Energy Probe

John Spears and Richard Brennan
Toronto Star
April 8, 2005

A series of breakdowns at Bruce Power’s nuclear reactors contributed to a power emergency yesterday that forced officials to reduce voltage across the system and to import emergency power.

Critics said the outages show the power grid is fragile, but Energy Minister Dwight Duncan dismissed the fears.

Unit 6 at Bruce Power’s station near Kincardine was forced out of service yesterday due to problems with the heat transport system that carried heat from the reactor core to its steam generator. Unit 5 had been forced out of service Wednesday, while Unit 3 had been forced out of service Saturday for valve repairs.

A fourth reactor, Unit 4, was already shut down for planned maintenance, leaving only two of Bruce Power’s six operating reactors in service.

Meanwhile, three nuclear reactors operated by Ontario Power Generation are also out of service.

As a result, seven of Ontario’s 15 functioning reactors were out of commission, removing more than 5,000 megawatts of generating capacity from service. A coal-fired plant at the Lambton plant near Sarnia also broke down yesterday.

OPG has two reactors out of service for planned maintenance – one at Darlington, one at Pickering. A third, the recently restarted Pickering 4 unit, came out of service Saturday.

OPG spokesman John Earl said staff had noticed thinning in the metal of feeder pipes in the station’s Unit 1, which is being refurbished. They decided that pipes in Unit 4, which is about the same age, should also be inspected.

To spread the available power more thinly across the system, operators were forced to reduce voltage by 5 per cent – the maximum permitted – giving the power grid the equivalent of an extra 400 megawatts of generating capacity.

The Independent Electricity System Operator was also forced to import electricity from the United States.

The breakdowns came at a lucky time. Demand is lowest during the spring and fall, when there’s low demand for electricity to heat or cool buildings.

Electricity demand peaked at less than 20,000 megawatts yesterday. On a very cold or very hot day, demand can exceed 25,000 megawatts.

But the failures served as a warning to anyone who feels complacent since the blackout of 2003, said Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe. "It just shows how fragile the system is, and (it’s) getting more fragile all the time," he said.

Duncan downplayed the severity of the problem, saying the situation was "nowhere near blackout."

"I think fragile is too strong of a word," he said. "I would characterize it as saying our reserves are lower than we like. We like to have about a 20 per cent reserve and it went lower than we like, and the imports made up for that." NDP leader Howard Hampton said the power shortage is further proof Ontario’s supply of electricity is in trouble.

"This is a mild day, it’s not a cold day in January, it’s not a hot day in August. What it shows is the McGuinty government really doesn’t have a plan for electricity supply in this province."

Doug Alexander
Bloomberg.com
April 13, 2005

Ontario’s government approved plans to build two natural-gas plants worth at least C$869 million ($702 million) to increase its power supply, which may face shortages as the province closes coal plants.

Calpine Corp. and Mitsui & Co. will build a 1,005-megawatt plant and St. Clair Power, a partnership between Invenergy LLC and Stark Investments, will build a 570-megawatt plant, the Energy Ministry said in a statement. Both will be near Sarnia, Ontario, and will replace the area’s coal-fired generator, which will close within two years.

The plants will have enough electricity-generating capacity to power 1.6 million homes in Ontario, which will lose one- quarter of its power supply in 2007 when the government shuts down its five coal generators to cut pollution. The plants will replace 22 percent of that lost capacity.

The Calpine-Mitsui plant will cost $500 million and is expected to begin operating in 2008, Calpine spokeswoman Susan Dowse said in an interview. Calpine, based in San Jose, California, owns power plants in 21 U.S. states. Mitsui is Japan’s second-biggest trading company.

The St. Clair Power station will cost "in excess of C$250 million," Invenergy senior vice-president Kevin Smith said in an interview. The company is based in Chicago.

"This is going to be fairly expensive electricity," said Tom Adams, the executive director of Energy Probe, a research group that advocates energy conservation.

Higher natural-gas prices may make the generators costlier to run than the coal plants they’re designed to replace, he said in an interview. Gas prices at the AECO C hub in Alberta, the nation’s largest trading point, have gained 13 percent in the past year, according to Bloomberg data.

