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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
Nuclear power stations face stricter rules
New law replaces antiquated 1946 legislation
OTTAWA – With the sale of an Ontario nuclear power station looming, the federal rules governing atomic energy have just become a lot more stringent.
A private company buying the Bruce power station from the provincial utility, Ontario Power Generation, must now provide financial guarantees covering the huge decommissioning costs.
Province to crack down on hydro rates
Jim Wilson, the Ontario Energy Minister, says he’s cracking down on cities and towns across the province that want to hike electricity rates by as much as 17%.
But a prominent consumer watchdog said the action Mr. Wilson is planning is a meaningless response to a problem that’s been festering for a year.
Summary of Energy Probe's Reasons for Recommending the Replacement of Minister Jim Wilson
At this time of uncertainty in our electricity restructuring, Ontario needs an energy minister who can protect consumers, restore investor confidence, restore the authority of the regulator, and protect taxpayers from politicized decisionmaking. Jim Wilson has undermined the fairness and efficiency of the market by grandfathering the industrial rate discounts to the detriment of small consumers and taxpayers. His legislation currently before the provincial parliament directed at the municipal electric utilities will not protect the long term interests of consumers. Continue reading
British firm pays $912M for Direct Energy
CALGARY – A giant British firm will pay $912-million for the assets of Calgary-based Direct Energy Income Fund, a move that gives Centrica PLC an important toehold as the electrical industry deregulates across North America and ratchets up competition in the key market of Ontario.
Created in 1997 from the privatization of British Gas PLC, Centrica is a $20-billion behemoth that brings marketing expertise and financial might to Direct Energy, the largest unregulated seller of natural gas in Ontario where the bulk of its 820,000 customers reside.
Critics fear higher power rates as new investors await Ontario deregulation
Consumers in Ontario could see higher electricity costs in the short term – as Albertans have already seen – after deregulation opens the market to competition, a consumer watchdog group says.
Bruce nuclear plant leased to British firm
Province says 18-year deal could bring in $3.1 billion.
The privatization of Ontario’s nuclear power network surged into high gear yesterday with the announcement that a British energy giant has signed a long-term lease to operate the aging and often-troubled Bruce nuclear station.
Pickering headache
Will the troubled Pickering A nuclear power station be properly assessed before it fires up its reactors again next year? And is it too old and hazardous to be turned on at all?
Ontario begins to unshackle nuclear electricity plants
The Ontario government decision this week to lease some of its troubled nuclear electricity plants to British Energy signals a real beginning to the end of a monopoly that has shackled the province with almost C$21bn ($14.2bn) debt.
But a thick fog on the distribution side of Ontario’s C$9bn electricity market is muffling the glow produced by the progress in reducing the state’s role in generation.
British Energy must earn our trust
God knows there’s no defending Ontario Hydro’s safety record managing its nuclear facilities. But British Energy’s track record isn’t spotless either, and Canadians need to carefully monitor the province’s first effort at hiring a private company to manage a nuclear plant.
The British are way ahead of Canada in the privatization game. British Energy, now a publicly traded company, runs eight nuclear sites in Britain and has signed deals with an American partner to buy five nuclear plants in the United States.
In shape for a hydro war
Ron 0sborne has one of the most unusual challenges of any chief executive in Canada: his primary job is to create competition for the company he runs.
Energy Probe 