To protect the privacy of certain individuals the names and identifying details have been changed.
Jennifer grew up in Northern Alberta, going to her family’s cabin at a lake about one hour away. When Jennifer’s parents passed away, she inherited the cabin and continued going to it for several years.
After completing school to become a nurse, Jennifer got a job in Calgary and prepared to make her move.
Jennifer didn’t want to sell her family’s cabin but since she would now be seven hours away and unable to visit as often, she decided to call her utility company to cancel services.
After getting settled in Calgary, she looked at her bank statement and saw charges from the utility services to her family’s cabin. Confused, she talked with a friend who told her to call the UCA!
When she called, a Mediation Officer explained she is paying for idle charges. Idle charges exist to maintain existing infrastructure on properties. This is to ensure power can be restored to the site if necessary and to make sure neighboring properties and infrastructure are not negatively impacted.
The Mediation Officer explained that if Jennifer didn't want to pay for idle charges, she could request the distributor to salvage the equipment at the property, meaning the distributor would physically remove the meter, power poles and power lines and all related infrastructure, but the Officer cautioned Jennifer, that salvaging a site is a big and costly decision and is usually only done when you have no future plans to use electricity at that property and that the cost to reinstall the power lines, poles and meters is a significant investment.
After comparing how much it would cost to remove the infrastructure (and potentially re-install it in the future) with how much she was paying in idle charges, Jennifer decided to keep paying the idle charges until she figured out what she wanted to do with her family’s cabin.
Jennifer was grateful the UCA was able to explain the charges she was facing and now knows to expect these charges in her budget going forward.