Negawatts

Meanwhile, over in Ontario:

The Opposition is accusing Ontario's Liberal government of wasting $1 million to mail out pamphlets explaining why electricity rates are rising so high.

The government began mailing out a six-page pamphlet to every Ontario home this week as part of its pre-election campaign to defuse voter anger over soaring hydro bills.

What are these "so high" rates "soaring" to? Why, let's consult the controversial pamphlet and find out for ourselves! This chart is from page four of the document:

"Time of use" rate pricing is designed to distribute the generation demand more evenly throughout the day, and, in particular, to knock down the weekday peaks that force Ontario to have much higher generating capacity (or import juice) that is not otherwise needed during most of the day. Much like some cities' peak-period transit pricing, there is a combination of carrot (cheaper energy outside of peak) and stick (more expensive during peak) aimed at changing customer behavior. Ontario, like many other energy jurisdictions, has been slow in coming to the realisation that it's cheaper to save electricity, and thereby save the bother and expense of producing and distributing it, than it is to let demand run away without fetters.

Negawatts, as they are called, are cheaper than megawatts.

Note the levels that the "so-high" rates are "soaring" to: 9.9 cents/kWh during peak pricing.

5.1 cents during off-peak hours, in the evening, overnight, and early morning weekdays, and on weekends.

Those are the residential retail prices.

The Super-Geniuses of Nalcor will be wholesaling their juice in a conveniently captive and non-competitive Newfoundland market for nearly triple the proposed Ontario off-peak retail price, and more than 50% above the proposed peak-period disincentive rates.

Danny Williams is a Great Businessman.™