There’s an explosion in the number of people switching to heat pumps to reduce electricity consumption as we near the Muskrat Falls era. But Newfoundland Power is all for it. They say if customers can reduce their bill, all the better.

Sales growth has been flat and the utility does not project any growth in the foreseeable future.

Five years ago, about 5,000 people had heat pumps in their homes. Last year, that number had swollen to 37,000.

Newfoundland Power president and CEO Peter Alteen told the rate mitigation hearing at the Public Utilities Board yesterday that there was a 57 per cent uptake in conversion to heat pumps in just one year when the news came out a couple of years ago that power rates could double in the Muskrat era.

He says that’s a remarkable uptake in one year.