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Electricity prices to rise again as OPG seeks 6.2 per cent hike
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| patpicos |
Sorry for new thread. Search is broken and thread not found in the 5 pages of TO threads.
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The Ontario Energy Board agreed Tuesday to let utilities raise rates to recover $18 million they paid in fines and legal costs after charging consumers excessive interest on late payments.
“To deny the utilities recovery would be to impose on their shareholders, typically the municipalities in which they operate, costs which they were compelled to incur,” the energy board wrote in its decision.
“In the board’s view, no fair-minded person, cognizant of the facts of this case could come to a different conclusion.”
The energy board is also expected to rule shortly on a request from Ontario Power Generation for a 6.2 per cent increase in its electricity rates effective March 1.
The Liberal government has been under non-stop attack over rising electricity rates, especially since the HST was added to hydro bills last July. But Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday he wouldn’t be directing the energy board on OPG’s rate request.
“The OPG request is the kind of thing that will have to be considered by the Ontario Energy Board,” said McGuinty.
The New Democrats are predicting increasing electricity bills will cost the Liberals seats in the Oct. 6 election, and said the OPG rate hike would have a major impact on consumers.
“It’s a huge hike and in the context of electricity prices that have already been compounded and then added to by Mr. McGuinty’s HST, it just increases the crushing burden on Ontario families,” said NDP critic Peter Kormos.
“This is crushing Ontario families and is going to be a major issue in the upcoming provincial election, and it’s something around which Mr. McGuinty has no defence for himself and the Liberals whatsoever.”
In the legislature, the Progressive Conservatives accused McGuinty of treating Ontario families “like they’re bottomless ATM machines” when it comes to electricity bills.
“Why do they keep paying more and more for your bungling on the hydro file,” asked Opposition Leader Tim Hudak.
“You just do not respect the fact that Ontario families get stuck with the bills for the expensive mess you’ve created in our hydro policy.”
Hydro One, the giant transmission utility that also acts as a local distribution company for about one million customers, is threatening to cut off power to people it knows are struggling to pay their bills.
“We recognize that some Ontario families are experiencing financial difficulties and having problems paying their utility bills,” wrote Hydro One’s manager of public affairs, Enza Cancilla, Jan. 27.
“We encourage these customers in particular to contact our customer communication centre to discuss payment arrangements and avoid potential disconnection of service.”
OPG produces two-thirds of the province’s electricity, 70 per cent of which is subject to regulated prices set by the energy board.
OPG says a 6.2 per cent increase for its regulated output from nuclear plants and large hydro stations would add about $1.86 to a typical homeowner’s monthly hydro bill.
The government-owned utility originally asked for a 9.6 per cent rate increase, but scaled that back after the Liberal government asked the huge generator and Hydro One to keep increases to a minimum.
OPG is seeking 3.7 cents a kilowatt hour for power generated by its large hydro-electric stations, and six cents a kwh for its nuclear output. By comparison, Bruce Power was paid a reported 6.3 cents a kwh last year for output from the nuclear reactors it leases from OPG.
The province is paying some solar power generators up to 80 cents a kwh under its controversial Green Energy Act.
Ontario homeowners and small businesses pay between five and 10 cents per kilowatt hour, depending on time and amount of use.
OPG president Tom Mitchell says the utility is the lowest-cost energy provider in Ontario and intends to stay that way.
Soaring hydro bills have already prompted the Liberals to introduce 10 per cent rebates this year, but they’re still on the defensive after admitting electricity prices would rise 46 per cent over five years.
The increases are necessary to pay for badly needed repairs and upgrades to Ontario’s electricity system and to phase out all coal-fired generation by 2014, said McGuinty.
“Most Ontarians now understand that our electricity system was at risk, in a tremendous state of disrepair in our early years, with warnings about an inadequacy of supply,” he said. “We’ll let Ontarians pass judgment on a daily basis and at election time.”
Shutting down the coal plants will save lives and billions of dollars in health care costs caused by pollution, added McGuinty.
The government had to tell 1,000 farmers who invested money to get into solar generation that there’s no room for the electricity they generate on the province’s power grid.
And it recently imposed a moratorium on off-shore wind farms, the same move the Liberals made prior to the 2007 election, which they reversed after winning.
The opposition parties say those reversals and flip flops have left McGuinty and the Liberals with no credibility on the electricity file.
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Src: http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario...-cent-hike?bn=1
I cant wait for election day! I will make it a priority to vote against McGuinty.
We certainly shouldnt have to pay for the messup for the gov/utilities. In the end, we are all paying for some people who got overcharged.
Pathetic |
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| rulzz |
until they scrap the alternative energy subsidies, prices will keep going up. Consumers pay 9.9 cents during peak times, yet Ontario power Authority (OPA) is offering 13 cents for producers of Wind Power and 44.3 cents for Solar Power Projects.
