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Author Archives: energyprbe
Hydro One fires Clitheroe, alleges abuse of perks
Eleanor Clitheroe [left] was fired as president and chief executive of Hydro One Inc. yesterday for alleged abuse of executive perks that included spending $330,000 of company funds on limousines for her nanny and children, according to Glen Wright, the utility’s interim chairman.
Firing raises questions about future of utility
The future of Hydro One Inc. became even more cloudy yesterday with the firing of Eleanor Clitheroe.
The utility, one of the largest in North America, has endured a series of upheavals in the past two months. Since June, Hydro One’s entire board of directors has quit, its chief executive officer, Ms. Clitheroe, has been fired and its initial public offering has been scrapped.
The utility will be run by co-CEOs until the board can find another chief executive, all while the company defends itself in a lawsuit from its former CEO.
Part Two: Conspiracy of chances
Barrett Chute’s generating turbines, at the end of the ‘power canal’ shown at centre, could not pass water fast enough on June 23. The spillway, shown on the right behind a dam, was opened like a safety valve to relieve pressure on the turbines.
– Ottawa Citizen
How the provincial hydroelectric utility responds to demands for power is in the midst of a revolution. If 1906 was the beginning of life for public hydro in Ontario, then 1995 was the beginning of the end.
Conspiracy of chances
The brothers walked ahead, leading their parents up the rocks of High Falls. On the steamy June 23 afternoon, the first Sunday of summer, the two boys – Aaron, 7, and Adam, 9 – were keen to wade in the shallow pools along a dammed channel of the Madawaska River near Calabogie.
Hydro prices pain in purse
The province’s electricity market opened for competition May 1 and since then net power prices have increased 15 per cent, says industry watchdog Energy Probe.
High summer prices have lingered into September and the Independent Electricity Market Operator, which operates the deregulated market, sees no immediate relief.
The market operator predicts continued tight power supplies with upward pressure on prices.
Fixing hydro's rate jolts
Picture yourself in a marketplace where there aren’t enough goods to buy, there’s only one stall selling them, you can’t buy in bulk when prices are low, and you can’t refuse to buy when prices are high.
Now picture yourself as an electricity user in Ontario.
The province’s new competitive electricity market kept the lights on in the province, barely, through a summer of searing heat and record power demand.
But to the surprise of no one, the new market hit some bumps.
Reactor problem reveals risk of blackout
A safety defect discovered at the Darlington nuclear generating station in mid-August triggered a warning that the huge plant could have been pulled out of service during a summer of record electricity demand.
No shutdown was ordered, the plant continued to operate and the province’s lights stayed on. But the impact of the warning, which came after an employee happened to see a shaft of light shining through a hole into a supposedly steam-proof room containing vital safety equipment, highlighted Ontario’s shortage of electricity during peak demand periods.
Ontario power policy deters projects
Private-sector companies are growing increasingly reluctant to build new electricity-generating plants in Ontario, arguing the province’s deregulation policies are muddled and the market conditions are poor.
Eves reins in free market in electricity
MISSISSAUGA, ON — The Ontario government said yesterday it will cap the price consumers pay for hydro power until 2006 – a move critics contend spells the end of the province’s electricity deregulation, adds billions in taxpayer-owed debt and increases the risk of California-style blackouts.
Province fights electricity backlash
John Baird, left, Ontario’s Minister for Energy, talks with Niagara MPP Bart Maves in Niagara Falls, Ont., yesterday after announcing a plan to boost electricity supply by expanding a generating plant. Credit: Kevin Frayer, The Canadian Press
NIAGARA FALLS – The debt ratings of Ontario utilities were put under review yesterday and a leading brokerage called the province’s decision to impose a price cap on electricity for consumers "A Comedy in Three Acts."
Energy Probe 