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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
Energy dilemma
More Ontarians are turning to long-term, fixed-price electricity contracts following last week’s announcement that regulated prices are rising May 1, but experts caution that prices would have to rise dramatically for the contracts to pay off.
"Signing one of those (long-term) contracts is extremely pessimistic," says Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe, a national consumer group.
"What they’re offering is peace of mind at a huge premium."
Nuke fears not enough
Nuclear power may be the best option to fulfil Ontario’s future electricity needs despite its obvious risks, Premier Dalton McGuinty said yesterday.
"That’s an issue," McGuinty said of fears associated with nuclear power, including the devastating Chernobyl accident in 1986 that led to thousands of deaths.
"But I think we should look at our particular history in this country," McGuinty said, noting that there have been no major nuclear accidents in Ontario, where reactors have operated for more than two decades.
Nuclear power top option for Ontario
Nuclear power may be the best option to fulfil Ontario’s future electricity needs, despite its obvious downsides – including Chornobyl-type accidents and radioactive waste, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday.
Natural gas is too expensive, wind power is unreliable, coal plants pollute the air and Ontario’s hydroelectric potential has largely been maxed out – leaving nuclear power expansions "on the table" for the province, Mr. McGuinty said.
Electricity bills to rise 3 to 15 per cent
Most Hamilton residents will only get singed by their local hydro utility after the Ontario Energy Board unveiled last week a series of price shocks across the province.
Households will start paying on May 1, 5.8 cents per-kilowatt-hour, per month up to 600 kilowatts from May to October. Beyond the 600 kilowatt hours, residents will pay 6.7 cents. Customers are now paying five cents per-kilowatt-hour and 5.8 cents per-kilowatt-hour.
The threshold will rise to 1,000 kilowatt hours from November to April.
Electricity future: Not gas, nuclear or hydro
Electricity Future: Not Gas, Nuclear or Hydro
Shuffle delays hydro strategy
A surprise Ontario government cabinet shuffle that returned Dwight Duncan to the Energy portfolio has further delayed a key report outlining the province’s strategy to prevent electricity shortages, sources said yesterday.
The report – a formal response to December recommendations that $40 billion be spent on upgrading and expanding existing nuclear plants to prevent blackouts – was expected weeks ago.
Heat wave fuels coal debate
It seemed more like July yesterday as the heat wave set a record for hydro use in May and appeared to melt the Liberal promise for closing the last of Ontario’s coal-fired power plants by 2009.
While Ontarians cranked up their air conditioners and smog cloaked much of the province, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan repeatedly refused to reaffirm the coal pledge aimed at making the air easier to breathe.
Critics doubt fixed prices for nuclear power
A team of companies lobbying to build new nuclear plants in Ontario say they’re willing to ensure any new reactors will be built on budget, though critics say it’s a misleading pledge that can’t be guaranteed.
Representatives of so-called "Team Candu," a group of five Canadian firms that includes federal Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., say government officials have asked for price guarantees for new nuclear projects in an effort to avoid cost overruns under an energy strategy slated to be unveiled within the next week.
Coal pollution staying longer still, Duncan says
The prospect of more long, hot summers is forcing Ontario’s Liberal government to once again break a promise to close highly polluting, coal-fired power plants, says Energy Minister Dwight Duncan.
The admission came yesterday after what Duncan dubbed a "disappointing" report from the province’s power monitoring agency, the Independent Electricity System Operator.
Let's talk sense about energy
One hundred years ago this month, Sir Adam Beck of London became chairperson of Ontario Hydro and set in motion his plan for at-cost public electricity to power this province’s businesses, industries and homes.
By 1910, his Niagara Falls hydroelectric power (HEP) vision had become reality.
How things have changed. Our power-generation capacity is stretched as never before and we still await government plans on new generation.
Energy Probe 