HORROR STORY #5

This was posted here: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/universal-power-c50984.html?sort=datea&page=3

In March of 2009, I started getting a charge on my Hydro One bill for
Universal Energy. These charges were higher than the amount for usage. When I
contacted Hydro One to find out what this charge was, they told me it was
because I had signed with a third party provider. I hadn't signed anything with
any body. So I contacted Universal Energy. They told me they had a contract, and
that I had to honor it for 5 years. So I demanded a copy of the contract. They
did send it to me. The contract is in someone elses name. Different account
number. Different address. I brought this to thier attention, and told them to
stop billing me imediately. They told me I would have to pay a sizable penalty
to cancel the contract. I told them I wasn't paying anything to them. I called
Hydro One and explained what was going on, and was told I would have to take it
up with Universal. They were not going to do anything. So I only paid Hydro
One's portion of the bill which resulted in my hydro being cut in December 2009.
I had to pay the full amount to get it back on. I have since hired a lawyer who
has contacted both Hydro One, and Universal. He explained the situation
threatening court, only to get the same responce as me. So a suite has been
filed against both. I have recieved calls from both. All I tell them now is,
"Talk to my Lawyer, his phone number is..." The last 2 bills I have recieved are
the real kickers. Universal Energy was changed to Universal Power, then to
Direct Energy. If they are different companies...my lawyer will be busy. If they
are not...then they will be scewing them selves cause they are strengthening the
deception claim. I've paid over $6, 000.00 to them just so I can have hydro for
my home. I WILL GET IT BACK! My lawyer says so. lol.

That extra charge is the Provincial Benefit which is a 4.7c/Kwh increase because of bring signed up with a retailer. Good reason to stay away from these sharks, THEY DO NOT SAVE YOU MONEY! How can they?

McGuinty & Co. Ignored warnings

Green Energy Act EBR Submissions

Take a look at the hundreds of warnings to the McGuinty government of how undemocratic, ill-informed and reckless Bill 151, the Green Energy Act, was. Municipalities and public concerns were ignored. Important information about turbine setbacks from problem homes was blacked out.

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Note: Some text looks scrambled as these files were converted to OCR to allow them to be searchable.

Posted in Wind Concerns Ontario

HORROR STORY #4

From a victim:

Hello, I have two horror stories and an incident following that I must share.

1. I installed a heat pump 2 years ago, and about a over a year ago, my heat pump failed , and I ended using my woodstove for heat. My normal energy consumption to that point, measured on a Smart Meter was between 13 ans 16 KWH per day. When I received my bill for that period I was shocked to see and average 177 KWH per day. Hydro blamed me, even suggesting that the unit was using more power even though the compressor never started.

2. I had my electricity disconnected 5 days into my new billing period to lift the house. When I received the bill for that period, it showed an average usage of 19 KWH per day, which actually means I was using 114 KWH per day.

Further to this, because of my inability to pay outrageous bills on time I have now been charged a $1250 security deposit which must be paid in one month's time. I have arranged to pay $800, but I am tired of being harassed and bullied.

SMART METERS = BIG BROTHER

The Smart Grid Trojan Horse

By W. Grant Ellis

Perhaps you've heard of the Smart Grid initiative. Perhaps you understand that the goal of the initiative is to improve and modernize the nation's power transmission and distribution networks. Maybe your electric utility has even installed a Smart Meter at your home or business. What you probably don't know is that the Smart Grid movement is the Trojan Horse of the green agenda, a step toward Cap & Trade.Since the time of grid pioneer Samuel Insull, the goal of utilities everywhere has been to balance generation capacity against electrical demand to ensure system integrity.... (Read Full Article)

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New electricity grids may be smart, but not so private

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_15106430

A Climate of Belief

I have explicity stayed away from discussing climate science on this blog, but something has come to my attention, and the policies of the Liberal Government for electricity production is based on human caused global warming and the mantra that we need to reduce our CO2 footprint to stave off catastrophic global warming. So say the climate models.

