New power service to grain bins

[poorboy]

I have talked to Fortis Alberta about putting in a new power service to my grain bins so I could run a few more aeration fans. Fortis says they do the job for free but charge me monthly from $80-140 for the transformer and pole even if I don't use any power. I have lots of neighbors who have existing services for grain dryers and they only pay about $20-30/month when they don't use any power.

Has anyone priced out new installations and various options and know how to keep costs down monthly? I was told I couldn't even purchase my system. At $140/ month it is about $1600/yr and I am led to believe that $5000 would be the total cost of construction. I wouldn't take long to get $5000 back at $1600/yr.
I live at Drumheller.
Thanks for any help.

[nicolaas]

Welcome to Ralph's World!! - I pay about the same as your neighbors every month for the luxury of owning a grain drier.

[seedsman]

I think the way it works is that the power company charges you a monthly fee based on the size of the transformer. They need to have their entire system built with enough capacity to supply every user with the total maximum electricity requirements, even if no one ever uses that much power. The best way to reduce your monthly cost is to figure out if you can get by with a transformer that is 1 size smaller.

A few years ago, we had the REA put in a new service for irrigation. We own the transformer, but still get a bill of $123 per month even with no power used. This rate is based on the transformenr size. Most of this is the "transmission" charge, to pay for "the cost of building, operating and maintaining the provincial power transmission system".