Ontario’s Government’s Final Act in Electricity System Planning Farce

Less than one week after saying there wasn’t enough research to proceed with off-shore wind, reinstating the moratorium lifted 2 years ago, and returning to a time when there wasn’t enough research, the government issued a release today stating ”Long-Term Energy Plan Takes Another Step Forward.”    The off-shore wind is now simply planned for on-shore - most probably very near the shores of Erie, Huron, and, Pickle Lake.

The Smartest Guys in the Room - NOT

The National Energy Board’s Electricity Exports and Imports Monthly Statistics for December 2009 is a document that is educational in showing the differences between Canada’s provinces and their electricity policies.

Table 2A contains, for Ontario, 37 “Sources” for exports showing totals of $518,512,069 for 14,779,854MWh, which is $35.08/MWh.  Ontario’s public generator, OPG, appears to be affiliated with slightly under 13% of the transactions.   

A Place To Stand

Prince Edward County’s new council  called for a moratorium on Industrial Wind Turbine installations on Tuesday, February 8, 2011.  Councillor Terry Shortt said, democratically, “The public has had their voice.  It is time for the province to hear us.”  

The resolution included “BE IT RESOLVED THAT the County of the County of Prince Edward requests the Ontario Provincial Government to implement a moratorium on industrial wind turbines until independent health studies have been completed and a full environmental study be done to determine the possible impact, and all related potential costs that will be incurred by the Municipality and the effect on property values in the affected areas…”

Time-Of-Use Pricing

Time-of-Use (TOU) pricing is being implemented in Ontario.  This should provide the personal benefits of Ontario’s spending on smart meters.  More likely, it will result in the same efficiency gains we’ve seen on our bills from the rest of the smart grid initiatives (higher line loss factors added to our usage, and higher delivery charges in general).    Electricity policy encompasses issues of security, social responsibility, economics, politics, and environmental concerns.  TOU billing has implications for all of these things.   I won’t revisit the role of the OEB in protecting, or neglecting, the Ontario consumer – it’s in the smart meter column.  I will show TOU is limited in it's ability to alter Ontario's electricity supply - a supply that is being altered in a way incompatible with the intent of TOU as a demand management tool.

Environmental Attributes For Sale: Desperate Times Call For Desparate Measures

The Financial Post has a short note today on the latest whimsy at the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) - selling Environmental Attributes.

Shortly after the closing of North America's only carbon trading market, The Chicago Climate Exchange, the Financial Post cites a bulletin from Borden Ladner Gervais LLP’s (BLG) Climate Change Group, who seem perplexed as to why this would happen now - and what the 'this' is?

There shouldn't be a lot of surprise.  It's been almost 2 decades since Maurice Strong's Ontario Hydro tried to account for environment factors through implementation of a Full Cost Accounting process, and a couple of years since the OPA went from a small group of system planners to be 20-30 times larger as it became obsessed with the negawatt while writing contracts that pay private electricity suppliers about $2 billion a year more than the market would (the GA-OPA component of the Global Adjustment).

Hey Kid, can you lend me $50 million for something Smart?

An article begins with "The Canadian Province of Ontario has announced plans to launch a $50 million smart grid initiative aimed at driving investment in research, capital and demonstration projects."
They didn't do that on any Government of Ontario site I can locate.

If by announced you mean whisper it in a foreign jurisdiction through a City of Guelph employee aligned with yet another organization with yet another adorable name (Ontario Clean Technology Alliance) made up of yet another grouping of different local governments - well, maybe they did announce it.

Some things not in the announcement:

Another Wind Record In Ontario. Another Cost?

February 3rd, 2011, hour 20, wind output at 1288MW

A new high for Ontario.

February 3^rd, 2011, hour 24: Where did Bruce Unit 5 go?

It is pure conjecture, on my part, to assume we are paying for the nuclear unit not to produce while it is windy  -- but if that's impetus for people to read Tom Adam's submission to the IESO on the topic of Industrial Wind Turbine installations, and the Congestion Management Settlement Credit (CMSC) proposal for them, it's worth it.

January a Record Month for The Global Adjustment?

This blog has identified the Global Adjustment as a measurement of the market's dysfunction.  Distorting a market price set by transactions between willing buyers and willing sellers (the Hourly Ontario Energy Price), the Global Adjustment is a mechanism to charge Ontario consumers for whatever production, at whatever price, the government has deemed desirable to contract.