Electricity

Preparing Your Home for Alberta Winters

parkpower · 7 October 2016 · Leave a Comment Consumer Info, Electricity, Interesting

Here are some great tips for preparing your home for Alberta winters.

We found them at Energy Saver, U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) consumer resource on saving energy and using renewable energy technologies at home.

Follow these tips to put in some work now to reduce your energy bills over the winter months.

1. CLEAN OUT THE GUTTERS

All the leaves and grime that you neglected while you were out swimming, hiking, or riding your bicycle this summer have built up in your gutters. If left full of debris, clogged gutters and drains can form ice dams that prevent your drainage systems from working properly. This can lead to water seeping into your home, which—as seen in the Conquering Moisture blog—can lead to all sorts of issues and extra energy costs. Save yourself the hassle of repairing a leak by simply cleaning your gutters and drains now. When you do, run water through the gutters to check for mis-alignments that could also cause water damage.

2. KEEP THE OUTSIDE AIR OUT AND THE INSIDE AIR IN

It is hugely important for your energy savings to ensure there are no air leaks in your home. Warm air will escape out of any cracks and can make your heating system work harder and cost you more to heat your home. Use caulk to seal cracks and openings between stationary house components like a door frame and weatherstripping to seal components that move like an operable window.

3. SHOW SOME TLC TO YOUR FURNACE

Your furnace may be a distant memory since you last powered it on, but before the cold weather descends and you must reluctantly switch it on, give it some TLC. Clean your furnace annually each autumn. Sediment build-up can cause your system to work less efficiently or potentially become a fire-hazard. Cleaning your system and getting it inspected will reduce the risks.

During the winter try to change your filter regularly; a dirty filter will decrease air flow and energy-efficiency. And if your furnace is ready to be replaced, buy an energy-efficient model. It will save you money and energy each month!

4. GET YOUR DUCTS IN A ROW

Your ducts are often times out of sight, out of mind, tucked away in the attic or basement, but a home with central heating can lose about 20% of the air that moves through the duct system. Make sure your ducts are in order by properly sealing and insulating them. Tightly sealed and insulated ducts can potentially reduce your annual energy bills by $120 or more!

5. LIGHT THE WAY

The fall and winter months mean less daylight. I know we are all keen on saving energy, but we don’t want any falls while you carry in your groceries. Luckily, you can still use your outdoor lights without wasting money and energy. Because outdoor lights are typically left on for long periods of time, buying ENERGY SAVER products and bulbs to light your outdoor pathways or porches can save a lot of energy. ENERGY STAR even makes CFL and LED flood lights that can withstand snow and rain. As an extra energy-saving effort, look for ENERGY STAR products that come with automatic daylight shut-off and motion sensors. And be sure to decorate with LED holiday lights to reduce the cost of decorating your home for the winter holidays.

Cold weather is just around the corner, and even if it is still nothing but sunlight and warm days in your neighborhood, preparing for fall and winter now can save you money and a headache when the cold air descends.

In part one, we talked about five ways to prepare your home for winter: cleaning gutters, air-sealing, checking furnaces, sealing ducts, and outdoor lighting. If you missed it, take a look here, but there is still more to learn before cold weather is here!

6. WINDOWS, WINDOWS, WINDOWS

Your windows do more than provide a view of trees with yellow leaves or snow-covered yards. They also provide a barrier to the cold. Windows with low-e coating reduce heat loss and even reflect back part of the room’s heat. Installing storm windows can also reduce heat loss through windows by approximately 10%-20%.

Using drapes and blinds helps reduce heat loss through windows. However, windows with direct sunlight may benefit from having the blinds up during the daylight hours, as sunlight can help heat the space.

7. SPRUCE UP THE FIREPLACE

First consider replacing your inefficient wood-burning fireplace with a more efficient wood stove or gas insert. It can turn your fireplace from a pretty–but high–maintenance–feature into a viable way to heat your home. Converting your fireplace will not only save you on monthly heating costs, it could even put money back in your pocket.
If you aren’t interested in updating your fireplace, try adding glass doors with a heat-air exchange system, and make sure your fireplace is cleaned and your flue damper properly sealed. You should also try to keep the fireplace damper closed unless you have a fire burning.

8. REVERSE YOUR FAN

In the summertime a fan is a wonderful way to keep cool, but your fan can also help circulate warm air in the winter. When you reverse the direction of your fan, the fan will push warm air downward and recirculate it through the room. To ensure your fan is spinning in the correct direction, set it so the blades are spinning clockwise when you look up.

