Hey... it's Spring!

I write this April 4th, 2014 from my desk in beautiful Spring Valley, PEI.

Yes, that is April fourth, not first, and its no joke!

March 26th, last week Wednesday, we were socked by a major late winter storm in a winter of many.

The entire eastern provinces were hit by winds as high as 105 mph, tons of snow followed by rain and then more snow.

This combination created some difficult problems in snow clearing and driving.

Monday, March 31st, at 10 am local time, we lost our power, like many communities in the path of this big blizzard.

Having been a resident of PEI during the eighties, I was familiar with the pattern.  Mild winters that lulled you into a distinct sense of global warming, only to be hit with vicious ones plagued with storm after storm after storm.  Our first two winters here have followed that pattern.

Fortunately the temperatures were relatively mild, averaging on my thermometer around -5 to -10C. In the design of this house I also planned for the ultimate "bad" winter by installing an auxiliary power device.  I wanted (and still do) to have our own wind turbine to take advantage of wind typical of living on an Island, even one as sheltered as this one.  Unfortunately in the shuffle of bureaucracy and poor service from our construction people that lived down to a reputation, that didn't take place... yet.

I do however have a large capacity, 7KW gasoline generator.  At around $6.40/gallon and with a consumption of approximately one gallon per hour, I use it sparingly.  We deliberately did not build in oil fired heat, nor propane as they are both fossil fuels.  We did plan on a wood burning stove in our central living room but as many things during the construction phase, Doc's neglected to build the support requirements according to the original plan, and to retro fit this is cost prohibitive.

So we rely on electricity and for the short term, the gen set.  I'll include more about my turbine idea in the future.

A n y w a y... I digress.  As of mid morning Monday the 26th... we had no power.

We were not alone, much of the Island and indeed the Maritimes were in the same dory so to speak.  Despite many calls to the single utility that "services" Islanders, the many csr's I eventually got through to, regurgitated the same corporate double speak that has no place in today's information society.

We are not peasant farmers, we are intelligent and mostly informed individuals.  I've met many of my neighbors (there are ten homes on our little lane) and without exception, they are literate, educated and articulate.  

The steady "a repair ticket has been processed and work crews dispatched" may work for the first few hours but after a day, simply do not cut the mustard.

Islanders pay the highest electric costs in Canada.  We are even higher by approximately 10% than Alberta, the rich province, and indeed about 50% higher than I pay for my all electric Phoenix home!

Tales of utilities that have a monopoly over their customers, are alive and well at Maritime Electric.

Don't misunderstand me here... I'm not stating that these people are above the laws of nature by any means, after all, work crews for the most part, get the job done with little fanfare.  What I am saying is for those people that have freezers full of food (we do after all live in the country and Pizza Delight does not deliver...) or whom there is a requirement for electricity to stay warm, there are decisions to be made.  It was obvious to me by the second day in my calls, that the live person on the other end of the line, had no interest in us, they were simply stating the party line.

It wasn't until the evening of the third day without power, that "Robbie" at my determined insistence, who finally took the step, after I explained what our problem was (a downed pole about a half mile in) and by early morning Thursday, a single pick up truck made a pass and by mid afternoon, the pole was replaced and once again, we were paying those exorbitant electric rates.

Our neighbors to the north, have a wood fired furnace and plenty of wood of their own, they don't need to buy truckloads from some woodlot, our neighbors to the south have geothermal and farther down oil fired furnaces... unfortunately all these systems require fast moving electrons to work.  When you have NO electrons, you can be in trouble real quick. 

I feel like charging the utility a reverse service charge!

The message in all this, is two fold. 

One, be honest.  People deserve that.  If you haven't a clue, if you don't have the staff, if you simply don't know... just say so.  Don't try to continually dupe your customers, even if you do have a monopoly.  We hate that.

Two... Mr. Murphy is always lurking and he strikes at the most inopportune times.  Like the boy scouts, be prepared.

For myself I spent many long hours in the dark these past few days, re-thinking my turbine idea.

It's coming...