The Ontario government, led by Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal Party, also announced projects to increase power in Canada’s most populous province with the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and George Weston Ltd., respectively.

Toronto’s airport authority will get some money from the government for the cost of building a $143-million, 90-megawatt gas plant at Pearson International Airport, airport spokeswoman Connie Turner said in an interview .

The generator is under construction and will start operating later this year. The plant will make Canada’s busiest airport less dependent on outside power sources, Turner said.

George Weston, the food company controlled by Toronto billionaire Galen Weston, signed a contract with the government that gives it financial incentives for conserving 10 megawatts at 80 Loblaw stores.

The government hasn’t disclosed contract details for the projects.

Tom Adams
National Post
April 29, 2005

Ontario begins to phase out coal power on Saturday, starting with the closure of the Lakeview coal-fired generating station west of Toronto. Inefficient and heavily polluting following decades of neglect by its previous owner, Ontario Hydro, Lakeview’s retirement will allow people downwind of it to breathe easier.

For all Ontarians, however, the loss of Lakeview’s electricity output – and that of other coal plants to come – makes an already dark power supply outlook darker still. Ontario urgently needs affordable, reliable, and environmentally acceptable replacement power. Cleaner coal – not no coal – is one of Ontario’s very best options.

Natural gas, once an attractive alternative to coal, has become unaffordable. Ontario missed the North American dash for cheap natural gas-fired power in the mid 1990s when gas was cheap. Instead, with gas prices now up about three times their 1990s level, Ontario is dashing in while most other North American jurisdictions – to avoid the higher and more volatile gas prices – are dashing out. Invenergy, a firm the Ontario government contracted to build a gas-fired unit, recently bought a partly built 620-megawatt unit in Washington State for 11 cents for every dollar sunk in it by its original investor.

Ontario’s vision of a complete phase-out of coal-fired power in Ontario by 2007 will not occur. Coal meets about 30% of Ontario’s power demand. Replacing this output with other forms of power generation would be tough even if cost were no object.

Ontario’s nuclear power production outlook remains poor and its cost outlook fares even worse, particularly after Ontario Power Generation, the reactor owner, discovered yet another unexpected ageing phenomenon recently during the renovation of Pickering 1. The Pickering 4 reactor, which was issued a clean bill of health after a total overhaul two years ago, is now suspect. Three other reactors now in operation are expected to reach retirement age around the end of this decade. Even if Ontario could afford more nuclear power, its poor reliability disqualifies it as a viable alternative to coal. Since Ontario’s nuclear performance went into decline in 1983, coal power has been the backup needed for unexpected and often extended nuclear shutdowns.

The Ontario government claims the province has at least 2,000 MW of new hydroelectric potential – about 30% of the coal capacity slated for shutdown. Yet after two decades of ceaseless promotion and massive subsidization by successive governments, Ontario has only managed to increase hydroelectric power output by about 700 MW, less than 10% of the coal capacity on the chopping block.

Ontario plans to import hydroelectric power from uneconomic new dams in Manitoba and Labrador, made less so thanks to federal government subsidies to their transmission lines. These power projects, if they occur, will come on line after 2013. Last week a political debate broke out in the Quebec National Assembly with the government and opposition both opposing any federal participation in any electricity matters in Quebec. The difficulty of relying on Quebec is further illustrated by the largest Ontario transmission projects in the last 10 years – a new high-voltage connection with Quebec south of Ottawa. After Ontario got the project underway in 1999, Hydro Quebec cancelled its share of the project, failing to build a corresponding transmission line on its side of the border to connect to Ontario’s new line.

Not that transmission line problems start at the Quebec border. Ontario Hydro’s 1989 agreement to buy power from the same remote hydroelectric site in northern Manitoba currently under government review, was cancelled in 1991 by Ontario Hydro due to its excessive cost.

Yet another risk of relying on long-distance transmission was illustrated earlier this week when freezing rain collapsed eight high-voltage transmission powers carrying power to Quebec from Labrador.

Conservation has enormous potential to ease the supply strain. Unfortunately, the Ontario Liberals discourage conservation. Since it froze electricity prices for most customers a month ago, prices at peak demand times – just when Ontario’s coal power are most needed – are routinely double the regulated price that most customers pay.

