When the City Commission voted to move forward with the Smart Meter program in March, 2007, the decision was based in part on the proposal provided by the vendor, Honeywell.
The detailed proposal showed how the City could save $44 million over the next fourteen years if 25,000 utility customers signed up for a time-of-use program and cut their usage for heating and cooling by 10%.
Time-of-use rates charge more for electricity during high usage times and is designed to change the behavior of customers, resulting in less demand for electricity at peak times. If the program works correctly and is fully implemented, the construction of new power plants is deferred and money is saved.
The City implemented a time-of-use rate program, the Nights and Weekend Pricing Program, on November 1, 2010. For those who voluntarily signed up for the program, they could save money if they used more electricity during off-peak hours.
In March, 2012, City staff reported to the City Commission that 2,000 customers had signed for the Nights and Weekend program. Subsequently, the City Commission voted to make the program permanent and available to all utility customers.
Through a public data request, Tallahassee has learned that as October, 2013, approximately 4,200 customers have signed up for the program and approximately 1,200 customers have cancelled.
Based on the provided, seven years after the vote to move forward with the smart meter program and three years after offering a time-of-use rate programs, approximately 3,000 customers, or 3% of all utility customers, have chosen to participate in the program.
What are the implications?Based on the original Honeywell cost-benefit proposal, it is difficult to see how any savings could be realized in the near future.
The last update on the program was March, 2012 and the City staff has yet to provide any kind of evaluation of the costs and benefits of the smart meter program to date.
From the Honeywell Proposal
| "Honeywell believes that the City of Tallahassee has the potential to install more than 25,000 Tally-Stats over the next 3-5 years." Page 3 | "Consumption savings over the 15-year program will reach approximately $20 million." Page 4 | "These benefits are provided at Zero Net Cost, based on the reasonable estimates and assumptions presented here." Page 1 |
Nights and Weekends Sign-Ups Lag Honeywell Projections added by Staff on
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Steve, another good report..
We need to replace ALL the city officials. They are bleeding us dry
and spending our money faster than we can sent it to them.
Run Steve, run
The county commissioners largest contributor had a Bank of America building that the commissioners believed was the best way to spend taxpayers money. We don’t hear any updates on how that is working out for us either.
Go to the airport and look at all the self serving (ad nauseam) ads of themselves (attorneys) who are on the Airport Authority Board.
Every other state other than Florida I visited recently had MUCH lower gas rates, but we are faced with a new gas tax on top of higher than other states gas prices compliments of the county commission.
I encourage the editor of this publication to please consider running for a COUNTY COMMISSION seat. I believe the liberals, moderates, and conservatives would come to the polls en masse to vote for some common sense for a change.
Spending money for a new park on the north side that has a lot of unusable land and a new gas tax is not sitting well with taxpayers. Change is welcomed. Please run!
Steve has tried more than once to run for office. We all know the answer to why it is almost impossible for a decent candidate to win office. Well if we don’t, this is why. African-American vote that is solid for the democrats and about 40% of the white vote that is liberal, democrat and living off of government. In sum, the party machine politics of Tallahassee has made this a corrupt town subject to the whims of the same small group of insiders. BTW, no one at city hall has been able to explain why my residential electrical bill has increased some 30% since the smart meter was installed.