Until recently, the electricity grids that power our homes, businesses, and industry rarely integrated electricity storage. As a result, the production of electricity needs to track the consumption of electricity. Usage tends to follow predictable cycles, low at night and weekends, peaking during summer afternoons and early evenings when air conditioning coincides with meal preparation. Electricity utilities need to match production with demand, often by firing up gas-powered "peaker plants" or buying electricity through interconnections with other utilities, but this can increase carbon dioxide emissions and electricity costs. Another option is to reduce electricity demand during peak periods as described in Demand Management and Hydro One's myEnergyRewards.
The myEnergyRewards program has a number of issues:
- Undocumented features: the demand response event blocks my ability to cycle the furnace fan which helps bring up cooler air from the basement and evens out temperatures throughout the house.
- Further limiting user control: myEnergyRewards recently stated that an attempt to end pre-cooling by manually adjusting the thermostat setpoint would be considered as opting out from the whole demand response event.
- Poor compensation after the first year: myEnergyRewards has switched to a lottery where 21 subscribers get $1000 and three subscribers get $3000, while the rest get nothing. myEnergyRewards claims they have 30,000 subscribers, so Hydro One is effectively paying out $1/subscriber/year.
Since myEnergyRewards has consistently not recognised my concerns, I spoke with the Independent Electricity System Operator for Ontario. They do not regulate myEnergyRewards, but pointed out that Ontario's Peak Perks program is available to all residents and small businesses in Ontario, regardless of their electricity utility. Peak Perks claims to address all the concerns above and estimates they have close to 250,000 subscribers. I had read about Peak Perks back in 2023 but the myEnergyRewards announcements came out at the same time and the descriptions were similar, leading me to believe myEnergyRewards was a rebranding of Peak Perks. I have switched to Peak Perks and will post my 'real world' experiences.
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