MANAGERS at Lonsdale Energy Corporation say a recent study by the City of Vancouver should put an end to the long-simmering complaints about the utility's prices.
Several Lower Lonsdale residents have argued that the City of North Vancouver, which owns the district heating utility, is using its monopoly powers to squeeze higher rates from them. Last November, they engaged energy consultant Kerry Morris to lobby city council candidates in the municipal election. Morris said his clients were paying 20 to 40 per cent more for heat than they would with their own boiler or with electrical baseboard heaters, and called for LEC to be regulated by the B.C. Utilities Commission.
At a Feb. 27 council meeting, Ben Themens, who is both LEC's vice-president and the city's deputy director of finance, said Vancouver's comparison of B.C. Hydro, standalone boilers and other district energy systems vindicates LEC.
Vancouver's engineering manager Brian Crowe was working to develop a rate structure for the Southeast False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility, and compared the permegawatt/hour cost of his city's project with four other district heating companies - including LEC - as well as B.C. Hydro and FortisBC's natural gas.
Crowe concluded that LEC's rates were the lowest, an average of $70 per MW/h. Electricity, gas, and other district operations were all clustered around the mid-$80s. Vancouver's project costs customers $91 per MW/h, and SFU's UniverCity Energy is expected to cost $119 per MW/h when it comes online.
Coun. Guy Heywood asked Themens to respond to complaints that LEC's lack of individual metering in apartment towers discouraged conservation.
"We have looked at metering at the individual suite level," Themens said. "False Creek has implemented a system like that, but it is costly to install the meters and costly to monitor them, report and invoice."
Heywood also asked what consequences the return of the PST will have.
"If it's implemented the way it was before," Themens replied, "there is an implication for LEC because it has to charge PST to its customers and pay PST on its gas purchases. . . . Mind you right now they are looking at the implementation of the PST."
Addressing complaints over a lack of transparency, Heywood said "in the exercise of monopoly power, you want to make sure you have enough public process. . . . Short of acceding to a B.C. Utilities Commission process, which would be onerous and expensive, I think there are other things we can do to give an appropriate amount of due process."
