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre

  The wheels are spinning in high gear selling us the dumbest single scheme the Premier’s Office has come up with so far for BC Hydro.  They want us to buy a billion-dollar plan to hang hi-tech meters on every home in the province.  All by itself, this would add about 8.3% to every household’s electricity bill, even taking account of off-setting savings like meter-reading.

There is no doubt that these gadgets, which basically add a computer and a communication system to electricity meters, can do lots of things that the simple, cheap, reliable meters we have today can’t do.  The important question, however, is whether those new features (like animal-noise reminders to turn off the lights) are worth the gigantic price tag.

The main function of a “smart meter” is to track how much power you use minute by minute through the day, and relay this information to BC Hydro.  This enables different prices depending on the time of consumption.  Electricity used during peak times (weekday mornings and evenings) would cost more than off-peak – say, in the middle of the night.

The point of this is to encourage us to shift our energy-use from peak times, when the system is under the heaviest demand, to the slack times.  That sounds sensible unless you try to apply it to most people’s real lives.

There is a reason why we use more power during peak times.  Take a typical family with working parents and school-age kids.  Most of their energy-intensive activities occur in the rush to get everybody up, dressed, fed, and out the door, and later when they all converge at home late in the afternoon for dinner, homework, baths and bed.  All of that activity would attract a high on-peak price.  Energy-heavy household chores, like laundry, can only be done during those two slices of the day. . . that is, unless someone wants to set the alarm to get up at midnight to run the clothes dryer. 

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