The Ontario Liberal government is betting heavily on wind power. Although wind can help, that help is muted. The first utility-scale wind farm in Canada, located in Quebec’s Gaspe region, was financially restructured two and a half years ago. The cause: Production results averaged over the first five years of operation were just 60% of the expected output.

That leaves coal, Ontario’s neglected fuel. For decades, Ontario expected nuclear production to be so abundant that coal power would be largely unneeded. As a result, it did little to upgrade emission controls. In contrast, Ontario Hydro’s successor, Ontario Power Generation, has installed scrubbers on four of its remaining 15 coal units, making them among the cleanest conventional coal generators in North America.

Since 2000, Ontario has brought in more electricity than it has sold. With Lakeview gone, Ontario will become more reliant on imports. If Ontario implements its promised coal shutdown, some of the plants Ontario will be closing will be much cleaner than the imported power that will be making up the lost supply.

Earlier this week, the Ontario government released a study to boost its case for complete coal shutdown. None of the scenarios in the study considered high-efficiency uses of coal that capture waste heat, such as have been in common use in Europe for decades. Nuclear power scenarios, on the other hand, were unrealistically optimistic: The authors assumed that the refurbishment of old reactors can be completed for less than 60% of the cost of the last one completed in Ontario. Inexcusably, in determining coal’s environmental merits, the analysis lumped together Ontario’s cleanest coal units with its dirtiest, tarring all with the same brush.

One of the best sites in Ontario for an efficient power station is Toronto’s Lakeview – a refurbished plant there could produce power and inexpensive heating for both homes and businesses. In fact, the emissions of an upgraded Lakeview could approach those from the gas-fired stations the government prefers, without the unreasonable costs for consumers.

