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The Canadien Champion, FRlday, August 11, 2006 A3 Town could get retrofit with smart meters solon By Melanie Ht-nness"ye LANADIAN CHAMPION STAFF Fvery Milton home could soon be retrofitted with smart meter technology that'îl allow residen.s to take advantage of cheaper energy rates duning off-peak hours. Milton Hydro president Don Thome said the utihitv expects t0 receive appro-val bx' the end of the month from the Province on the ini- tiative that'îl put about 13.000 more smart meters into use around town. It's a pretty excitmng time," remarked Thorne, noting the retrofit would probahly be done by early next year. "We're expecting to see changes in consump- tion patterns." By 2010, the Province wanis ail Ontario homes to have smar meters installed. But since Milton Hydro, has heen testing thie technol- ogy for a few years now, Thorne saîd its ready 10 go right now. "We have been leading the way" he said. "And we feel the sooner our commu- nivy gets the technology, the better it will be.- Ail larger industrnal and commercial businesses in tou-n had smart meters installed in 2003. and cur- rentlv new homes builtiîn Milton are required to hav e the new technolog. w hich alIoý.%s resîdents to evaluate their enerp corsunmpton hlune of day and 'îraiegze how ici cnerv e About 400 oli cd hese Ineters are no%% in use around îown.i and that num- ber is expecied to growx t (.L)or 7XX,) bv the [ill. ioînicown er' benclit liot tîme-of-use rates, meaning those who do laundry or run Their dishwasher during off- peak hours will pay substan- tially less. in faci, Milton Hvdro was the first in the province to bave it 's cus- tomers on time-of-use rates. Thorne explained those wabjt smart meters pay 10.5 cents per kilowatt hour between il a.m. and 5 p.m., 7.5 cents between 7 and il a.m. and 5 and 10 p.m. and 3.5 cents between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and on weekends and holidays. Households without smart meters pay 5.8 cents - no malter whaî time of day - for the first 750 kilo- watt hours and 6.7 cents after that. -As you can sce, there's a real advantage (to the smart meters)," he said. The cost of retrofitning the smar-t meters in Milton would be added onto the fixed component of cus- tomers' bills and would prohably equate to about $2 or $2.50 a month, Thorne said. But, he noted the expec- tation is that any cost incurred would be offset by the savmngs residents could take advantage of with the new technology. Thorne said pricing has encouraged those who cur- rentlv use smart melers to use the bulk of their energv duning off-peak hours. He pointed oui ihat there reseveral things the aver- âge person can do to gel the mo-t out of the tinmc-of-usc pncîng. such as run an air condîtioner to pre-cool the house w~hen the pnce is low and then keep the %%indows thc day. So does it really make a difference if individual homeowners start to focus on conserving energy? "Absolutely," Thorne said, noting while large com- panies tend to bave a steady consumption rate through- out the year, residential rates 1ramp up" duning the sum- mer. Melanie Hennessey can b reached at mhennessey@mïl- toncanadianchampioncom. GRAHAM PAINE / CANADIAN CHAMPION Milton Hydros Kyle Gervais instaits a new smart meter in one of the new subdivisions on Yates Drive. AUTO BODY i ROYAL ATLANTIC eINC. TOYOIA LT( .3