Imagine wandering over to check your thermostat and finding a text message on it asking if you’d mind if Enersource increased the temperature in your air-conditioned house by a couple of degrees for the next three hours to help ease the power shortage.
It could happen here, sooner rather than later.
Last night at Huron Park Community Centre, Enersource Hydro Mississauga held an open house for the 550 households participating in the Smart Avenues pilot project: a living laboratory to show people how they can really take advantage of the smart meters that will be installed in every house in Ontario by 2010.
By now everyone should be clueing in to the fact, thanks to successive governments who never had the courage or will to address the issue, this province faces a potential crisis with its power supply, likely in the near future.
Way too late, conservation is finally being taken seriously as an alternative.
Enersource has taken the bit in its teeth and run with its conservation program. Smart Avenues will be the centrepiece.
“We want to make Smart Avenues a model for all of Ontario,” Enersource’s Chief Conservation Officer Carmine DiRuscio told the residents from the selected study area south of The Queensway to the QEW from the Credit River to Hurontario St.
There was a glut of information on everything from a gizmo called The Energy Detective (TED) that can instantaneously show you how much power and money you can save by turning off your air conditioner, to timers for appliances, smart thermostats that can cycle your air conditioning on and off every 15 minutes, to the known quantities of Compact Fluorescent Bulbs and front-loading washing machines.
A partnership with broadcaster Anwar Knight (Global TV, Rogers’ Daytime) has produced a series of fun TV spots that give viewers clear, easy instructions on how to save big bucks by simply putting timers on their hot tubs, pool pumps, and freezers and fridges.
There’s even an extreme solution that Enersource calls Power Down on Peak. More like voluntary blackout, I would say. In return for a 100 per cent reduction of power in your home (they'd give you 24 hours’ notice), the electrical distributor will credit your power bill $105 and then give you $25 an additional hour for the time the power’s off. The idea is to develop a pool of volunteers to go completely off-line to reduce demand in a power crisis.
“It’s a no-brainer if you’re not at home,” was one woman’s instant reaction.
It’s obviously not for everybody but it makes the point that radical problems may call for radical solutions, and one size doesn’t fit all. Ten Enersource customers have already been signed up for a small Power Down pilot project.
At the suggestion of Enersource Senior Communications Manager Ken MacDonald, a smart meter has been installed in our house in Erin Mills and our family will be delving into the world of time-of-use rates, dishwashers running on timers at 2 a.m. and wall-to-wall laundry on weekends to see how this thing works.
The new meter isn’t really all that revolutionary. It just records your use of electricity every couple of hours instead of every couple of months.
It’s only going to be smart if we figure out how to use it to maximum advantage.
P.S. I’m going on vacation for a sinfully long three weeks to test taste this summer’s raft of rosés, watch the birds and scour the garden nurseries for bargains. Random Access returns July 24.