Stories & Features

Hoops fan signs up for Peak Saver, and her friends join in

Basketball fan Krista Lambert is not the perfect Peak Saver candidate, but she's got game. If she were in the WNBA, she wouldn't put up huge numbers like her favourite player Caitlin Clark. She'd be coming off the bench to grab rebounds, make the odd steal, maybe even drain a three.

And her shooting percentage is off the charts. Since joining our Peak Saver challenges a year ago, she's hit the electricity savings target (usually 20%) a remarkable 27 of the 28 times she's been alerted of an event, which usually falls on a cold winter evening between November and March.

"I see the email alert from BC Hydro and I think 'what am I doing tomorrow?'," says Lambert, who lives in a Ladner apartment. "Like, if yesterday I got the email and I was like, 'oh, the [Golden State] Warriors are on TV, maybe I'll go to my parents' house and watch it there'."

For Lambert, shutting off the TV and lights for an evening is usually enough to deliver on the 20% savings and earn up to $3 each time she hits it. That $82 in rewards she has collected since joining the program – participants get a bill credit at the close of each Peak Saver season – may not seem like much. But it's enough to more than cover two months of her electricity bills.

Every time she's been notified of an event over the past two winters, she's come off the bench to do whatever it takes.

"I also have friends that do it as well," she says, with a laugh. "And we always text each other to see if we made it. That might sound a bit weird, maybe kind of silly. I don't know why we're into it, but we are."

Lambert jokes that it might all sound a bit like "peak dork". But it works for her and her friends, and it's a program that helps reduce key peak time energy demand in B.C., which in turn cuts down on infrastructure costs and helps keep electricity rates affordable.

Not many Peak Saver customers will reduce electricity use every time they're alerted. We don't want customers sacrificing comfort or convenience, and you can always opt out of an event by ignoring a notification.

For Lambert, however, keeping an eye on her energy use has now become a habit. Before she headed out on a recent trip to Europe, she unplugged her computer, chargers and every small appliance that made sense. And when she looked at her Team Power Smart Reduction Challenge in October, she was delighted to discover that she has a great chance of being rewarded for reducing her energy use by at least 10% over 12 months.

"Last year, I wasn't even close to the target, but now I'm at minus 9% with 99 days left," she says. "So wow, I might hit it this time."

If she can get that up to a 10% reduction, she'll be in for double the usual $50 reward. She took advantage of last winter's double-the-reward limited time offer, which is back again this year. Start a 10% Reduction Challenge anytime between November 1, 2024 and January 15, 2025, and you'll be chasing a $100 reward instead of the usual $50.

New to the game? The what and why of Peak Saver challenges

Peak Saver was designed to provide you with the opportunity to earn financial rewards for reducing your electricity use during specific days and times, known as peak events.

Here's how it works. For each peak event where you reduce your electricity use to meet the target, you'll earn a reward, such as $3 for saving 20% or more during a set event. Once you're signed up for Peak Saver challenges, you'll start getting alerts – by email and/or texts – in advance of the next peak event, with the hours, savings target and reward amount specified.

You can either reduce your energy use or shift it to a time outside the event window, which this winter will be for four-hour periods, including on some weekends and holidays. You could do laundry or run the dishwasher at a different time, or grab a sweater and turn down your electric baseboard heat.

Lambert does it by visiting a friend, going for a long walk, or unplugging or turning off devices, including the TV or her laptop, which she runs off the battery.

It's arguably easier for those in electrically heated homes to reduce their energy use, but Lambert doesn't have that weapon in her arsenal. While her apartment is electrically heated, she gets enough ambient heat from her building to rarely need to turn her heat on. That's also why Lambert hasn't signed up for another Peak Saver option, which is to get $50 for enrolling a smart thermostat, electric vehicle charger, load controller, or battery energy storage system so that BC Hydro can remotely reduce your home's energy use during times of peak demand.

Any way you slice it, Lambert's 27-for-28 shooting percentage is off the charts. Our analysis of the first year of Peak Saver found that customers had hit their challenge target and earned their reward an average of 56% of the time. And that makes a difference in peak demand, as almost 79,000 homes are signed up for the program.

"It might not seem like a big deal to delay turning on your clothes dryer until after a peak saver event," our community relations officer Karla Louwers told Nanaimo News Now in a story about the program. "But if you think about a whole neighbourhood or a whole community doing this at the same time, it can help to avoid the need to build new costly infrastructure in that neighbourhood, or even in that community."

Shower led to a missed shot, and a valuable lesson

Lambert admits that while she's happy to be helping trim peak energy demand at key times in B.C., she signed up to save a few bucks. What she didn't expect was how much she learned about the impacts of turning things on and off, or letting the hot water flow, in her apartment.

The one time she missed her Peak Saver target, she had made the mistake of taking a shower during the three-hour window.

"That's how I learned that my hot water tank is electric," she says "I was like, 'wow, that's interesting'. I didn't realize showers were costing me that much."

She's also learning that energy-saving tips offered on our website and in the Connected monthly newsletter actually work. For example, if two people cut their average shower time by a minute, they could save over $30 a year on their electricity bill. If they managed to cut showers by two minutes, they could save $60 in a year.

Related:

• Peak Saver
• Free programs based on income
• Join Team Power Smart, start a 10% Reduction Challenge
• Optional rate with time-of-day pricing
• BC Hydro meets record-breaking electricity demand, helps neighbours