Telegraph- How Canada’s energy experiment backfired – and why smart meter Britain is next
Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at the University of Cambridge, said that Ontario’s system proved to be a “mad idea” that failed to change behaviour en masse.
“People were not prepared to change their electricity consumption to save a few pence. This was always a mad idea that was never ever going to work. People just didn’t care and it didn’t move the needle at all,” he said.
Canadians don’t react well to government bullying. What a surprise.
So what does the government do? They do it MORE. Because they have only one idea, and they really won’t ever admit they were frigging well wrong. Tighten the screw, make those unruly peasants toe the mark.
And now here we are, with the Prime Minister threatening to unleash the CRA on the whole fricking province of Saskatchewan. Put a cheater pipe on that breaker bar and tighten until they scream for mercy.
Or until the screw breaks.
‘ Canadians don’t react well to government bullying. ‘
Yes, I can tell from all the NOT voting for the parties that do exactly that. The country and most of it’s inhabitants are garbage. I’m out.
I just figured out how the censors work. What a farce.
l found one word that poisons any posting. not a swear word of gross slang or offensive slang nothing of the sort the word that starts with re and means to make stronger.
try it. now lets field the Q what on earth sort of filter objects to that word esp in context????????
“Canadians don’t react well to government bullying. What a surprise.”
If the government wants me to change my behavior, they had better entice me to to it somehow…because coercion has never worked well on me.
‘dont react well’. allow me to state a good reaction, reacting well is to raise huge intense protests at any and all attacks on the basics.
and no, Canaduhians do not do that any more. no more uprising 1837 no more Riel.
on rare rare occasions l ponder where to source some sort of bypass gadget that didnt steal too much. something divert no more 25% from the meter.
oh lm sure theyre out there. lve worked with electricity l could install it according to instructions that specified live conductors.
but it never went anywhere.
It was a liberal idea, of course it was a failure
Sad to note that the distinguished Professor Anderson died on the day of this post.
For crying out loud, quit meddling and leave us alone, already!
Arrghh!!!
Dalton McGuinty spent a decade screwing Ontario, building subsidized windmills with former Liberal politicians, and liberal donors filling the boards of the companies ripping us off with Feed in Tariffs needed to pay their board of director salaries. Ontario went from 80% nuclear and hydro, 20% coal after billions spent, to 80% nuclear and hydro, 10% wind and 10% Natural gas (Solar not even a rounding error). 10 or more years to close 7 coal plants, which China replaced within a month or 2 of McGuinty announcing his “plan”, let alone actually closed anything. Liberals and greenies are not only stupid retards, but also harmful to every cause they espouse. If McGuinty had not increased energy prices and drove more business to China, they would likely not have needed 12 or so of their coal plants. (12 or so out of 100’s yes, but still.)
Canadians are very stupid, will that get censored?
l call him dolton mcguilty
shes kathleen wynnedfarm
the two of them. that staggering crushing liberal and Liberal debt debt debt debt debt
Of course it didn’t work because, like most government driven and expertly modelled for-the-greater-good policies, TOU electricity pricing fundamentally misunderstands individual human needs. People use electricity at certain times of the day or week because that is when most people make meals, are at home to require heating or cooling and have the time to do things like laundry. Frankly, everyone knew this and TOU pricing was just a sneaky way to justify increasing the cost for consumers and revenue for private corporations and government taxation.
It could be worse though….saskpower’s government-directed smart meter installation program caused numerous house fires due to a poor product and substandard installation. Luckily it was just property damage.
Something else that is worth mentioning is that before the global warming agenda, electricity systems were engineered and designed to have sufficient baseload and peaking power production to accommodate well understood peak load times. Now, those who insisted on building weather dependant, intermittent electricity are also demanding that your electricity usage should accomadate the needs of wind and solar production peaks.
See the difference :
-Pre- 2000, electricity systems were designed arounds the requirements of the customer
– Post 2000, customers are required to accommodate the needs of the government-designed electricity system.
The whole idea is racist, because POC are more likely to be shift workers not at home using power at high cost times.
I don’t play the race and ethnicity games. Most big problems are created by stupid government policies. Governments sow divisions between people to distract from the stupidity of government policies.
Has been ever thus all my life. Government is always the problem.
