Better Farming - December 2016

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Better Farming December 2016 Story Idea? Email 19
RISING ELECTRICALCOSTS
Find the Source Water
Protection Map at
page/source-protection
With support provided by
Not sure if your storage or use
of pesticides and fertilizers is
near a municipal well? If you
are a property owner, custom
operator or renter, your local
Conservation Authority has
maps that show areas around
municipal wells and surface
water intakes that require
protection. Risk management
plans or restrictions may be
required in limited areas for
application or if storage
exceeds certain volumes.
Risk management officials
will work with you to help you
understand mapping and, if
required, to develop practical
and effective ways to reduce
risk to the local drinking
water source.
Pesticides, Fertilizers
& Our Drinking Water
numbers to quantify the benefits,
Nokes says. “I can’t just go to them
and say, ‘Give farmers a (lower) rate’
because that means everyone in
Toronto gets a slightly higher bill.”
The provincial government would
face bad publicity.
How much a utility like Hydro
One can do on its own about situa-
tions like the one that the Heeman
family finds itself in also remains in
question.
Clark says the utility’s next steps
would be to clarify how the business
is billed and talk to the family about
its future needs and what can be
done.
Changing rates, however, is
beyond Hydro One’s control. Those
are set up “with the (former) Ontario
Energy Board (now IESO),” she says.
So is the approach to demand meter-
ing?
Asked if the utility is able to talk to
the IESO about the type of situation
the Heemans find themselves in,
Clark says she would “have to take
that back and look into it for sure. I
know that is something that does
come through both policy and
regulation from the Ontario Energy
Board.”
Nevertheless, even if a 50+ kW
peak draw comes only once a year,
someone has to pay. “That’s where
demand billing comes in,” she says.
“(Customers are) billed for both
consumption as well as their highest
peak because we need to have that
electricity infrastructure in place to
be able to deliver that power to them
for that highest peak usage.” BF
The Heemans recently installed a heat exchanger on their main
retail greenhouse.