Re: Fortis rates changed July 1

Dear Editor:

As reported in your July 4th issue, Fortis announced that in response to “an open dialogue” with its customers, it will start moving from the two-tiered rate to a single flat rate. Before applauding Fortis for being so responsive to the wishes of its customers, your readers need to be aware of some facts.

At the 2017 consultation sessions in Osoyoos, virtually every customer wanted the immediate elimination of the two-tier rate. During the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) rate proceedings, the Anarchist Mountain Community Society (AMCS) and the Regional District Okanagen-Similkameen (RDOS), representing more than 80,000 customers, argued for an immediate termination of the two-tier rate. Fortis, however, only proposed to phase out the two-tier system over 5 years.

Under its proposal, Fortis was supposed to reduce the Tier 2 rate on Jan. 1, 2019 from 15.617 cents/kWh to 14.915 cents/kWh. However, the BCUC did not release its decision until February 25 and Fortis continued to charge customers 15.617 cents/kWh until June 30. When I asked Fortis when I would be credited for the amount that I paid from Jan. 1 to June 30 in excess of the BCUC approved rate, I was told: “There will not be a credit towards your account nor any interest applied.”  Like many customers that heat with electricity, much of my Tier 2 consumption occurs in the months of January to March. By delaying the introduction of the Tier 2 reduction, Fortis wiped out most of the “benefits” they claimed customers such as myself would receive in 2019 as part of the phase-out. I am complaining to the BCUC; requesting them to order Fortis to credit customers for the difference between the rates charged by them and the rates approved by BCUC for Jan. 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019. I urge customers similarly impacted to do the same (email: [email protected]).

AMCS-RDOS submitted evidence to the BCUC that showed that Fortis’ two-tier rate, since its inception in 2012, has promoted inefficient, rather than efficient, energy consumption and forced residents that use electricity for space and water heating to cross-subsidize fossil-fuel-heated customers. Fortis’ phase-out proposal will result in a further cross-subsidization of more than $14 million by 2023. According to the BCUC, Fortis’ phase-out proposal is “not in conflict with BC’s energy policy objectives.” I recommend that customers also write to our political leaders asking them to explain how it is consistent with their climate change policies to force customers using emission-free hydro for space and water heating to subsidize, for five more years, the electricity rates of residents using fossil fuels.

Nick Marty, Osoyoos