Better Farming - December 2016

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16 Dig Deeper: Better Farming December 2016
RISING ELECTRICALCOSTS
kilowatt hour “is, in essence, a
measure of total energy you use over
a specific period of time, not at a
given moment,” the website says. So,
for example, “a 20-kW load used for
one hour consumes 20 kWh,” says
Ralph Winfield, a retired engineer
and Better Farming contributor.
At the Heeman farm, power use
sometimes registers below and other
times above the 50-kW monthly-
average-demand dividing line. How
the family is charged – demand-billed
or two-tier – is estimated annually.
Differences between projected and
actual use create adjustment charges.
The billing approach also creates
unpredictability in charges. In 2014,
for instance, the business received an
adjustment charge of $60,000. Clark
says a glitch in a new Hydro One
customer information system, along
with the prolonged estimates applied
to the business’s power use, was to
blame. Both Heeman and Clark say
the issue is resolved.
A key to preventing it from
happening again, says Heeman, is
regularly calling in the operation’s
meter readings. (The digital meter
can’t broadcast readings back to
Hydro One, he says). Even with
readings, the adjustments are unpre-
dictable: in April 2015, Heeman
received a $45,000 bill; he subse-
quently worked with the utility to
substantially reduce it.
Because the operation sometimes
strays north of that 50-kW dividing
line, it can’t qualify for time-of-use
billing. “That’s not a pricing structure
that’s used in demand billing,” Clark
explains.
Heeman says the savings probably
would be substantial if the farm did
qualify (when its demand is below 50
kW), because the greenhouse opera-
tion’s greatest power needs are at
night when time-of-use pricing is at
its lowest rate. Tiered pricing does not
take into account when power is used.
Nokes says he’d like to survey the
OFA’s membership to determine what
service types they’re under and what
their energy profiles look like. He
wants to identify farms that could be
able to take advantage of the ICI
program and businesses like the
Heemans’ that straddle different types
of billing. Knowing the farms’ energy
profiles will help him work with the
Independent Electricity System
Operator (IESO) and the Ontario
Ministry of Energy to come up with
other solutions.
One such solution could be a
farm-industrial rate such as one in
effect in British Columbia that
exempts farmers from peak rates.
Moreover, farmers can qualify for the
B.C. Hydro program simply by
supplying the utility with a copy of
their property assessments. Farm
business registration numbers could
be used in Ontario, suggest Nokes
and Jilesen.
“Those people (on general service
who do what they can to reduce
power consumption in their farm
businesses) should get a pat on the
back and get helped out,” says Nokes.
“And even if they’re people that have
an operation that can’t switch to
night, then we need to make sure
they’re doing everything they can,
and then they should get a check box
too.”
Just how much of a political will
there is to address farming’s rising
electrical rates remains to be seen. In
the fall, the provincial government
announced consultations for a
long-term energy plan that will wrap
up in mid-December.
Julie Kwiecinski, the Canadian
Federation of Independent Business’s
(CFIB) provincial affairs director for
Ontario, calls the plan development a
good step. “But that’s not going to
help a farmer right now who is
drowning in his hydro bill,” she says.
According to the Ministry of Energy’s
website, the plan will establish
directions for the province’s energy
future for the next two decades.
Ministry of Energy spokespeople
did not respond to Better Farming
telephone calls and an e-mail.
Organizations such as the OFA,
CFIB and the Ontario Chamber of
Commerce have all said natural gas
infrastructure in rural Ontario will
help to ease the crisis in electrical
costs. And in October, the OFA
announced a partnership with the
eastern and western Ontario wardens’
caucuses to lobby the provincial
government to begin the infrastruc-
ture development.
“Our position is definitely that
natural gas access will help people
manage their electricity, and actually
it’s our position that it will help us to
get to the climate change targets for
2050,” Nokes says.
He points out that people in
The forced air furnace to the left is 250,000 BTU. To its right is the
gas-powered water heater. That little box is 600,000 BTU. “That’s
heating the water (for the Heeman greenhouse’s in-floor heat) and
that’s 99 per cent efficient,” says Rudy Heeman.