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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
Cut power use, Ontario warns
Ontario could be flirting with power shortages if electricity consumers don’t move quickly to conserve, Energy Minister Chris Stockwell says.
Recent scorching temperatures pushed Ontario to hit near-peak demand yesterday, forcing the province to scramble to buy power from other jurisdictions, including the United States where much of the electricity is produced by highly polluting coal-fired plants.
Executive pay for OPG 'unrealistic,' critic charges
Senior executives at Ontario Power Generation Inc., which generates the bulk of Ontario’s electricity, are getting paid far too much money given the disastrous performance of the company, a top critic of the province’s energy policy said yesterday.
Tom Adams, the executive director of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based think tank, called OPG compensation levels "the next shoe to drop" in continuing scrutiny of the successor companies to Ontario Hydro.
Psst! Here's the real scandal at Hydro
Eleanor Clitheroe’s limousine bills are scandalous, no doubt about it. But in the vast train wreck that is Hydro, they matter about as much as a broken light bulb in the caboose.
Sure, $330,000 is a lot of dough. But so is $22-billion. Which is more or less what public ownership of Hydro has cost the people of Ontario.
Capitalists may be rapacious villains. But governments are worse. The political mismanagement of Hydro stretches back a generation, and has been ruinously costly, and shows no sign of ending.
Ambitious Plans in Disarray at Canada Utility
TORONTO — The names of Hydro One’s directors have disappeared from the corporate Web site. So has the prospectus that Hydro One, Ontario’s dominant power transmission company, filed earlier this year for what was to have been the biggest public stock offering in Canadian history.
Ontario's growing Hydro scandal
The Eves government of Ontario, in an obvious attempt to humiliate one of its own corporate appointees, had no trouble digging up and releasing details of Eleanor Clitheroe’s compensation as CEO of Hydro One. At this rate, we should all soon be reviewing Ms. Clitheroe’s expense account chits and tax returns. Which is all great political sport if you’re in the business of trying to convert policy disasters into victories.
Keeping Hydro One, dumping Clitheroe
Concerns over the remuneration of Eleanor Clitheroe, the former Chief Executive Officer of Ontario’s electricity distributor, Hydro One, are not unfounded. Last year, Ms. Clitheroe earned $2.18-million in salary for running the public company. According to the government, she also billed $330,000 for limousine service over three years, joined seven clubs at public expense, and used $40,000 of Hydro One funds (only recently repaid) to renovate her house. In short, she received opulent and arguably excessive rewards from the public purse.
Eves advisor to run agency that handles Ontario Hydro debt
One of the closest advisors to Ontario’s premier, Ernie Eves, has been named chief executive of the agency that issues the province’s bonds and manages the former debt of the old Ontario Hydro monopoly.
Michael Gourley is the new CEO of the Ontario Financing Authority (OFA) and the Ontario Electricity Financial Corp. (OEFC). His appointment took effect this month, and the job will pay between $225,000 and $300,000 a year.
Bruce a to start ahead of schedule: consortium
The Bruce Power consortium, made up of British Energy PLC and Cameco Corp., says it will be able to restart two of the idle units at its Bruce A nuclear station ahead of schedule, which will boost profit and provide Ontarians with much-needed power before next summer.
Reactor restart plan sparks safety fears
Bruce Power says it will restart a reactor at the mothballed Bruce A nuclear generating station as early as next April, ending a five-year shutdown caused by safety problems and poor operating performance.
But the reopening will likely draw renewed attention to safety concerns at the plant, where construction began in 1970. The plant is considered relatively old by nuclear-industry standards.
Power demand hits record high
The current heat wave pushed Ontario’s electricity system to the limit yesterday as the province set a new unofficial record for demand.
As demand soared, industrial customers faced stiff extra charges to cover the cost of imported power – though the true price of imports is masked by the current market system.
Demand for power averaged 25,432 megawatts between 5 and 6 p.m. yesterday, breaking the old mark of 25,330 megawatts set July 3. Figures are sometimes adjusted slightly at a later date.
Energy Probe 