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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
Hydro scare returns
Toronto: Ontario’s electricity manager issued an emergency appeal to the public last night to reduce power consumption as high temperatures and a reduced energy supply created the prospect of rotating blackouts.
Officials said the need to reduce power consumption was particularly acute in the Toronto area, and with the weather not expected to cool in the next few days, residents are being asked to turn off non-essential lights and use energy-consuming appliances such as air conditioners and dishwashers only in off-peak hours.
Heat melts record
Ontario sucked up record levels of electricity to beat the heat yesterday as striking Hydro One workers continued targeting generators that are running flat out to feed air conditioners.
Late yesterday afternoon, electricity consumption soared past the previous provincial record, surpassing Ontario’s home-grown supply and forcing power officials to import expensive electricity from neighbouring U.S. states and provinces.
Blackout fears loom
Toronto: Energy officials urged Ontarians to reduce demand for electricity from the record highs set yesterday, as the province imported costly U.S. power and rotating blackouts were required to ease the pressure on the energy grid.
"Any increase in demand could create shortfalls of electricity and require proactive actions such as emergency purchases from other jurisdictions or voltage reduction on the Ontario system," the Independent Electricity System Operator said in a statement last night.
Smart meters in apartments inspire conservation
A company from Almonte, just west of Ottawa, has developed a new smart meter that could help reduce Ontario’s power crunch. The device from Triacta Power Technologies enables owners of apartment buildings to charge each tenant for the exact amount of electricity used.
Ontario lifts energy alert
Toronto: The agency monitoring Ontario’s power system has lifted its advisory asking residents to drastically cut back their power usage, but Energy Minister Dwight Duncan warned Thursday there will be a few more summers of tight power supply.
A slight break in the sweltering heat combined with a return to service of two power generating units allowed the Independent Electricity System Operator to lift its plea for residents to turn up the air conditioner thermostat and wait until after 10 p.m. to use major appliances.
Ontarians face hydro shocker
The record-shattering heat wave in Ontario has sent energy costs soaring in the province, leaving consumers facing higher bills next spring as the government moves to cover a growing deficit.
As things stand, the cost of buying electricity on the open market exceeds what the government charges consumers to run their air conditioners and televisions.
That gap is widening as this summer’s sweltering heat and high humidy drive up consumption levels, making electricity even more expensive.
Ontario faces energy shortage on heat wave, idled power plants
Ontario is in its worst energy crunch in three years as a heat wave, record electricity demand and idled nuclear plants force Canada’s most populous province to rely on imported power.
Energy authorities this week asked residents to reduce consumption as temperatures climbed as high as 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit), boosting demand from air conditioners. The maximum temperature in Toronto so far this month has averaged 30.3 degrees Celsius, or 3.5 degrees higher than the norm since 1971.
Two year anniversary of blackout
It has been two years since Ontarians spent the night in the dark and experts say residents have not learned the lessons of the blackout.
It was a sweaty August 14th, 2003 when a fault in Ohio led to a massive power outage across Ontario and the eastern US.
The executive director of Energy Probe says the province continues to hit record consumption levels.
In an effort to avoid rolling blackouts this summer, Hydro officials have instituted rolling brownouts to conserve electricity.
$113.5 million owed for electricity bill
The oppressive heat wave that prompted Ontario residents to crank up their air conditioners has subsided but it has left a costly electricity bill in its wake.
To date, residents on the regulated electricity rate plan have underpaid their hydro bills by $113.5 million for the period from April 1 to July 31.
At the end of June that amount was $42.1 million, but it skyrocketed after electricity demand broke records during July’s heat wave, and tight supply caused a dramatic spike in market prices.
Ontario Power Generation to spend C$985mln on tunnel
Ontario Power Generation, the utility that provides most of the province’s power, will spend C$985 million ($807 million) to build a water tunnel that will boost production at a hydroelectric plant near Niagara Falls. see Niagara Tunnel Project.
The German unit of Austria’s Bauholding Strabag SE has received a C$600 million contract to construct the 10.4-kilometer (6.5-mile) tunnel, which will supply water to the Sir Adam Beck Generating Complex, provincially owned Ontario Power said today in a statement. Continue reading
Energy Probe 