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Author Archives: energyprbe
Ontario pulls plug on sale of Hydro One stake
TORONTO — Ontario Premier Ernie Eves scrapped plans on Monday to sell a minority interest in Hydro One, the government-owned power grid, citing the need to protect energy consumers in Canada’s most populous province.
The decision hammered another nail in the coffin of the province’s experiment with electricity deregulation. A court decision last year scuttled plans to sell the entire transmission operation in what would have been Canada’s biggest initial public offering.
Ontario decides not to sell part of big hydroelectric utility
All but putting an end to a deregulated electricity market in Canada’s industrial heartland, the government of Ontario said today that it would retain full ownership of Hydro One, the Toronto company that operates one of North America’s biggest transmission networks.
Less than a year ago, the government said that it intended to sell Hydro One through a public offering that would have been the largest in Canadian history, raising an estimated 5 billion Canadian dollars or $3.26 billion.
Hydro One left in turmoil
A decision by Ontario Premier Ernie Eves to scrap a partial sale of Hydro One Inc. has raised more uncertainty about the future of the utility and the province’s energy policy, industry observers said yesterday.
"It is possible that some of these people [bidding on the stake] will still come back for other investments of the same type in Ontario," said one investment banker advising on a bid.
Hydro bill dodgers may see lights dim
WELLINGTON — Guelph Hydro is about to install load limiters that supply delinquent customers with only enough power to operate a furnace through the cold winter months.
Centre Wellington Hydro is considering following suit with the devices, which connect to hydro meters at the home or office.
Energy Probe executive director Thomas Adams blames the provincial government for fuelling delinquency.
Deep freeze
As these words are written at around 4:30 p.m. EST yesterday, the wholesale price of electricity in Ontario is about 10 cents per kilowatt hour. That’s the price paid by wholesale power buyers, including local utilities that run municipal electricity distribution companies. When Toronto Hydro, for example, bought power to supply Canada’s largest city through another cold spell yesterday, it paid an average 10.5 cents through the day. Under the miracle of Premier Ernie Eves’ rigged market, residents of Toronto and the rest of the province pay only 4.3 cents.
Record power use runs up tab
January’s cold weather helped drive electricity consumption in Ontario to a record high – and will cost the province $135 million in subsidies to consumers and small businesses.
Ontario businesses and residences gobbled 14.5 million megawatt hours of electricity in January. One megawatt hour is 1,000 kilowatt hours; a kilowatt hour is enough power to illuminate 10 light bulbs of 100 watts each for an hour.
Hedging bets
Re "Lifecycle: Electricity Deregulation," January 2003, National Post Business Magazine
Safety Cover-Up Alleged at Candu Nuke
An incorrectly installed reactor instrument disabled a crucial nuclear shutdown system at a Candu reactor at the Bruce B nuclear station for several weeks late last year, as British Energy left the Bruce Power partnership (ED, Jan. 7), and there appears to have been a cover-up with regard to the incident.
Tom Adams of public interest group Energy Probe, and some commissioners of the Ottawa-based Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), question whether the new plant operating partners can maintain nuclear safety as BE leaves. Continue reading
OPG profit falls 69% despite price hike
Despite soaring electricity prices, Ontario Power Generation Inc.’s net profit in 2002 dropped by more than two-thirds and operating income was down 42 per cent, the company’s year-end financial results show.
Chief executive Ron Osborne received a zero bonus last year, down from $752,853 a year earlier, year-end filings released yesterday show.
Tory power plan includes temporary generators
TORONTO – Ontario will set up dozens of portable industrial generators across the province to avoid power shortages this summer, Energy Minister John Baird said Tuesday.
The generators are part of a strategy to add hundreds of megawatts of power to the provincial grid during the summer months.
Last year, a heat wave sent hydro use soaring, prompting the government to warn that brownouts or rolling blackouts could occur.
Other measures announced by Baird include:
Energy Probe 