Charles Wyatt
Business Edge, Vol. 1, No. 11
June 29, 2005

Ontario is late in harvesting the wind. With only 14 megawatts of wind-generated electricity in operation, Ontario lags well behind several Canadian provinces, as well as the United States and Germany. In 2004, Germany led the wind world with 16,629 megawatts of wind-generated electric power, or 35 per cent of total production. The U.S. produced 6,700 megawatts, while in Canada, the leading provinces, Alberta and Quebec, produced 275 megawatts and 113 megawatts, respectively, according to the Global Wind Energy Council and the Canadian Wind Energy Association.Quebec is Canada‘s largest power producer from all sources, with total production of about 37,600 megawatts, while Alberta‘s total installed capacity is about 10,800 megawatts, says the Canadian Electricity Association. Two more Canadian wind farms – a 68-megawatt facility in Alberta and a 31-megawatt operation in Nova Scotia, which together can produce enough electricity for more than 42,000 homes – opened in May. Ontario is beginning to turn its winds into energy, however. About $600 million in private investment is now targeted on installing wind-power plants that will add more than 350 megawatts of electrical power to the province’s 30,000-megawatt generation capacity. More wind-power projects are expected this year, says the Ontario Ministry of Energy (OME). The OME approved construction last November of wind farms in five Ontario locations. Wind power from these projects is expected to start to flow in early 2006, eventually producing enough electricity to power 75,000 homes. Wind energy is the fastest-growing source of electricity in the world, increasing more than 30 per cent over the past five years, the Global Wind Energy Council says. In 2004, there were more than 47,000 megawatts of wind power installed around the world, although Canada accounted for only 444 megawatts of that total. "Being a late entry isn’t necessarily a bad thing," says Tom Adams, executive director of the consumer advocacy group Energy Probe. "Lots of people wasted a lot of capital developing systems." The Ontario government is pushing wind-power generation to help replace more than 7,500 megawatts of electricity generation that will be lost in 2007 when the province’s coal-fired generation plants are shut down. The governing Liberals have been promising since they were in opposition that they would shut down the plants, which produce about 25 per cent of Ontario‘s electricity, in order to reduce air pollution and improve the health of Ontarians. In April, the OME asked for proposals for another 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy. The approved proposals will be announced in the fall. About 85 per cent of the renewable-energy projects approved in November 2004 were wind-power generation. Although wind power is environmentally friendly, it has faced opposition from people who live in the area of wind farms for a variety of reasons, including noise and visuals. Adams also says Germany has not been able to achieve its expected energy output despite its multibillion-dollar investment. "They built in low-wind areas and they are producing only 15 per cent of the rated capacity." Quebec, Canada‘s second-largest wind-power province, also failed to reach its expected power-generation levels, and early installations yielded 18 per cent instead of the expected 30 per cent. Adams says the world’s most productive wind-power stations reach 45 per cent of their rated capacity. He believes, however, that Ontario will avoid the problems that occurred with the first rush into wind-power generation, because its windmills will be sited in the province’s windiest locations. Some of the best wind areas are near Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Kingston and the Islands, Sault Ste. Marie and James Bay. The Ontario sites are expected to produce in the area of 30-per-cent rated capacity, Adams says. The Kingsbridge Wind Power Project, under construction by Edmonton-based Epcor Utilities Inc., is a 39.6-megawatt wind farm near Goderich on Lake Huron. The project, which will produce enough electricity to supply 8,600 homes, is scheduled to begin producing electricity for the power grid by mid 2006. Kingsbridge is Epcor’s first win
d-power project. Paul McMillan, Epcor’s Ontario senior vice-president, says the wind development process in this province "allows us to earn a competitive but reasonable rate of return." In April, Epcor agreed to buy Port Albert Wind Farms Ltd., which will give it the right to develop more than 270 megawatts of additional wind power near the Kingsbridge project. Epcor expects to submit proposals for additional wind-power projects in response to the Ontario government’s request for an additional 1,000 megawatts of renewable power, McMillan says. Under the federal government’s wind-power production incentive, companies installing wind-power generation can receive a subsidy of one cent per kilowatt of production capacity. In the recent budget, the government increased its wind-power production target to 4,000 megawatts from 1,000 megawatts. Superior Wind Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Brascan Corp., is developing two wind-power projects. A 100-megawatt wind farm near Sault Ste. Marie is expected to begin producing power in 2006. A second 50-megawatt wind farm near Collingwood is expected to produce electricity in 2007. As well, Toronto‘s Aim PowerGen Corp. is developing the 99-megawatt Erie Shore Wind Farm on the north shore of Lake Erie. The site also is expected to begin commercial operation in early 2006. Adams says Energy Probe supports Ontario‘s expansion into wind-power generation because consumers will not be financially responsible if the wind plants do not produce power. Many of the first wind-power companies went bankrupt, leaving consumers with the debt and no power. Adams says this is less likely to happen in Ontario because the companies developing the wind power are financially strong companies such as Brascan and Epcor. "The Ontario government is saying we will buy your wind power, pay you eight cents a kilowatt hour, and if you do not deliver that’s your problem," Adams says. "Other jurisdictions have put the consumer on the hook if there is a failure to deliver." "The operational risk is on investors, which is where it should be," he says. Under the Ontario government’s proposal, suppliers using renewable energy will receive 7.97 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity, according to the Ontario Ministry of Energy. Even if the new wind plants are financially successful and produce electricity at a reasonable cost, it is unlikely they will be able to replace coal-fired generation. While wind is clean and free, Adams says, it is also "intermittent, it comes and goes, depending on nature." "Some Alberta wind-power plants are producing cheaper power than gas plants," Adams says, but adds that the province has a "terrible wind-coincidence factor." "The wind isn’t available when the electricity demand is highest," he says. "Wind plants produce power out of phase. "Coal plants are on the other end of the telephone," Adams says. "You call up and say you want to increase power by 100 megawatts for two o’clock in the afternoon and you get it. The wind is called by nature."

Joe Schneider
Bloomberg.com
June 15, 2005

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty pushed back plans to close the last of the province’s coal-fired power plants until 2009, breaking a campaign pledge that helped get him elected two years ago.

Keeping the Nanticoke plant running two years longer than promised is necessary to ensure the province doesn’t run out of power while it develops alternative energy sources, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said today at a Toronto news conference.

"Maintaining reliability is the first principle of our plan," he said.

