Economics: Prepare for Electric Anger

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I received the highest electric bill I've ever received since moving to Toronto today. That would be bad enough, but prices are only going to go up. My case should be milder than average, so my prediction is that there is going to be outrage in the population over the increasing rates.

Part of the increase comes from the new Time-Of-Use rates that now cause electricity used at peaks--like dinnertime--to cost 9.6 cents per kilowatt-hour instead of the 5.6 cent flat rate seen before. I've managed to shift 66% of my electricity usage to times with the lowest, 4.8 cent rate, something most people will not be able to do, and my raw charge for electricity has still gone up by about 10%. Most people will see a larger increase from Time-Of-Use rates, as I predicted in my first posting on this topic.

However, there are huge increases elsewhere. The delivery charge compared with the same period last year is up 32%. The regulatory fee has almost doubled, up by 70%. The debt retirement charge is up by a similar amount, by 66%. Combine all this with slightly increased electrical usage over last year (I didn't realize 2009 was that warm), and my bill is up nearly 56% over the same period last year.

That's an outrage to an unemployed person trying to make ends meet. But, it gets worse. Right now, the electrical bill is subject only to the GST. As of 1 July, it will be subject to the HST, raising the cost by another 8%. Then, the provincial government has approved a 7% increase in rates. So, I can expect that--if nothing else happens--my late 2010 electrical bills will be 65% higher than in the same period of 2009. That's completely unmanageable, and there isn't even a carbon tax yet!

For those who think privatization is the answer, let me remind everyone what happened when my water heater rental was sold from a public utility to a private company. It used to cost $4.95. Two years after privatization, it costs $9.98, and will go up even more with the HST. That's more than doubling in two years--absolutely outrageous. However, as a renter, I have no recourse as I can't buy it and I can't convince my landlord to buy and amortize the cost in a rent increase. This actually makes Toronto Hydro look good by comparison.

There's going to be anger about electric rates in Toronto, and it will be an issue in the mayoral election. Just wait until the summer.

Margin Notes: Walks, Power, Cooking, Q

The CN Tower loomed in the distance as seen near Lambton Park in Toronto, Ontario on 24-January-2010. The newly-rebuilt Dundas Street bridge over the Humber River is in the foreground.

TORONTO, ONTARIO - It was very nice to return to my normal Sunday routine today, which I had not followed since 29-November. I slept in, listened to CBC Radio One's The Sunday Edition from 9 to noon, took a walk out to the Humber River to watch the Expressway train go by, and then it started raining, so I came back to my computer. I could do that every Sunday.

* * * * * *

I have taken a fair number of two-hour walks to downtown Toronto from where I live in the past year or so, a distance of about ten kilometers or six miles. To put this in perspective in previous places I have lived, that walk would be equivalent to:

• My parents' home near Beaux Arts Village, Washington all the way to Interlake High School in Bellevue, Washington
• Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington, all the way to the far end of the University of Washington's main campus in Seattle
• My grandparents' house near downtown Kennewick, Washington all the way to the Columbia Center Mall in Kennewick, Washington
• Stanford University's central campus all the way to the downtown Mountain View, California Caltrain station
• South Station in Boston, Massachusetts all the way to the Alewife subway station in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Perhaps needless to say, I have never taken any of those walks. In some cases, I have never even walked half that distance from the starting point.

* * * * * *

After taking a walk, it's time to cook a meal. Thanks to the new Toronto Hydro usage web site I talked about previously, I now know based on the spikes at mealtime that it costs me about $0.50 in electricity to cook dinner off peak, and about $1 on peak, which helps puts eating out in perspective.

* * * * * *

I had been thinking recently that I hadn't eaten chicken cordon bleu for a long time, and considering that I hadn't seen it pre-prepared in the frozen foods section for less than about $7 a serving in some time, I was thinking about getting ingredients to make it myself--something I haven't done in probably seven years. Then, I noticed a No Name brand "Ham and Cheese Stuffed Breaded Chicken Breast" for sale for less than $2 a serving. The difference between that and chicken cordon bleu is lost on me and I thought it tasted pretty good, so I guess I won't be on the spot to cook it after all.

* * * * * *

Jian Ghomeshi will be on the spot this week. His CBC Radio One show, Q, is apparently being sampled on public radio in the United States this week. So far, the stations I have noticed advertising the trial are KALW in San Francisco, which will run the show at various times of day during the one-week run, and North Country Public Radio in New York state, which will run it at 1 pm. Personally, I have a hard time seeing what kind of station in the United States would run a show that is so fundamentally focused on Canadian culture, no matter how good it is, but it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Economics: Time-of-Use Rates

Toronto Hydro now provides extensive data on one's electrical use; the graph above shows my own electrical use during the second half of November during off-peak (green), mid-peak (yellow) and on-peak (red) periods each day

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I returned home to find many fliers in my mail about the new Time-of-Use rates being implemented by Toronto Hydro, the local electrical utility. I knew that new meters had been installed last September (I was taking great amusement in seeing how much less electricity I had consumed than my neighbours since then, as we had all started over at zero, making it easy to compare), and I had rather been looking forward to the new rules, until I saw the actual rules.

I thought I did a decent job of using electricity at off-peak times, as I regularly cook dinner after 7 or even 8 pm and start laundry in the late evening, often doing it between 8 and 10 pm or later. However, that actually doesn't help much. Under the new Time-of-Use rules, the only time that power is discounted on weekdays (to 4.4 cents per kilowatt hour) is between 9 pm and 7 am. The rest of the day, power costs significant more than it has in the past. In fact, in the winter months, the highest rates (9.3 cents per kilowatt hour) will be imposed between 7 and 11 am and between 5 and 9 pm. Don't want to pay exorbitant rates for cooking dinner? You'll have to eat before 5 pm (when electricity costs 8.0 cents per kilowatt hour, still more than it used to before the change) or after 9 pm.

After seeing how the regime was going to work, I was not surprised to log into Toronto Hydro's web site, which is a nice new feature of the change, and discover that my typical electrical bill for a two-month period will go up from $63.96 to $67.04.


A graph provided by Toronto Hydro showed that my electrical costs will be increasing based on my usage during off-peak (green), mid-peak (yellow), and on-peak (red) periods during October and November

As I was someone who was already reasonably responsible with my electricity usage, I can only imagine how much the new rates may be hurting the average person (though considering that fact that dinner at 5 pm and 8 pm is the same under the new system, maybe everyone is having about the same impact as I will see). Except for pushing laundry even later into the evening (or getting up extremely early to do it), I scarcely see how I can improve the improve the situation. Is it really realistic to wake up at 5 am in order to bake cookies? I will just have to live with higher electricity rates.

One incontrovertibly cool thing about the new meters is the ability to log in on-line and see one's electrical usage the next day, when one might still remember what happened the previous day. For example, I was able to log in today and clearly see the time when I turned on an additional space heater in my apartment.


This graph showed my electrical usage yesterday, 12-January-2010--note the prominent spike (on-peak, no less) when I turned on an additional space heater about 9 am

I had high hopes for Time-of-Use rates reducing my electrical bill and creating more awareness of electrical usage. However, aside from the cool Internet interface for viewing electrical use, I doubt many people will find they can move much of their use outside the "on-peak" periods.