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Getting Zapped: Ontario electricity prices increasing faster than anywhere else
Read Our Report On Wind Subsidies in Ontario
Category Archives: Reforming Ontario’s Electrical Generation Sector
Energy Probe's position on customer choice and environmental protection
February 27 was a black day for the environment this year. Destec Energy, a prominent U.S. power producer and marketer, had arranged a perfect deal. Destec had access to idle cogeneration capacity in Ontario, had secured an NEB export license, and had U.S. customers lining up. Destec’s cogenerated power would have displaced dirty coal-fired power in the U.S. and improved the energy efficiency of refinery operations in Ontario. The only piece missing in Destec’s plan was transmission access. Continue reading
The case for breaking up and privitizing Ontario Hydro
Breaking up and privatizing Ontario’s electricity system—now bloated, polluting and propped up by secret rate discounts for big business—will make the system trim, green and fair. With competition, rates would fall as every user gained the right to shop for big power bargains.
Ontario Hydro history backgrounder: turn-of-the-century seer foretold Ontario Hydro's demise
Between July and December of 1916, while the predecessor of Ontario Hydro was taking on the special powers and institutional structure that the monopoly has today, University of Toronto Political Economy Professor James Mavor, wrote a series of 16 articles in the Financial Post condemning the monopoly’s formation.
Lower rates promised if Ontario gets competition
Lower rates promised if Ontario gets competition
Groups suspect Ontario Hydro violating environmental laws over toxic discharges
TORONTO. A number of environmental groups have formally requested that the Investigations and Enforcement Branch of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy officially investigate Ontario Hydro for discharging tonnes of toxic substances into Lake Ontario. From the Pickering nuclear facility alone, Ontario Hydro may have discharged over 800 tonnes of copper, 360 tonnes of zinc and 25,000 pounds of tin into Lake Ontario since the early 1980s. The toxics come from copper condensers used to cool the processes within the facility. Continue reading
Relevations spur reactor shutdown in Canada
TORONTO — Ontario Hydro, North America’s largest electric utility and a major investor in nuclear power, is shutting down a third of its reactors after an internal study documented widespread management problems, years of inadequate maintenance and safety practices that were only marginally acceptable.
Allan Kupcis, president and chief executive officer of the company, resigned Tuesday night, on the eve of the public release of the highly critical study by a team of U.S. nuclear power experts.
Nuclear option is dead
Energy-industry expert predicts end of atomic power in Canada
Ontario Hydro’s dramatic decision to shut down seven atomic reactors signifies the end of the nuclear era in Canada, says one of the country’s leading energy industry critics.
"It looks like the nuclear option is dead in Canada," said Tom Adams, the executive director of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based industry watchdog that is opposed to atomic power.
Hydro fiasco to cost billions
Hydro fiasco to cost billions ‘Chickens are coming home to roost,’ Harris says after report cites management meltdown
TORONTO – The massive upheaval in which Ontario Hydro will close seven reactors was triggered by an internal report warning that the utility had to move quickly to improve the performance of its ailing nuclear division or the $24.4-billion in nuclear assets would have depreciated beyond recovery.
1,000 watt-grins
It’s Ontario Hydro’s darkest hour, but plenty of businesses in the province see new opportunity.
“It augurs really very well for the private sector, people like ourselves,’` James Temerty of Toronto-based Northland Power Inc. said yesterday.
“The folks at Northland are feeling pretty good,” said Temerty, chief executive of the province’s largest independent power producer.
Temerty thinks Hydro’s plans to shut down several problem-plagued nuclear reactors means he’ll be able to sell more power to the crown utility.
Hydro unplugged
Over the years, troubles were short-circuiting the utility’s nuclear stations. Now, the fuse has blown and critics are asking, `where was the watchdog ?’
ONTARIO HYDRO HAS stuck its finger in an electric socket and given itself a shock. Amazingly, the biggest producer of electricity in North America was surprised by the jolt.
An eight-month internal investigation to find out what’s been going on inside Ontario Hydro’s troubled nuclear sector spelled out the shocking story – its nuclear plants have been horribly mismanaged.
Energy Probe 