January 2005.pdf - Electrical Business Magazine

ATLANTIC FOCUS//Energy conservationBY ANTHONY CAPKUNthe Newfoundland wayWhen it comes to electricity, it’s muchcheaper for our province to conserve itthan to generate it, and it’s muchcheaper for our consumers... to save itthan to pay more for it.— Ontario Energy Minister Dwight Duncan, EnergyConservation Industry Briefing (Toronto), September 2004These sentiments are not unlike those shared by manyCanadians. Take for example Maurice Tuff Sr. ofNewfoundland. This father of six recognizes the value ofconserving energy. In fact, he would cringe whenever hestepped outside and caught sight of his electricity meter spinningaway like a possessed circular saw. He knew all those revolutionswould culminate in a huge utility bill at the end of the month.He wished his meter was located indoors; then, at least, hecould not only show his family how they wasted energy, butmaybe get them to practice a little restraint. It would be theresponsible, environmentally conscious thing to do... and itwouldn’t hurt his pocketbook any, either.Real-time energy conservationMaurice Sr.’s frustration did not go unnoticed by his son,Maurice Jr., who worked on the problem while in high school.He went on to become an electrical engineer and tinkered furtherwith the idea. His hard work paid off, because he figuredout a simple way of finding out how much energy one is usingat that very moment. About two years ago, the Tuff familyincorporated Blue Line Innovations with the PowerCostMonitor as its flagship product.The monitor is a device intended for residential consumers tohelp them reduce their electric bills. As unobtrusive as a smallclock, the monitor tells consumers how much electricity theyare consuming and what it is costing them in real time, therebyhelping them make informed decisions about its usage. Thetechnology consists of two units:1. A detection unit affixed to an existing household electromechanicalutility meter with a single ring clamp. This tracksthe energy consumed by counting turns of the meter disk.2. A display unit located inside the home, which shows informationgathered from outside (via wireless signal) in a varietyof sensible metrics.Getting the business goingBelieving they had a real winner on their hands, Blue Linewanted to get more people involved in the PowerCostMonitor project to both prove its value and get it to market.In November 2003, the company received supportfrom Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering.Through its Industrial Outreach Group, the faculty offeredcontinued support by providing its engineering facilitiesand technical expertise.“Blue Line Innovations is on the leading edge of energyconservation technologies,” says Dr. Ray Gosine, dean of thefaculty, adding, “[and] support for these technologies willresult in far-reaching environmental benefits.”For Blue Line, though, it was not enough to get just academiaonside. “We recognized early on that is was essentialto have utility participation, so we considered all thevarious ways of involving them,” says Danny Tuff, BlueLine’s vice-president of marketing and business development.The utilities are already involved in demand-sidemanagement (DSM) in some way or other, explainsDanny, “so the PowerCost Monitor fits in with theirenergy-efficiency mandate.”Newfoundland Power was the first major utility to entertainthe Blue Line project. In December 2003, it signed aLetter of Understanding that led to the installation of a readingdevice on 100 of the utility’s meters. Shortly thereafter,Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro agreed to participate ina province-wide demonstration of the PowerCost Monitor.The blackout of 2003 made Blue Line shift their focus toOntario and Hydro One—Ontario’s largest electricitydelivery company.“Early in 2004, the Ontario government unveiled an initiativeto conserve energy... they wanted to create a culture ofconservation,” explains Jatin Nathwani, Project Managerwith Hydro One. Under the initiative, distribution utilitiesare provided with an incentive to launch demand-side managementprograms. Hydro One thought DSM was goodearly on, explains Jatin, and real-time monitoring is amongthe first things it explored.“Real-time monitoring is a DSM solution,” says CarrieAloussis, a strategic analyst with Hydro One. “It gives theconsumer real-time feedback on what he is consuming at thatvery moment. It is not a metering device... its benefits arederived from the consumer’s behaviour.”This coincides with the research studied by the Tuff’s,which shows a homeowner’s energy bill at the end of themonth does not reinforce long-term positive changes in hisenergy-use habits. In fact, the largest behavioural impactsoccur when the customer immediately correlates his dailyenergy consumption with a monetary cost. He then takescontrol of consumption to achieve savings.Blue Line called Hydro One and asked whether it would beinterested in the PowerCost Monitor technology. “We metwith [Blue Line] and decided this was something we wanted tosupport,” says Jatin. Hydro One not only took an interest, itwent ahead in July 2004 with a pilot project that involvesabout 500 homes in the Peterborough, Timmins, Lincoln andBrampton areas of the province. The project involves 100 consumerswho are required to answer questionnaires so detailed,explains Carrie, that they even take into consideration minutiasuch as whether the customer recently purchased an energyefficientappliance.The study also corrects for aberrations such as changes inweather and occupancy to produce as solid a report as possible.At the end of the study, Hydro One will file its resultswith the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), which will help itrecover its costs for the initiative, and project participants getto keep their PowerCost Monitors.Jatin is confident the results will validate the data gatheredfrom other studies, which show reductions in energyconsumption of 10 to 15 per cent are the norm. With theinformation gathered, Hydro One should be able to figureout what level of incentive it should offer consumers to getthem to buy the monitor. “We want them to want to buyit,” says Jatin, and while he does not reveal the cost of themonitor and its installation, he says consumers should beable to recover their costs from just one year’s worth of savings(at 10 per cent).“What we’re trying to do is determine whether we can golarge-scale across the province with this,” says Jatin, adding,“At the end of the day, the consumer has to decide whetherthis is good and worth paying for.”Megger QualityAffordably PricedPhoto A. CapkunThis Brampton, Ont. home is participating in the Hydro One PowerCost Monitorpilot project, which aims to prove that when a customer immediately correlates hisdaily energy consumption with a monetary cost, he takes control of consumptionto achieve savings.Photo courtesy Blue Line InnovationsThe PowerCost Monitor displays consumption information to the homeownerin sensible metrics, such as $/hour, KW/h and $/month.CSA APPROVED• Tough(Rubber Armored and Drop Tested to 3ft.)• Safe(Live Voltage Warning/Lockout)• Hands Free Operation(Remote Probe)1-800-297-9688www.megger.comINFO NO. 6www.mag.com • JANUARY 2005 • 7