The two basic homeowner electric plans offered by Hydro-Quebec are:
- A two-rate tarrif based on average daily consumption. This is aimed at the home with electric heating only. Below 30 kW-h / day, one rate, and for every kW-h/day (on a 2 month average) above that, a higher rate applies. (about 1 cent difference)
- For people with gas, oil or other non grid heating systems that use far less electricity. If the temperature is above -12 degrees, then a fairly low rate applies, and when the temperature is below -12 degrees, then a much higher rate (around 16 c per kW-h) applies. (A temperature sensor on the electric meter switches in the higher rate at lower temperatures).
This system made sense during the 80's and 90's for a variety of reasons including metering technology and fairly low oil and gas costs, but it is outdated with Hydro-Quebec's power network, generating capacity and transmission network and its customer base today, especially in light of rising fossil fuel costs and a movement to reduce anthropogenic global warming.
What is a bit surprising to most Quebecers is that Hydro-Quebec imports electricity from the US, New Brunswick, Labrador and Ontario as well as "internal" non-HQ suppliers. When power is supplied from the US, it is the most expensive peak rate power and mostly fossil fuel based, at that. When power comes from the other sources, the mix is a little less evil, but in the case of Ontario it does include coal.
It is high time that Hydro-Quebec provide a new metering scheme based on time of day use. In this way water heaters could delay heating until after peak hours. Clothes dryers could be started after peak hours and so on.
But the biggest electricity cost for many Quebecers is heating. As the price of oil and gas continue to climb, new home builders will be avoiding these heating sources and adding their heating load to the HQ grid. During winter cold snaps, Hydro Quebec is forced to purchase power from other sources. It simply does not have the generating capacity.
In order to off-peak the heating load, homeowners could install heat storage systems which essentially are a larger than average furnace with the heating elements embedded in a mass of ceramic. During the night, when most people have their thermostats turned down to 17 or so, there is little electric demand. So, this is the perfect time for the ceramic furnace to turn on and heat up the ceramic plates, but with the fan off, the heat is stored at high temperature in the ceramic plates. When the plates reach a maximum temperature, the heating stops. As the furnace is extremely well insulated, the ceramic plates cannot cool. There is nowhere for the heat to go. The next morning when the thermostat jumps up to 20, the fan turns on to send the heat into the house. Since the heat was stored, only power for the fan (less than 1 kW) is needed instead of the typical 20 - 25 kW of an electric furnace. Over thousands of homes, this means much less importation of electricity from the US at peak deliver rates.
A ceramic based furnace can store heat for more than a days worth of heating for even a large house. So this most important source of power draw is the best opportunity for HQ to shift enormous peak loads into the wee hours making more power free for cooking dinner and evening lighting and home entertainment.
To make this attractive, Hydro Quebec needs to:
- Implement time of day metering and billing rates
- Provide a cash incentive for existing oil, gas and electric furnaces to be replaced with thermal storage systems.
Not only is the above a greener alternative, it is in the long run a net money saver for Hydro-Quebec as it will avoid both costly peak-power electricity purchases and the development of new generation and transmission.
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