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Date Posted: 07:37:24 01/28/08 Mon
Author: Greenman
Subject: HUGE Hydro Increases !!!

(This is B.C.'s typical GREEN solution....paint it green and then gouge customers !!! For fuck's sake ! For the last 10 yrs or so many B.C.'ers have been trying to conserve....shutting off lights, turning down the heat, replacing incandescents with energy efficient bulbs....what do we get ???? A further kick in the ass ! Industry doesn't conserve. They just write their hydro bill off as a cost of doing business. The rich don't need to. This is little more than another attack on the poor who simply can't cut back any more.)

BC Hydro eyes 25% rate hike by 2011
That's just a start. The annual cost for an average homeowner may jump as much as $500
Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, January 26, 2008
The average cost to heat and light a home could increase $500 a year by 2011, driven by a projected 25-per-cent hike in electricity rates and aggressive conservation measures, according to BC Hydro documents.

A typical residential customer who heats with gas now pays about $715 a year.

A recent Hydro report says rates must rise 25 per cent between 2009 and 2011 because of expected costs to maintain and upgrade British Columbia's aging electricity grid, as well as expenses arising from higher finance costs and "an anticipated increase in government levies."

The projection is contained in Hydro's second quarter report, which will be updated next month when the province announces its 2008-2009 annual budget.

If the B.C. Utilities Commission accepts Hydro's projections, the 25-per-cent increase would increase annual electricity costs by $178. But other increases have been approved or proposed, including a previously approved average increase of $92 that begins in April.

But there are more price hikes on the horizon.

The commission has ordered Hydro to develop a new scheme to encourage customers to reduce electricity consumption, by doubling or even tripling the cost of electricity above a base amount each month.

The scheme, called the "residential inclining block rate," would add an average $200 a year to electricity bills for customers unable or unwilling to cut back.

But for some customers -- such as the 19 per cent of B.C. residents who use electricity to heat their homes or for hot water -- their annual electricity costs could jump even higher.

Hydro also projects that over the next decade, about 20 per cent of all new single-family and multi-unit homes will rely on electric rather than gas heating.

Hydro industrial customers are already on a similar program, while a pilot test for residential users has been underway in several communities since 2006 -- with some customers in the pilot paying as much as seven times the normal rate during peak evening hours in the winter months.

Hydro is expected to set the base amount at 800 kilowatt hours a month, or 9,600 kWh a year.

Hydro documents show a typical residential consumer uses 11,000 kilowatt hours a year -- compared to 10,000 kilowatt hours just three years ago -- and the corporation is now worried consumption will continue to rise with the popularity of big-screen televisions and other energy-devouring electronic devices.

Documents also show the cheapest, base-rate amount is going to decline as a percentage of total consumption over time, as Hydro continues to add new, higher-priced electricity from independent producers and steadily dilutes the moderating price effect of its so-called "Heritage" network of hydroelectric dams, generating and transmission networks.

By 2026, only about 600 kilowatt hours per month, or 7,200 kWh per year, will qualify as the base amount.

Hydro declined to discuss the information uncovered by The Vancouver Sun, saying its financial plans are still in development.

But the Crown corporation promised details will be available for public scrutiny in late February when it files a formal rate requirement application to the commission.

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