Editor:
BC Hydro are installing "Smart" meters so that they can charge us extra for consuming power during peak demand periods, thereby motivating us to lower the "peaks."
It didn't work in California or Ontario and it won't work in B.C., because people who can afford it will not change their habits. Workers arriving hungry in cold, dark homes cannot be expected to shiver in the dark until 8 p.m. Poor people will find less food at the soup kitchen because the Salvation Army is spending their "food money" on power. Businesses will pay extra for power and pass the cost on to consumers. Peak demand periods are dictated by corporation, school and government schedules. They will not change.
Of the few who make an effort to reduce peak usage, most will return to old habits in a few weeks.
The overall increase in demand will continue with GDP growth.
Successive provincial governments have treated BC Hydro as a cash cow, so there is little money for building new generation capacity, and environmentalists (who continue to consume power) have resisted efforts to expand power generation.
BC Hydro have now added to the problem by wasting $1 billion on a "dumb" project.
Has BC Hydro's "conservation" advertising campaign reduced the peak demand? I think not.
Mike Lane
Sechelt