Thus this:

http://www.skeptic.com/the_magazine/featured_articles/v14n01_climate_of_belief.html

A Climate of Belief

The claim that anthropogenic CO2 is responsible for the current warming
of Earth climate is scientifically insupportable because climate models are
unreliable

by Patrick Frank

It's technical and long, but the message is clear:

So the bottom line is this: When it comes to future climate, no one knows
what they’re talking about. No one. Not the IPCC nor its scientists, not the US
National Academy of Sciences, not the NRDC or National Geographic, not the US
Congressional House leadership, not me, not you, and certainly not Mr. Albert
Gore. Earth’s climate is warming and no one knows exactly why. But there is no
falsifiable scientific basis whatever to assert this warming is caused by
human-produced greenhouse gasses because current physical theory is too grossly
inadequate to establish any cause at all.

YOU ARE PAYING 15.4C/kWh (NEXT MONTH 16.7)

That is correct. All totalled all charges means you are paying 15.4C/kWh, not 5.7, not 6.8 as shown on your bill. But including ALL charges that is what you are actually paying for power.

The graphs here are from my friend's as he has bills back to the beginning of 2004, though he is missing records for 2007 which he is trying to track down those bills. That missing data doesn't affect these rate changes.

Here is how that has increased, some 44%, since 2004:




This is the delivery rate, up 37%:



Regulatory rate has been constant since its introduction in Oct 2004 at 0.69C/kWh until March of 2009 when it started to go up. It's now up 10% since that time.




Including the four rates together:



This graph shows the change in delivery as a percent of consumption rates. Notice the drop in 2004, then leveled off until this year, where it started back up to 100% of the consumption rate.



This is the percent increase in the delivery rate for each year:

In 2005 that rate dropped 7%, but in the following years it increased 5-6% until this year where it is already up 12%.

Of course this all increases 8% starting July, so your effective rate costs on your bill for what you actually consume is going to 16.7C/kWh.

And as far as the Government and NGOs are concerned this is not high enough. Thanks Ontario Liberals.

Oh, and with all those increases H1 is still losing money. What's not right with this picture?

Britain's Wind Scam Worse Than Thought

Britain's Wind Scam Worse Than Thought
Robert Mendick, The Sunday Telegraph, 20 June 2010

Energy firms will receive thousands of pounds a day per wind farm to turn off their turbines because the National Grid cannot use the power they are producing.

Critics of wind farms have seized on the revelation as evidence of the unsuitability of turbines to meet the UK's energy needs in the future. They claim that the 'intermittent' nature of wind makes such farms unreliable providers of electricity.

The National Grid fears that on breezy summer nights, wind farms could actually cause a surge in the electricity supply which is not met by demand from businesses and households.
The electricity cannot be stored, so one solution – known as the 'balancing mechanism' – is to switch off or reduce the power supplied.

The system is already used to reduce supply from coal and gas-fired power stations when there is low demand. But shutting down wind farms is likely to cost the National grid – and ultimately consumers – far more. When wind turbines are turned off, owners are being deprived not only of money for the electricity they would have generated but also lucrative 'green' subsidies for that electricity.

The first successful test shut down of wind farms took place three weeks ago. Scottish Power received £13,000 for closing down two farms for a little over an hour on 30 May at about five in the morning.

Whereas coal and gas power stations often pay the National Grid £15 to £20 per megawatt hour they do not supply, Scottish Power was paid £180 per megawatt hour during the test to switch off its turbines.

It raises the prospect of hugely profitable electricity suppliers receiving large sums of money from the National Grid just for switching off wind turbines.

Dr Lee Moroney, planning director of the Renewable Energy Foundation, a think tank opposed to the widespread introduction of wind farms, said: "As more and more wind farms come on stream this will become more and more of an issue. Wind power is not controllable and does not provide a solid supply to keep the national grid manageable. Paying multinational companies large sums of money not to supply electricity seems wrong."

Earlier this year, The Sunday Telegraph revealed that electricity customers are paying more than £1 billion a year to subsidise wind farms and other forms of renewable energy.

The proceeds of the levy, known as the Renewables Obligation (RO), are divided between the main renewable energy sources, with wind receiving 40 per cent, landfill gas 25 per cent, biomass 20 per cent, hydroelectric 12 per cent and sewage gas 3 per cent.

Professor Michael Laughton, emeritus professor of electrical engineering at the University of London, said: "People will find it very hard to understand that an electricity company is getting paid the market rate plus a subsidy for doing nothing. It is essentially a waste of consumers' money."

Full story