The delay marks another broken promise for McGuinty, 49, who failed to honor vows made during the 2003 election campaign to balance the budget and keep taxes in check. Coal-fired plants produce about a quarter of the electricity consumed each day in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province.

The Nanticoke station, located near Toronto, can produce as much as 3,920 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 3.1 million average homes. Demand during normal weather in July and August demand is forecast to peak at 24,500 megawatts and at 26,143 megawatts on hotter-than-usual days, the Independent Electricity System Operator has forecast.

The province probably won’t even meet the new deadline, said Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe, a Toronto researcher that advocates energy conservation. Aging nuclear power plants will have to be taken out of service for refurbishment and the province will need the energy from the coal-fired plant to meet demand, he said. Nuclear plants account for about a third of capacity.

Other Generators

The government also said today that it plans to replace two generators at the 310-megawatt Thunder Bay coal-fired plant with natural gas in 2007. The Atikokan coal-fired station, which can generate 215 megawatts, will close in 2007. Both plants are in northwestern Ontario. The Lambton generating station, south of Sarnia, Ontario, will also close in 2007, Duncan said. The plant can generate 1,975 megawatts.

Ontario plants can produce as much as 29,663 megawatts, which includes 6,416 megawatts from four coal-fired plants.

Duncan also ordered the government-run Ontario Power Authority to start talks with power producers about purchasing additional electricity to replace the energy from the coal-fired plants.

TransAlta Corp., the country’s biggest publicly owned power generator, said today that it’s interested in selling electricity from its gas-fired plant near Sarnia, Ontario.

The two-year-old C$490 million, plant produces about 216 megawatts of electricity, less than half its 575-megawatt capacity. TransAlta sells energy from the plant to industrial plants in the region.

April Lindgren
National Post
June 25, 2005

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.

Temperatures at 6 p.m. last night were 34C with humidity that made it feel like 43C. Adding to the strain on the province’s energy supply was strike action by Hydro One workers who forced six units at the giant Nanticoke coal-fired generating station out of service.

The Independent Electricity System Operator warned that further emergency-control actions – including blackouts that could come without advance notice – may be necessary if the last of two of Nanticoke’s eight units are also forced out of service.

"Any further reduction in transmission or generation availability or any increase in demand could create shortfalls of electricity," an IESO release said.

"If all sources of supply are exhausted, the IESO will take protective actions such as a system voltage reduction, or rotating cuts to supply. In these circumstances, no additional public notice may be possible."

The agency warned that the need to reduce electricity use was particularly urgent in the Greater Toronto Area "due to high loads on transmission lines in the Niagara Region and southwestern Ontario." Consumers were urged to turn off all unessential lights, to turn off air conditioners or at least set them at 26C or higher and to delay the use of major equipment until after 10 p.m.

While the hot weather drove up electricity prices, most of yesterday’s electricity woes were caused by members of the Society of Energy Professionals. They have been on strike at Hydro One, the province’s power distribution utility, since the beginning of June.

Secondary pickets set up at the gates to Nanticoke on Lake Erie forced Ontario Power Generation to shut down six of the station’s eight units by late afternoon.

"What’s happened is that we’re talking about 3,000 megawatts of power that is not available that was expected to be available," said IESO spokesman Terry Young. "You take 3,000 megawatts from the system on a hot day and it will have an impact on price."

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said the pickets were allowing Nanticoke employees to report for work and indicated that the shutdown reactors would be brought back into service. He also said OPG is seeking an injunction to prevent a repeat performance.

Faced with a shortage of generating capacity at home and demand that soared as high as 24,000 megawatts at the end of the afternoon, Ontario was forced to import 2,800 megawatts of electricity and also run some of its most costly generating plants, including the gas-fired Lennox station.

Prices soared to nearly 44 cents a kilowatt hour by 5 p.m, far in excess of the 6.58 cents average so far in the month of June.

"One wonders what Monday is going to look like," said Tom Adams, executive director of the watchdog group Energy Probe. "The heat is supposed to continue, and the union has demonstrated an ability to escalate the problems."

Brian Robinson, a spokesman for the 1,000 engineers and other white-collar striking workers, was unapologetic.

"Everything we are doing is a strike-related activity. It’s legal. It’s what people do when they are on strike," he said.