9. PREP YOUR LAWN FOR HIBERNATION

Landscaping can save you energy if properly cared for and planned. Windbreaks can help block the cold winter wind and keep your home warmer. A wall or fence, evergreen trees and shrubs planted on the north, west, and east sides of your home can be most effective in creating a windbreak and reducing heating costs.

To ensure heavy snowfall doesn’t snap branches that could provide wonderful cooling shade in the summer months, shake snow-laden tree branches with a mop or broom to relieve some of the weight.

10. IT’S GREAT TO INSULATE

Insulation is another important way to prepare your home for fall and winter. In winter, heat in your home will try to flow directly from all heated living spaces to adjacent unheated attics, garages, basements, and even to the outdoors. Heat flow can also move indirectly through interior ceilings, walls, and floors — wherever there is a difference in temperature.

This means that your heating system has to work harder if your home isn’t properly insulated, costing you money and wasting energy. Properly insulating your home will decrease heat flow by providing an effective resistance to the flow of heat.

So to keep your home warm and toasty, make sure you are using the proper insulation and have insulated in the proper places.

Park Power partners up with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS)

parkpower · 6 September 2016 · Leave a Comment Community Building, Consumer Info, Electricity, Interesting

Park Power is proud to announce our latest addition to our Community Partner roster, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) Northern Alberta who have been positive and effective nature advocates in Alberta since 1968.

As a collaborative organization, CPAWS works with government, forestry and oil industry representatives, and communities to find conservation solutions for Alberta’s wilderness and wildlife. They also advocate for the creation of parks and protected areas in Alberta so that both current and future generations of Albertans can enjoy the nature-based outdoor activities the we love.

As a Community Partner with Park Power, CPAWS Northern Alberta will get 10% of Park Power’s profits for each customer who chooses CPAWS as their Partner of Choice when signing up for one of our awesome electricity and natural gas plans. These customers also have the option of adding a top-up donation onto to their monthly power bill which will be donated, along with Park Power’s profit sharing donation, to our Community Partners on an annual basis.

Our Community Partner Program is a favourite aspects of our business model. Through it, we are able to integrate our corporate giving automatically into our billing software and offer the same easy giving option to our customers which makes supporting awesome local charities a breeze.

Park Power is A Better Choice for your electricity and natural gas than all those big traditional utility companies. By offering lower rates, superior Alberta based customer service, and sharing our profits with great Alberta charities we give our residential and commercial customers the satisfaction of saving money on their utility costs while supporting a local business that puts their growth towards good in the community.

Fort McMurray Fire Red Cross Relief Efforts from Park Power

parkpower · 8 May 2016 · Leave a Comment Community Building, Consumer Info, Electricity, Interesting

The impact of the recent wildfire on the people from Fort McMurray is devastating. We all know of someone connected in one way or another in the Wood Buffalo area, or watch on TV the hardships that so many families facing as they try to escape the wildfires. Park Power is providing an easy way for Albertan utility consumers to support the Fort McMurray Fire Red Cross Relief Efforts.

We are a small private company, retailing electricity, green energy and natural gas in Alberta as part of a network of boutique retailers. Within our network there are slightly over a thousand customers in Fort McMurray. Friday morning at 1 am our customer service centre received the first of probably many more emails or calls that we are sure will be similar to this one that came in; “I must cancel service with you because of a sad loss of a house in Fort McMurray fire. Please guide me through this process.”

While the customer service team has been working hard to look after the affected customers, the development team has been updating our Application Form to set up Red Cross as a recipient for our donations.

One of the best ways to help people in Fort McMurray is by donating to the Red Cross.

That can be done by text or a phone call. People can also donate by visiting their offices, or donating money online on the Red Cross website. Canada’s Federal Government will match all private donations made to the Red Cross to help the thousands of people who have been displaced by the wildfires.

Park Power has pledged to donate to the Red Cross Fort McMurray Fire Relief Efforts, 10% of our 2016 total income on the electricity consumed by customers of Park Power who choose the Canadian Red Cross as their Community Partner.

Additionally, through our Community Partner Program, Park Power has implemented an easy way for our customers to make a donation to the Red Cross through their monthly electricity bill. As our customer you can just add an optional top up; $5, $10, or what ever you can afford to your monthly invoice.

