Rate Flex G

What to do during a peak demand event

Dynamic pricing is designed to reduce electricity consumption in the winter during peak demand events by shifting consumption to another time of the day. You therefore need to change your habits during peak demand events.

Essentials

Electric heating and hot water consumption make a big difference to your electricity bill. If you adopt good habits during peak demand events, you’ll save more.

Electric heating

Potential savings: very high

How to save: When you lower the temperature setting, your heating system turns off. The lower you set the temperature, the longer it stays off.

Understanding how lowering the temperature setting affects electricity use

Electric heating: A significant portion of the electricity used on cold days

On cold days, heating can represent up to 80% of your electricity consumption, so it’s important to follow Hydro-Québec’s heating tips to reduce your consumption during peak demand events and maximize your savings.

Things you can do

Open for more information

Hot water

Potential savings: average

Reduce the nonessential use of hot water by temporarily changing your habits, because heating water takes a lot of electricity. For more savings, postpone hot water use until after events.

Things you can do

Small changes that make a difference

Every step, whether big or small, you take to use less electricity during a peak demand event will lower your electricity bill.

Greater comfort

Use a fuel-burning auxiliary heating system.

You can use your fuel-burning (oil, propane, natural gas or wood pellets) auxiliary heating system during peak demand events to stay comfortable while using less electricity.

Preheat your premises ahead of a peak demand event.

Turning up all the thermostats 1°C to 3°C about two hours before a peak demand event will keep you comfortable during the event. But don’t forget to set the temperature a few degrees lower than usual when the event starts, depending on how much electricity you want to save. Residual heat will keep the temperature pleasant during the event, even though you’ve lowered the thermostat.

This method will help you save money, because the price applicable to kWh consumed in the winter outside of peak demand events are considerably lower than the price applicable to kWh consumed during peak demand events, which is 54.442¢ per kWh.

Understanding how lowering the temperature setting affects electricity use

Tip: Some thermostat models have an “early on” option that lets you program the time you want to have the desired temperature, rather than the time the temperature should start to rise. In that way, your heating system will stop running before the event begins.

Questions

A customized tool to track your results

You can track your results closely in your Customer Space.

There you’ll find the following information:

  • Information about the current winter, updated daily (total savings or increase, number of hours in peak demand events already gone by, number of days of the winter period elapsed)
  • Your energy use during peak demand events and outside events
  • Upcoming events for which you have received a notification
  • History of previous winters

Check out your Consumption Profile

A community created just for you!

This forum was created for customers who are signed up for Rate Flex D or the Winter Credit Option. It’s the ideal platform to ask questions, find answers and share tips and advice for peak events.

Join the community [in French only]

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