Dear Editor:
The B.C. government has been spending a lot of money lately advertising for the election coming next spring.
In the meantime, they and their provincial agency (British Columbia Utilities Commission) have been dragging their heels since the summer 2015 in responding to the outcry from the people suffering for using environmentally responsible, renewable electricity to heat their homes and from rural citizens who have to provide their own night lighting and operate water systems which sometimes require heat tracing.
There have been so many complaints because BC Hydro, followed by FortisBC, introduced a two-tier electrical rate system that charges about a 50 per cent higher rate in Tier 2 and these customers have to pay for most of their electricity use at this higher rate.
BC Hydro used to encourage electrical heat by offering lower rates for heat use and then pulled the carpet out from under these customers and started penalizing them in 2008. FortisBC did the same in 2012.
What does this two-tier system do? It encourages people to use natural gas where it is available and penalizes those who heat with electricity.
Several times it has been requested to have a moratorium on this two-tier rate system before this winter and the only response so far from this Liberal government has been to advertise that they are doing their part for the environment by developing clean natural gas.
These ads have been on television so often as to constitute brainwashing by constantly suggesting natural gas is clean.
Look at the Natural Resources Canada website and you will see that the residential sector of B.C. produced 2.3 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2013 (latest year available). That’s 2.3 billion kilograms or over five billion pounds of greenhouse gas. The B.C. government calls this clean energy. BC Hydro cheats customers by encouraging them to go all electric and then penalizes them after they’ve committed to this.
In 2008, BC Hydro’s top executive Bob Elton pushed through the two-tier rate with a marginal difference (6.28 cents to 6.98 cents per kWh) and a threshold of 1600 kWh, which he said was “slightly lower than the average consumption of a typical home.”
Now in 2016, the rates are 8.29 cents and 12.43 cents per kWh – a 48 per cent difference – with a 1350 kWh threshold. ForitsBC rates are 9.845 cents and 15.198 cents per kWh – a 54 per cent difference – with a 1600 kWh threshold. FortisBC claims the equivalent flat rates would be 9.93 cents and 11.433 cents per kWh, respectively. This means that all-electric customers are subsidizing fossil-fuel burning customers.
The majority of customers are receiving a small dollar subsidy at the burden to a minority of customers who pay a large dollar penalty for using an environmentally-friendly heating system.
Some of these customers are poor seniors on fixed incomes living in rural areas or small communities without access to natural gas who are subsidizing well-off customers who heat with natural gas. Knowing this now, how many citizens can live with this?
Environmentally responsible governments, like the City of Vancouver, are pushing for residential heating conversion to electricity.
The questions to ask are why is the B.C. government encouraging residential use of natural gas and why are the equivalent flat-rate costs for electricity so high in this province?
For Manitoba Hydro, the 2016 rate is 7.93 cents per kWh. Manitoba has a small population for a large area and the bulk of generation is very remote in the north to load centers in the south. That system also has a very expensive transmission system.
For ATCO Electric in Alberta, the 2016 electricity rate is 10.12 cents per kWh.
ATCO electric services northern and remote smaller Alberta communities (similar to FortisBC) and has mostly fossil-fueled generation.
The government of B.C. needs to have an inquiry into why the electricity rates are so high in this province.
To see the present inquiry into the two-tiered electrical rates go online and visit www.bcuc.com/ApplicationView.aspx?ApplicationId=506.
For seniors and environmentally-minded people, pay particular attention to the reports from BCOAPO and BCSEA-SCBC submitted on Nov. 24, 2016.
They advocate to keep the two-tiered system.
I am a retired senior electrical engineer with 37 years of experience in electrical utilities and industrial power applications for companies in Manitoba and Alberta. I’m retired in B.C.
Jerrilynn DeCock
Penticton, BC
