A former Central Alberta Rural Electrification Association (CAREA) customer was voicing concern after the group removed its power poles once he switched to FortisAlberta as a power distributor.Roy Anderson has been living on a rural property west of Bowden on Highway 587 for seven years. On Sept. 6, CAREA had workers remove their poles and FortisAlberta was on site to install new ones.He said he and his wife had offered to purchase the poles, but were turned down. He said the couple had asked for reassessment by CAREA as their property is less than 10 acres and they have no income from agriculture, but they were denied.“What people need to know is they do have a choice,” he said as he watched the poles being removed on Sept. 6. “We're making history as we speak.”He acknowledged when he first moved in they did sign an agreement with CAREA because there were no other retailers available. When the contract was up on Jan. 1, 2011, he said he didn't renew and switched to a regulated rate option while he was looking at his options.An Alberta Utilities Commission decision issued earlier this year in July denied an application by CAREA to be considered the primary service provider for the area. The decision did not go any further in terms of deciding who the primary service provider is, but said declaring CAREA to be it would have gone against legislation that addresses the overlapping service areas of Rural Electrification Associations and public utilities providers.The decision noted that customers have to apply to be members of CAREA while public utility providers are the default.Anderson said while he'd been trying to switch since before the AUC decision was issued, it did help him in the transfer process.“With the AUC ruling … (CAREA does) not have service right solely to this area,” he said. “People are supposed to have a choice.”He said he's approached government agencies and commissions to try and address his concerns, and put “many, many hours” into researching his problem.He said he thinks other CAREA customers will follow in switching to FortisAlberta.Jennifer McGowan, a spokesperson for FortisAlberta, noted membership in an REA is voluntary whereas Fortis is a regulated utility provider.“We are obligated to provide power to any Albertan,” McGowan said.She said there's an operating agreement from 1997 between Fortis and CAREA that covers the transfer of facilities. Fortis also offered to buy the poles from CAREA, she said.“This goes fully against the operating agreement,” she said. “They just refused to sell the poles.”While customers have switched from CAREA to Fortis and vice versa before, she said this situation is unique.“This would be the first person whose facilities got stripped,” she said, adding normally facilities are switched.FortisAlberta serves about 500,000 customers in Central and Southern Alberta, she said.“We believe this is very wasteful and uncooperative behaviour,” she said of the pole removal. “We are not in competition with them.”The switch resulted in power being cut to both the Andersons and a neighbouring residence that is a Fortis customer for a good part of the day, she said.After the July AUC decision, Fortis issued a press release that interpreted the results as confirming Fortis's place as the primary service provider.Jim Towle, the chairman of CAREA's board, disagrees with that interpretation, instead noting the decision was simply a denial of CAREA's application. He said Fortis does not have a service area they can prove they have.“It's totally misleading,” Towle said of Fortis's assertations.As for the Andersons' case, he said they'd received a letter from the couple asking for the equipment to be salvaged.He said Fortis did request to buy the poles.“We don't sell our distribution system,” he said. “Our assets aren't for sale.”When asked about the 1997 operating agreement with Fortis, he said this issue isn't connected.“The dispute with the Andersons has nothing to do with the contract and I'm not prepared to comment,” he said.The Andersons were never reassessed because they signed a contract, he said.“They signed the contract with the REA so why would we reassess it?” he asked. When asked about the Andersons' questions about not being agriculturally-based, he said everyone is eligible to apply and CAREA is not restricted in who it can serve.“We'll serve anybody and everybody,” he said.Customers now have the ability to choose to be a member of CAREA or a customer of Fortis, he said.“We're competitive also,” he said, adding it would be prudent for people to check out their options when moving into the area.He said the Andersons were not forced to sign a contract and could have gone to another retailer.“We can't force them. That's the bottom line,” he said. He pointed out what retailers serve where is determined by economics.