Mr. Robinson said his members are upset by a Hydro One proposal to introduce a lower pay scale for new employees as well as efforts to increase the workweek to 39 hours from 35 with no increase in pay. The average salary for society members is about $85,000 a year.

Alan Findlay, Queen’s Park Bureau
Toronto Sun
June 28, 2005

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.

The previous record for hourly consumption was set on Aug. 13, 2002, when 25,414 megawatts were consumed. By 6 p.m. yesterday, usage had edged above the 26,000-megawatt mark.

The difference between yesterday’s consumption and the previous record represents almost enough electricity to power a city the size of London, Ont., according to one system official. "Although the system is strained, no question, we can meet demand," said Terry Young, spokesman for the Independent Electricity System Operator.

Another record today?

Yesterday’s record, however, may not last long. The heat wave carries on through the week and air conditioners will work even harder to keep buildings cool. "We could be looking at another record (today)," Young said.

A new report by the IESO warns the province will continue to be reliant on its neighbours for power during the hot days until more local generation is up and running.

Ontario Power Generation managed to keep its available turbines cranking out hydro through the day, despite picket lines being set up outside two stations early in the morning.

Over 2,000 megawatts were being imported during the day.

Critics and industry watchers characterized yesterday’s achievement as dubious, considering the provincial government’s promise to reduce consumption by 5% by 2007.

"Ontario should be very worried about this," said Energy Probe‘s Tom Adams. "Our electricity consumption keeps rising, but our capacity to generate power is not."

The province has said it will give $160 million of electricity revenues to reward customers who conserve electricity.

Lee Greenberg
National Post
June 28, 2005

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.

Demand for electricity in Ontario reached 26,157 MW at 6 p.m. last night, its highest level in history. The province’s fleet of coal, nuclear, gas and hydroelectric generators could only produce 25,087 MW.

Ottawa Hydro was forced to implement rotating blackouts from 6 to 7:30 p.m. to deal with a surge in demand, leaving at times 7,300 homes in Ottawa without power.

People watched air conditioners, fans and stoves shut down for 15 minutes every half hour for more than 90 minutes.

"The demand for electricity [today] is expected to reach or exceed those record levels," said the IESO, which manages the province’s electricity supply, and asked consumers to limit energy consumption between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. by turning off non-essential lights and avoiding the use of appliances such as laundry machines and dishwashers.

Industry observer Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe, said yesterday’s historic numbers show Ontario’s electricity system is being pushed to the brink of disaster.

The power crunch came as a strike by Hydro One workers threatened to strain the system further by preventing power-plant workers from doing their jobs.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty did not rule out the possibility of back-to-work legislation if it was necessary to protect the province’s electricity supply.

"I would ask [Hydro One workers] to … act responsibly, to not jeopardize the safety and quality of life and economic viability that Ontarians rely upon when they have to have access to an uninterrupted supply of electricity," Mr. McGuinty said.

Pickets with the Society of Energy Professionals have lately targeted provincial plants, owned by Ontario Power Generation, in an attempt to draw attention to their cause. On Friday, they were responsible for shutting six of eight units at the Nanticoke generating station on the north shores of Lake Erie.

On Monday, the union moved its protests to the Lambton (Sarnia) and Lennox (Kingston) generating stations, forcing OPG to use a helicopter to shuttle workers in and out of the two stations.

Worried that a larger workforce would make a similar contingency plan impossible at Darlington and Pickering, two of OPG’s nuclear facilities, the massive utility rented hundreds of cots and set up makeshift dormitories there.

"With the energy professionals, we have a group that is knowledgeable and apparently motivated to impair the system. And that makes a bad situation worse," said Tom Adams.

Union spokesman Brian Robinson said the union has no plans to change its strategy. It was in court yesterday fighting OPG’s attempt to secure an injunction on pickets at Nanticoke. A decision on the injunction is expected today.

"It had an impact," Mr. Robinson said of Friday’s action. "We don’t expect the public to support everything we do. But we would think the public will support what we’re fighting for."