TOU pricing is a scam not unlike the carbon tax.
A revenue generator and a wealth redistributor, nothing more. Neither does anything to dissuade consumption.
Our lying politicians need to stop it. Our “conservative” Ontario government is most complicit in the lie.
Two things. Electricity generation is provincial and not federal, so the photo of Trudeau should be replaced with one of Doug Ford. And don’t the British know the difference between Ontario and Canada?
Also, it is harder to not use electricity in the day than you may think, especially if you use electricity for heating, which is where they are trying to get us to. When is it coldest? At night. You don’t make your toast at night, cook your meals, do your laundry, have a coffee. You sleep and that is when all the lights are off and your electricity use is minimal.
The tiered system of electricity based on demand is pure crap. They jack up the day rates so the net rate is $0.20 per kWh. They make the night rates low, but it’s difficult to switch even if you wanted to. The idea that we don’t care enough to try is bull crap.
They plan that our lifestyle won’t allow the change either. Who wants to start doing laundry at 11 PM when you have to be at work at 5 AM.
Provinces do have their responsibilities, but it makes no difference when you have an interventionist, to the point of authoritarian, federal government. To use your example, the provinces are responsible for generating their own power, but are mandated by the federal government to do it somehow without emitting carbon. All of these schemes are top down.
All that matters is tax freedom day and right now most people work almost 6 months of the year for the government and it’s ticking upwards every year. Oh you might be working and earning $50k per year and wondering what the fuss is all about, but your learning now. Getting plucked by inflation, which is the second, less well recognized way the federal government steals from its citizens. In the end, you’ll be working longer, for more years, and you’ll have less disposable income. A lower quality of life. Until our entire system of government is reformed and it will take a revolution.
Rule of thumb.. If it has smart in the name, its not.. Much the same as advertising green savings.. Real savings don’t need to be advertised.. You could put a tent up in the middle of a empty field and word of mouth will create a traffic jam of people trying to get some..
Free money and the propaganda that goes along with it.. The energy companies will take it all day long.. They don’t care..
When I used to live there, long long ago, far far away, Ontario Hydro had another scam. Higher prices at 3000 kwh/month, probably still do. Then they would estimate low, estimate low, read meter high.
Actual usage over 3 months 2000, 2000, 2000 wkh/month.
Hydro estimates/reading 1000, 1000, 4000 kwh/month, thank you for being in the higher price bracket on the 3rd month. They hated it when I started to phone in my meter reading every month.
““People were not prepared to change their electricity consumption to save a few pence. ”
People were not prepared or willing to be substantially inconvenienced in order to do their laundry at 2 am, their dinner at 11 pm, and their dishes at 4am, based on the dictates of government who doesn’t understand opportunity cost at all.
“As residents of Ontario, Canada, look forward to the arrival of summer after months of sub-zero temperatures, they are advised to think carefully about when to fire up the barbeque. ”
Errr what? not off to a good start, since we don’t have time of Use pricing for Natural Gas, propane, charcoal or pellets.
And if you are using an Electric Griddle to cook your BBQ, you are almost as big a monster as Dolton McGimpy
Time of use electricity was always a scam here in Ontario. Next up: time of use water consumption.
City of Ottawa did something near to this with water several years ago under Mayor Jimbo.
Kept advertising water conservation, cutting back on civic water use, conserve, conserve, conserve. Pushed out the rain barrel craze, etc.
A couple of years into this, Water dept. said there was not enough water usage to cover operational expenses and got a great big rate increase. City added in a big increase in sewer charges as they are connected.
Do any good? No. Did get a lot more money for the city though.
That’s already happened here in Calgary – our water & waste treatment costs have increased by some 50% in the last few months. Next will be consumption restrictions b/c of “drought”.
I’m reminded of H.L. Mencken’s memorable quote – – “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
It is shocking that people don’t want to freeze in the dark.
“…they are advised to think carefully about when to fire up the barbeque. ”
Whomever is doing the advising can go eff themselves.
It’s not about “saving” anything.. or conservation. It’s about control and putting in place giant, government bureaucracies to run the control system. It’s about human management. We’re livestock to them.
It’s not an “experiment” when you know what the results will be.
It’s a scam.
“Months of sub-zero temperatures” Really?