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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
Fixing hydro's rate jolts
Picture yourself in a marketplace where there aren’t enough goods to buy, there’s only one stall selling them, you can’t buy in bulk when prices are low, and you can’t refuse to buy when prices are high.
Now picture yourself as an electricity user in Ontario.
The province’s new competitive electricity market kept the lights on in the province, barely, through a summer of searing heat and record power demand.
But to the surprise of no one, the new market hit some bumps.
Reactor problem reveals risk of blackout
A safety defect discovered at the Darlington nuclear generating station in mid-August triggered a warning that the huge plant could have been pulled out of service during a summer of record electricity demand.
No shutdown was ordered, the plant continued to operate and the province’s lights stayed on. But the impact of the warning, which came after an employee happened to see a shaft of light shining through a hole into a supposedly steam-proof room containing vital safety equipment, highlighted Ontario’s shortage of electricity during peak demand periods.
Ontario power policy deters projects
Private-sector companies are growing increasingly reluctant to build new electricity-generating plants in Ontario, arguing the province’s deregulation policies are muddled and the market conditions are poor.
Eves reins in free market in electricity
MISSISSAUGA, ON — The Ontario government said yesterday it will cap the price consumers pay for hydro power until 2006 – a move critics contend spells the end of the province’s electricity deregulation, adds billions in taxpayer-owed debt and increases the risk of California-style blackouts.
Province fights electricity backlash
John Baird, left, Ontario’s Minister for Energy, talks with Niagara MPP Bart Maves in Niagara Falls, Ont., yesterday after announcing a plan to boost electricity supply by expanding a generating plant. Credit: Kevin Frayer, The Canadian Press
NIAGARA FALLS – The debt ratings of Ontario utilities were put under review yesterday and a leading brokerage called the province’s decision to impose a price cap on electricity for consumers "A Comedy in Three Acts."
There is a way out of this mess
The McGuinty Clean Air Plan, as it is described on the Ontario Liberals’ Web site, was designed to address a serious problem, indeed the most serious problem imaginable – simply, that "the air we breathe is killing us." Boldly confronting the crisis, the Liberals proposed what can only be called emergency measures: among them, a 5% reduction in the province’s electricity consumption by 2007, to be accomplished in part by shutting down all of its coal-fired generators.
Watchdog warns of dirty emergency
The Ontario government has started the tendering process for companies to provide emergency electricity power generators as an energy watchdog warned yesterday the stations are likely to be costly diesel units that spew black smoke and are located in residential areas.
One of the tender conditions is that the units must be capable of operating for a maximum of four hours a day between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.
Energy chiefs pull plug on Hampton
Toronto: Power industry players yesterday dismissed arguments by Howard Hampton, leader of Ontario’s New Democratic Party, that last week’s massive electricity blackout means the provincial government should re-regulate the business.
Power plants on tap
Two new power plants fired by natural gas will be built near Sarnia in a $1-billion investment that will improve Southwestern Ontario air quality, as a dirtier, coal-produced power plant is closed. The Ontario government yesterday announced 20-year deals to build replacements for Ontario Power Generation’s aging Lambton generating station near Courtright.
NDP position on competition in the electricity sector
OFFICIAL NDP CAUCUS REPORT TO THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE ONTARIO HYDRO NUCLEAR AFFAIRS (1997) – Appendix 7 p. 10 (1st Session, 36th Parliament, 46 Elizabeth II):
Re. "White Paper on Competition in the Electricity Sector":
Energy Probe 