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io economist sunsuntribune business saturday feb 26 2005 indecision may force hydro hike consumers may pay as much as 5 more with smart meters by patrick mangion staff writer indecision by ontarios energy regulator shouldnt mean higher bills for hydro users newmarket hydro president paul ferguson says newmarket will roll out a pilot project this summer for socalled smart meters with the ontario liberals plan to equip every home in the province with the hightech meters set to begin in two years the idea is to take one meter reading about every hour rather than two readings a day and make the data available to home and small business owners to realize savings during offpeak demand periods for hydro initially settling on meters that could send information from the utility to the customers home or business referred to as oneway communication the ontario energy board changed its mind last month now the board has advocated twoway communication where information flows from the meter to the utility and from the utility back to the customer newmarket is the only munici pality in canada set to use two- way smart meters as part of this summers pilot project mr fergu son said but the provinces wavering could mean 50 per cent fewer sup pliers if the ministry of energy approves twoway meters the result could mean higher than expected cost landing on energy consumers bills he said the average household can expect to see a 3 to 5 price spike a month as a direct result of imple menting smart meters according to the province mr ferguson hopes to cut that in half with newmarket ratepay ers dolling out as little as an addi tional 150 a month once the technology comes on stream in 2007 if you dont set out to achieve that you wont mr ferguson said adding implementing smart meters will be as complex as open ing the market several years ago meanwhile residents will be able to check their power con sumption via telephone internet or an inhome display in order to capitalize on less expensive off- peak rates smart meters are not a new technology mr ferguson said during the 1980s pilot projects began cropping up using time-of- use meters mr ferguson knew then amid years of governmentcontrolled underpriced electricity smart meters would become widespread in the future as the price and demand for hydro swelled in ontario meanwhile the latest pricing proposal from the energy board may mean homeowners pay more to cool their homes during the summer months consumers are paying 47 cents per kilowatt hour for the first 750 hours a month and 55 cents for any amount beyond that under the proposed pricing system hydro customers would pay the lowest rates on weekends and holidays hydro rates would peak week day summer afternoons and the morning and evening in the win ter the energy ministry is expect ed to devise a new electricity pric ing system by april 1 northwoo parent tot 18 mos 2 12 yrs toddlers 18 mos 2 12 yrs preschool 2 125 yrs camp iorthwood i northwood academy 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