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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
$1.5 billion for scrubbers, OPG say
It could take $1.5 billion and four years to install anti-pollution equipment on all of Ontario’s coal-fired electricity stations but it wouldn’t make economic sense if the plants are closed by 2014 as planned, Ontario Power Generation CEO Jim Hankinson said today.
The giant utility already has scrubbers on two of four coal-burning units at its Lambton station and on two of eight units at the huge Nanticoke generating station – considered one of the worst sources of air pollution in North America.
Cleaner coal could cost millions
The payback for installing costly pollution-eating scrubbers at Ontario’s coal-fired electricity plants is "not very good" given their limited life span, the head of Ontario Power Generation says.
It would take "three or four years" to get scrubbers running and cost between $500 million and $1.5 billion at a time when the plants are expected to close within seven years, chief executive Jim Hankinson said.
Coal power likely to be an issue in election
The ongoing debate over the future of coal-fired power plants in Ontario is finally coming into focus, with the potential that voters will be offered some real choices on the issue in the coming provincial election.
In the 2003 election campaign, the Liberals promised to close the plants, which supply about 20 per cent of our electricity, by 2007.
"Our coal-burning plants are the worst polluters in Ontario," said the Liberals in their platform. "They create smog and threaten our health."
Ontario needs an energy plan
After being in power almost four years, Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals should have a real plan in place to deal with Ontario’s energy needs and, in particular, the province’s coal-fired electricity plants.
Energy Probe warns of hikes
It’s happening in Toronto and Energy Probe says it will eventually happen here and in the rest of Ontario.
"There is a long-term trend among gas and electricity consumers to conserve. That’s the good news," said Tom Adams of Energy Probe. The bad news is some utilities must charge more to recover revenues lost because they are selling less. Toronto’s hydro company wants to increase its distribution rates by 6.3 per cent on May 1, to cover a $10.4-million loss because of energy conservation programs. Continue reading
Conservation reduces power demand: Study
Six of Ontario’s largest electric utilities say conservation programs saved enough power last year to take nearly 34,000 homes off the grid.
The utilities – Toronto Hydro, Hydro Ottawa, Horizon Utilities, Veridian Connections, PowerStream and Enersource Hydro Mississauga – represent 1.7 million customers in southern and eastern Ontario.
Ont. announces massive solar energy project
The installation of one million solar panels on 346 hectares of land near Sarnia will make Ontario home to one of the largest solar farms in the world, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan announced Thursday.
"The McGuinty government is committed to building a cleaner, greener energy future for Ontarians," Duncan told reporters at a news conference held to announce the investment by OptiSolar Farms Canada, a division of California-based OptiSolar Inc.
Energy Probe's appearance on Focus Ontario
Liberal Government’s New Climate Change Initiatives
GUESTS:
Hon Laurel Broten, Environment Minister
Keith Stewart, WWF – Canada
Tom Adams, Energy Probe
HOST – SEAN MALLEN
Full transcript follows
T.O. to bake under heat, power suppliers worried
As Toronto residents brace for staggering heat, experts say striking a balance between power consumption and supply will be difficult in the coming week.
| Tom Adams, a spokesperson from Energy Probe, says Toronto is particularly vulnerable because there aren’t enough power lines to import energy from New York or other generators. |
Ontario could boost manufacturing by cutting hydro rates, reining in profits: NDP
Cutting industrial hydro rates by at least 15 per cent and reining in salaries and inefficiencies at Ontario’s power agencies would provide a badly needed boost to the province’s flagging manufacturing sector, New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton said Thursday.
The all-in cost of industrial electricity in Ontario would be no higher than $55 a megawatt hour – $10 less than the current rate – if he were elected premier in the Oct. 10 election, Hampton told a news conference in Hamilton – a city that has endured significant manufacturing job losses of late.
Energy Probe 