100% of all money collected will be donated to the Red Cross. There are zero admin fees associated with the donation and every penny raised will be donated on yours and Park Power’s behalf to the Red Cross. The Fort McMurray Red Cross Fire Relief customer top up program has been set up and will run to the end of 2016. If you want to opt in or out at any time you are totally free to do so but really this is a very simple and easy way to make a difference towards the recovery of Fort McMurray.

Please consider your fellow Albertans who have had their lives dramatically effected by this fire and support the Red Cross however you can.

We think we have a pretty good formula here – Provide an easy platform for Albertans to support the Fort McMurray Fire relief efforts while saving them money on their electricity and natural gas bills.

Show some #ALBERTASTRONG love with Park Power.

Win This Rayne Misfortune Longboard

parkpower · 7 April 2016 · Leave a Comment Community Building, Consumer Info, Electricity, Interesting, Solar Power

Subscribe to Park Power’s Newsletter before May 1st, 2016 to be entered to win this awesome Rayne Misfortune Longboard.

What is the Balancing Pool and a Power Purchase Arrangement?

parkpower · 18 March 2016 · Leave a Comment Consumer Info, Electricity, Interesting

Recently Enmax, Direct Energy, and AltaGas have all exercised a right available to them in their Power Purchase Arrangements to opt out of the agreements and return them under the control of the Balancing Pool. These actions will have impacts on consumers in the Alberta Utilities market who might be asking, “What is the Balancing Pool and a Power Purchase Arrangement”?

If your energy retailer is providing you with a proper breakdown of your charges, like ours below, you will see Balancing Pool Allocation as a line item on your electricity bills and wonder what it is doing there. For the most part consumers have been, like this example, receiving allocations or credits on their bill.

The Balancing Pool was established in 1999 by the Government of Alberta to help manage and support the transition to a fair, efficient, and openly competitive electricity market in Alberta by performing the duties and responsibilities set out in its mandate including managing the risks and maximizing the value of the assets held on behalf of Alberta’s electricity consumers

The legislated duties of the Balancing Pool include:

To manage generation assets in a commercial manner, specifically any Power Purchase Arrangements (PPAs) held by the Balancing Pool that include the right to exchange electric energy and ancillary services, and any arrangements or agreements derived from these assets;
To hold the Hydro PPA and manage associated payments;
To forecast revenues and expenses (incorporating estimates of Pool price and potential expenses related to risk backstop activities) and allocate the forecast surplus or deficiency to consumers through a Consumer Allocation or charge;
To participate in appropriate regulatory, dispute resolution and other proceedings and processes to protect the interests of the Balancing Pool and the value of its assets; and
To manage risks prudently in all aspects of its operations.

Now what does it mean that the Balancing Pool is responsible for the Power Purchase Arrangements? Well when the 3 large retailers opted out of their PPA’s, the financial responsibility to the coal fired generation assets became the Balancing Pools to manage. The PPAs were long term fixed power price purchase arrangements initially set up and auctioned off to begin acting as market mechanisms on January 1, 2001 when the Alberta Utilities Market opened up for competition. The existence and the fixed price nature of a PPAs for electricity provided market price stability for the owners of the generation assets. It also added a level of market protection to consumers as well since wholesalers and retailers of electric energy had access to fixed contracted term rates for power as opposed to the wholesale spot market where the price changes constantly throughout the day. (as you can see in the image below)

With the Balancing Pool responsible for more assets a question that arises in our minds is, will the Balancing Pool Allocations that our customers have been seeing on their bills as credits start changing to Balancing Pool Charges? Perhaps, but not likely anytime soon. According the 2014 Annual Report, since 2006, the total Consumer Allocation from the Balancing Pool to Alberta electricity consumers has exceeded $2.0 billion. The largest source of cash inflow to the Balancing Pool was from the sale of electricity and ancillary services from the Genesee and Hydro PPAs they hold. So now that they will be holding more assets, it should mean more cash inflow and perhaps a continuation of allocations to consumers.

So even though the Alberta Government stated it was going to review Enmax’s decision to opt out of their PPA, conditions are still good for consumers to save money on their electricity bills. The current market price for electricity is the cheapest it has ever been and forecasts have it remaining low in the near term. Our customers on the Flow-Thru Rate plan, who have been paying 3-4 ¢/kWh for their electricity, are capitalizing on the savings available.

Maybe it’s time you reviewed what you are paying make the switch to Park Power.

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