2°c Sunny
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Geothermal option bypasses Hydro rate increases
DEAR EDITOR,
Send a Letter to the Editor
-
The Free Press welcomes letters from readers
To send a letter for consideration on our Letters page: Fill out our online form at the link above, or Email letters@freepress.mb.ca, or Fax (204) 697-7412, or Mail Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2X 3B6.
Re: Manitoba Hydro lays out case for new rate hikes (Dec. 11). Manitoba Hydro is asking for a 3.95 per cent rate hike every year for 18 years. That's so it can pay for the construction of Bipole III ($3.28 billion), Conawapa ($7.8 billion) and Keeyask ($5.6 billion) for a total of $16.68 billion. That's to deliver 2,180 megawatts of power to southern Manitoba. Wow! That's about $7,650 to deliver a single kilowatt of power to us in Winnipeg.
According to Hydro, there are about 127,000 electrically heated homes in Manitoba. Converting them from electric furnaces and baseboards to geothermal heat pumps would reduce electricity demand by about 950 megawatts. Even if Hydro paid the full amount of converting these homes to geothermal, that would cost $3 billion. That's only about $3,150 per kilowatt -- $4,500 less than building the new dams and Bipole III.
As a consultant involved in the geothermal heating industry, I ask you to think about this. Let's say you have an electric furnace in your home and your monthly Hydro bill is $300. If you installed a geothermal heat pump, your monthly bill would drop to about $150. You can:
-- Borrow the money from Hydro to install a geothermal heat pump.
-- Pay the loan back on your Hydro bill.
-- Reduce your Hydro bill by about $150 per month.
-- Use the savings to pay for the $148 per month loan repayment.
-- Have a geothermal heat pump, including air conditioning, and save $2 per month.
In other words, to get a new geothermal heat pump installed in your home would cost you nothing and your monthly Hydro bill would actually go down a couple of bucks.
So let's think about this. Hydro wants to build new dams and transmission lines at the cost of $7,650 per kilowatt and double your rates over the next 18 years.
Or you can replace the electric furnace or baseboards in your home and it will cost you nothing. And Hydro will earn 3.9 per cent interest on the money it loans you over 20 years. And they can have 950 megatwatts to sell to the U.S. because of all the electricity being saved. And it costs nothing, to you or to Hydro.
Maybe, if enough people switch to geothermal heat pumps, Hydro doesn't have the justification to increase its rates by 3.95 per cent per year.
ED LOHRENZ
Winnipeg
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 14, 2012 A13
More Letters to the Editor
- Back to Top
- Return to Letters to the Editor
Poll
Most Popular Letters to the Editor
- Have your say
- Curves make it better
- Letter of the day: Beginning of a new way
- Foxes in the henhouse
- Outdoor firepits take a heavy toll
- Stadium should be emulated
- Cost of fighting too high
- Living in their own world
- Hands off CBC, Mr. Harper
- Cuts don't work in long run
Ads by Google
You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.
Have Your Say
New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.
The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010.