Who do you think is paying the difference???
That's right, you are.
Originally the green power sounded all nice and dandy but in reality money part of the green energy act is largely based on trading carbon credits, and so far that has not materialized. Therefore you and me are paying the difference in the meantime(possibly forever). |
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| Jer |
I'm all in favour of environmentalist policies, but the McGuinty government has their head so far up their ass on "Green" energy that it's mind-boggling.
McGuinty. |
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| GGM |
That 10% credit is BS. It's like saying "hey we've been raping your wallet and got caught, so here's 10% of it back.". And in the end the way utilities work is that we have to pay the fixed cost no matter what. So a credit does nothing, they'll make their money off us elsewhere.
The carbon trading scheme with the green energy plan could've worked well. But we have a PM who is starkly against any of the established GHG reduction plans (carbon taxes or carbon credit system) so how the hell does he expect to sell credits when there's no trading system for it.
His decisions for the sources of power are also just plain bad. Wind is far too unstable for the current grid (as we've seen with recent peaks where we had to pay people to take our excess wind energy. Solar is good in that it provides energy during the peak times, but it's still way too costly. And to top it off his coal elimination scheme is useless. There's now methods to coal power generation which make it incredibly clean but instead he's jumped on the uneducated and outdated opinion that coal = evil.
McGuinty is a tool and a douche. To me he just seems like a more docile version of Bush. He's always got that empty headed stare into the camera like he's waiting for someone to tell him what to say next. |
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| Swamper |
This province is ed...
LINK
The Ontario government is awarding roughly $3-billion in renewable-energy projects to dozens of companies, ranking it one of the province’s biggest investments of its kind.
The wind, solar and hydroelectric projects will provide enough electricity for about 200,000 households, enough to power a city the size of Burlington, Ont.
* Ontario's search for a solar system
* Is Ontario’s green-energy plan worth it?
* Ontarians pay price for Liberals’ backfiring green energy plans
Energy Minister Brad Duguid announced the province’s second round of large-scale renewable-energy projects on Thursday at a news conference at the provincial legislature.
The projects will produce more than 872 megawatts of electricity from solar, wind and hydroelectric sources and create about 7,000 direct and indirect jobs. Last year, the government inked more than $8-billion in renewable-energy projects capable of producing 2,400 megawatts of power.
Mr. Duguid said the McGuinty government’s push to replace the province’s aging, pollution-spewing coal-fired electricity plants with clean energy is consistent with initiatives in the United States under the leadership of President Barack Obama.
“There’s no doubt Ontario has stepped up to Obama’s challenge, and together we’ve become a global clean-energy powerhouse,” Mr. Duguid said.
The McGuinty government is counting on clean-energy projects to create jobs in the province’s battered manufacturing heartland. Mr. McGuinty is vowing to create 50,000 new jobs through his Green Energy Act by luring investors with the promise of generous long-term contracts that include a guaranteed revenue stream.
The companies will receive a fixed price over 20 years for the electricity they produce – 13.5 cents a kilowatt hour for onshore wind farms and up to 80.2 cents for solar power. These contracts with green energy producers are well above the market price of 3.5 cents a kilowatt hour for electricity in Ontario and are one reason consumers’ hydro bills are climbing.
The latest announcement comes amid criticism by opposition members over the government’s recent policy reversals and snafus that have led to uncertainty in the green-energy sector.
The government halted development of offshore wind turbines earlier this month for further study. The government was caught off guard by the vehemence of opposition in lakeside communities. In the hopes of making the issue go away in an election year, it ruled out offshore entirely.
As well, companies seeking contracts for small solar projects recently had their plans stalled because there is not enough capacity on the electricity grid. Roughly 20,000 farmers were awarded contracts to place solar panels on their property. But this month, about 1,000 of them were informed that the province currently lacks the transmission capacity to move forward with their projects.
Mr. Duguid said the government has made some changes on how it communicates with small solar providers. But it was not clear whether he thought the onus was on the government to ensure these players could get access to the grid or the companies themselves.
On the large-scale projects unveiled on Thursday, there is enough capacity on the grid, he said, adding that unlike small projects they connect directly to the transmission system.
“These contracts are not awarded until the capacity is identified in the system,” he said.
Progressive Conservative MPP Peter Shurman said there is uncertainty surrounding all of the government’s energy announcements.
“This is characteristic Brad Duguid,” he told reporters. “They make announcements like this and then they move away from them, leaving people in the lurch.” |
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| VDub |
They're obviously trying to build and develop for the future...
The problem is that we are so far behind with this stuff compared to Europe. But aren't we always??
I'm all for wind, solar energy etc...
I just wish we'd have implemented it years ago... |
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