Records in Ontario’s Electricity Market Mark the New Year

The media tends to run all sorts of lists to mark the transition in the calendar year.

Here's a pair of records that just occurred – for all the reasons I've noted elsewhere on this blog.

• Monthly Net Exports hit an all-time high in December 2010.
• January 1^st was the lowest daily average for the HOEP (hourly Ontario Energy Price) since records began.
• January 1st, hour 21, wind output was recorded at 1186MW - a new record.

December 2010 saw Ontario export 1.6 TWh more electricity than it imported, which was a third more than the previous high from August 2008. This would be a much greater accomplishment if the IESO HOEP price wasn't approximately $35/MWh in December, and we didn't contract supply at around $70/MWh. This net export accomplishment cost us about $60 million.

January 1^st brought a new record that, if it became a trend, could lead to us wishing for the good old days where we paid suppliers $70 for a product to export at $35.

The IESO daily summary for January 1^st, 2011, shows an average Hourly Ontario Energy price at a record low of negative $20.29/MWh. With exports averaging close to 3000MW each hour, we paid external markets about $1.5 million to take off our hands production we paid our suppliers about $5 million dollars for.


Happy New Year ... the bill will be in the global adjustment,/provincial benefit portion of your wholesale bill, or in your electricity rate, and, starting January 1^st, also part of your provincial tax bill (the part that services the rapidly expanding debt).


Hopefully there are people resolving to take things more seriously this year.