Category Archives: Reforming Ontario’s Electrical Generation Sector

TORONTO — After almost a century of near-monopoly, Ontario Hydro will be broken up and the electricity market opened to competition, the government will announce this morning.

In a 29-page white paper that Energy Minister Jim Wilson will release at a news conference, the government will outline its plan for an open, competitive wholesale and retail market for electricity in Ontario, starting in 2000.

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  Select Committee on Ontario Hydro Nuclear Affairs Attention:
Derwyn Shea, M.P.P., Chair (Fax: 416-314-7783)
Doug Galt, M.P.P. (Fax: 416-323-4439) Continue reading →

Derwyn Shea, M.P.P
Chair, Ontario Select Committee on Ontario Hydro Nuclear Affairs
by fax: 314-7783 (2 pages)

re: Nuclear Power Costs

Dear Mr. Shea,

On Monday, November 24, Ontario Hydro representatives Ms. Clitheroe and Ms. Ng were asked by M.P.P. Helen Johns what the real cost of nuclear power is. The representatives quoted from Ontario Hydro’s annual report, indicating that in 1996 nuclear power cost 5.5 cents/KWh.

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Harvard Electricity Policy Group
Fifteenth Plenary Session

Coronado Island Marriott Resort
San Diego, California

January 29, 1998 (morning session)

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Presented at

The Transition to Competition in Electricity: Overcoming New Challenges and Capitalizing on New Opportunities

This presentation focuses on three aspects of the market structure for Ontario’s new electricity sector: generation, dispatch, and distribution. My discussions of generation and distribution also address the policy issues surrounding privatization.

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Utility missed deadline for filing plans to improve plants, regulator says

Ontario Hydro’s failure to show detailed plans on how it will improve slipping nuclear safety was "entirely unacceptable," Canada’s nuclear regulator says.

And the Atomic Energy Control Board is calling Hydro’s chairman to come to Ottawa and explain the utility’s actions in person.

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Ontario Hydro lost $6.3-billion last year, the biggest annual loss in Canadian corporate history.

The loss included a onetime charge of $6.6-billion that is largely related to a restructuring program for Hydro’s nuclear operations.

"Hydro gets the gold medal for corporate losses," said Tom Adams, an analyst at Energy Probe, a Toronto-based environmental group. "But they also hold the silver medal for corporate losses."

He and other analysts predicted the loss ultimately will be borne by consumers.

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After years of chipping away at its massive debt, Ontario Hydro will add $1 billion to the figure this year and see no further reductions at least until 2000, says a business plan released Wednesday.

The report underlines the heavy toll taken on the Crown corporation’s bottom line by a sweeping project to overhaul its * troubled nuclear division.

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Less than two years before the breakup of its monopoly on the electricity market, Ontario Hydro is still using the provincial government’s signature to borrow billions — money Ontarians could have to pay back.

It’s a spending strategy that critics say may be aimed at helping Hydro maintain a virtual lock on the industry, even after private power companies are allowed into the market in 2000.

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Ontario’s energy minister says the government won’t let Ontario Hydro increase its debt level — exactly what the utility is requesting.

Ontario Hydro is set to ask the provincial cabinet to approve $4.7 billion in loans this year, which would add $800 million to its $31-billion debt.

Ontario Hydro is looking at the government to co-sign these loans. Getting approval, however, won’t be easy.

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