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Thanks to energy deregulation, we in Alberta now have the highest electricity rates in the nation. However, we haven't been too bad off as back when we bought the house we bought all new energy efficient appliances (fridge is most homes largest consumer of power) and replaced all the lights with compact floros.
It has not been a big money saver for us, but big saver of kilowatt-hours. The reason it's not saved much in money is that the power company charges are mostly fixed. Last month my bill was about $125. $40 of that was for the kilowatt hours. The remaining $85 was in fixed delivery charges and riders. If I'd turned off the main breaker, my bill wouls still have been $85.
It makes energy efficiency programs a waste of money as the payback periods are 15-20 years.
When I was in the utiity biz we had hoped to eventually eliminate consumption charges and go with 90% fixed costs. You'd have to have a meter to catch people that ran up their consumption, but fix costs are great for revenue stabilization. See, Alberta is a heating load. We use lots in the winter, and residential customers use almost nothing all summer. We don't use much residential air conditioning. Electrical utilities see a revnue drop in the summer from the residential side. By jacking delivery charges and billing fees through the roof, it offsets that.
Oh, and dereg has been great for competition. There is none. We now have a deregulated monopoly. Don't like it? Turn off your power...
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