CBC News
July 19, 2005

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’s electricity-generating capacity has been stretched to the limit recently. Hot weather has pushed demand for electricity to record levels twice in the last few weeks. On Monday, the province had to import more than 3,400 MW of power, and the Independent Electricity System Operator cautioned Ontarians to reduce power usage for the rest of the week, or face the possibility of blackouts.

Smart meters, such as the new one from Triacta, can help a surprising amount.

The company’s Jennifer Hassani says the device forces tenants to become responsible energy users because it records the amount of electricity a consumer is using at a given time.

"When each tenant receives a bill for their own electricity use, overall electricity consumption for that building tends to drop anywhere between 15 and 30 per cent," said Hassani.

"For every four buildings you meter, you could literally power another building, so it’s quite significant in terms of energy conservation."

Triacta markets directly to property managers, and other commercial and industrial consumers. The device allows apartment building owners to "break down individual tenant use without having to completely re-wire their buildings," Hassani explained.

Individual homeowners don’t have access to smart meters yet, but the province is planning on phasing them in over the next few years.

"It’s going to take a while to make this transition for the residential level, but certainly, a number of businesses are installing interval meters, or smart meters, and that’s a tool to help them better manage their energy costs," said Terry Young, with the Independent Electricity System Operator.

But groups such as Energy Probe say the real issue is the fixed price of electricity in Ontario, which provides no incentive to cut power use during peak hours. Energy Probe‘s Tom Adams says the province won’t see significant conservation until consumers are made to pay the true cost of electricity.

Canadian Press
July 21, 2005

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.

The agency, though, continued telling residents not to waste power and stressed that an advisory could be issued again if the power supply faces a strain.

It will be years before there are enough new electricity producers to comfortably meet demand, said Mr. Duncan.

Ontarians are going to have a couple more summers like this because, unfortunately, the previous governments refused to deal with the reality, he said, criticizing the former Tory government for not expanding generating capacity.

I don’t ever want the people of Ontario to be exposed to this kind of situation again. That’s why we’ve announced more than 9,000 megawatts of new projects, he said before entering a cabinet meeting.

It will take a minimum of three years to bring some of these on, Mr. Duncan explained, adding that construction will begin soon on several wind power farms and a few small projects will be on-line within months.

Conservative critic Tim Hudak countered that in two years since coming to power, the Liberal government has yet to see an actual spade break ground on a new energy facility.

Instead, the government has turned to imports to meet electricity demand, has pleaded with people to cut back, yet is still planning to close its remaining four coal plants which produce about 20 per cent of the province’s power by 2009, he said.

That was nothing but a political promise to win votes that was not thought through, it’s bad economic policy, it’s bad hydro policy, Mr. Hudak said.

The power crunch is resulting in skyrocketing prices for industry, which pay the market price, and a rising bill for residential consumers, said New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton.

Tom Adams with Energy Probe stated: We should expect significantly higher electricity prices in the future than we have in the past.

Hampton said the government has fallen flat on conservation and should help people reduce power usage and save money with low-interest loans so they can buy energy efficient appliances, such as refrigerators.

The government’s policy of asking people to sweat in the dark is not sustainable, Mr. Hampton said.

Mr. Duncan, though, dismissed warnings that consumers will face higher prices next May as a result of the summer heat wave that’s pushed demand to all-time highs and caused market power prices to spike.

Four months into the year, you can’t predict that prices will go up, Mr. Duncan said, since the weather could be milder for the rest of the year.

The Ontario Energy Board reviews rates and could change them starting next May, then every six months after that.

However, the average price so far for July is about eight cents per kilowatt hour higher than the fixed rates paid by residential consumers. At one point Wednesday the rate hit 53 cents per kilowatt hour.

Currently, consumers pay five cents per kilowatt hour for the first 750 kilowatt hours they use each month, and 5.8 cents for anything more.

From April to the end of June, the cumulative difference between what consumers paid and what generators were paid on the open market was $42.1 million and those costs will have to be covered by consumers.

With spot prices so high, we’re adding to that $42 million at a furious pace, Adams said.

Once that account reaches $160 million, it can trigger a price change and at this rate that could happen before next May, Adams said.

That figure at the end of next April will be factored into next year’s prices, along with forecasts and other factors, said a spokeswoman at the Ontario Energy Board.