Utilities/Energy

Frpo 2003 Submetering Study

About 90 percent of Ontario’s stock of rental multi-residential apartments is currently bulk-metered. This means that there is only one meter on the building or complex, the landlord pays the electricity bill, and the associated costs are incorporated into the rents.

This sector currently represents about 5 percent of Ontario’s electricity consumption. There is very good evidence that when these buildings are sub-metered, the total electricity consumption for the building drops by anywhere between 10 percent and 26 percent. Therefore, there are good public policy reasons to encourage sub-metering. It reduces overall demand for electricity, reducing demand for new generation capacity, which has a relatively high marginal cost. If all buildings were to be sub-metered, it would reduce overall provincial consumption by about 1 percent. Therefore, we believe it is in the government’s interest to encourage more sub-metering, because reducing demand pressures on the electricity market will ultimately reduce costs for government.

Document Title	Type	Size	Revision
Options to Reduce Energy Consumption by Encouraging Sub-Metering and Individual Billing in Multi-Residential Rental Dwellings. By FRPO, February 2003	pdf	178 kB	Oct 15, 2009