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Getting Zapped: Ontario electricity prices increasing faster than anywhere else
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Category Archives: Reforming Ontario’s Electrical Generation Sector
Sparks fly over Hydro
Suspicious eyes are cast over every one of Ontario Hydro’s moves.
Be it borrowing money, hiring lobbyists, producing an annual report or fixing its plants, Ontario Hydro is constantly accused of shadowy dealings.
And as competition is set to hit Ontario’s electricity market in 2000, the accusations only get stronger.
Publically owned Ontario Hydro, it seems, cannot act as a normal business. That’s because it isn’t.
Energy conservation through elimination of bulk metering and flat rate water heaters
Issue identification:
Hydro debt burden grows
TORONTO — The chairman of Ontario Hydro has almost doubled the amount of debt that he says the utility must get rid of to be able to operate like a private company.
The comments by William Farlinger come as the Ontario Government tabled legislation yesterday to split the huge utility into four parts.
Two will generate and distribute electricity and they will be required to take on only the part of the debt that they can be expected to carry when they have to operate as private businesses.
Hydro debt burden grows
TORONTO — The chairman of Ontario Hydro has almost doubled the amount of debt that he says the utility must get rid of to be able to operate like a private company.
The comments by William Farlinger come as the Ontario Government tabled legislation yesterday to split the huge utility into four parts.
Two will generate and distribute electricity and they will be required to take on only the part of the debt that they can be expected to carry when they have to operate as private businesses.
Ontario's Energy fix moving but Govt.'s financial analysis lags
Ontario’s new energy legislation, now through second reading in the house, sets the stage for competition in electricity production and marketing, expansion of gas trading in Ontario, separation of competitive and monopoly activities, and strong public regulation of energy monopolies. While the legislative program is strong, the government’s financial analysis of Ontario Hydro’s liabilities and its plan for discharging those liabilities is weak.
There is much to praise in Ontario’s new energy legislation:
Failure to sell Hydro will cost Ontario billions
Shutting down Ontario’s nuclear plants should put $7 to $16 billion into the hands of Ontario taxpayers, according to new information released by the Ontario Ministry of Finance at a press conference Monday. This startling conclusion is based on the government’s $5 billion valuation of the power plants that the new government-owned generating company — a successor to Ontario Hydro — will be inheriting. There’s only one way for Hydro’s power plants — including Niagara Falls and other hydro-electric money-printing machines — to be worth so little. Continue reading
Cheaper electricity? Don't count on it.
In 1992, General Motors swallowed a $20.8 billion accounting loss to bring its books into line with what the company was actually worth. It was the biggest writedown in corporate history.
Ontario Hydro is about to take an even bigger hit to prepare itself for the competitive environment it will face in 2000.
Although the crown corporation has $39 billion in outstanding debt, the provincial finance ministry estimates that Hydro’s generating plants and power grid are worth only $15.8 billion – or $23.3 billion less than the Hydro debt.
Fish pay price for Cornwall dam
The giant Moses-Saunders hydro dam across the St. Lawrence River is destroying fish habitat and indirectly tainting the fish, says a major study by the University of Ottawa.
The river is cleaner than it used to be, and cleaner than most people who live near it realize, the University of Ottawa study found.
But the Moses-Saunders dam at Cornwall, and a second hydro dam downstream at Beauharnois, are now the biggest sources of damage to the river and the living things in it.
Ontario enters new world of hydro competition
Jim Wilson, Ontario’s Energy Minister, is announcing today the ground rules for a new era in electricity, one that will increasingly see free markets replace Ontario Hydro’s monopoly over the province’s electricity system.
Ontario Hydro nuclear continues slide
Earlier this week, Ontario Hydro’s "Nuclear Report Card" reported nuclear production 6.4% ahead of target for 1998. In fact, actual nuclear production for the year fell 3.4% short of Hydro’s official "Nuclear Asset Optimization Plan", as it was presented to the Ontario Parliamentary Select Committee on Ontario Hydro Nuclear Affairs in October 1997.
Energy Probe 