Ontario’s $12-million New Year’s Day hangover

House for sale in Detroit: not looking so bad. Might as well use the cheap Michigan power you're paying for anyway.
House for sale in Detroit: not looking so bad. Might as well use the cheap Michigan power you’re paying for anyway.

Happy New Year New York and Michigan!

Once again Ontario’s oh so generous ratepayers, ushered in the New Year by treating our neighbours to some very cheap electricity.  We were much nicer this January 1st than last year, as we exported a record 87,000 megawatt hours (MWh) at a bargain price.  That sale generated revenue of about $275,000 to offset a small part of the costs to Ontario’s ratepayers.  We exported 38,000 MWh more (+ 78%) than on January 1, 2014, and a year ago we generated $1,450,000 for the smaller number of MWh sold.
Wind was presumably a big factor in this year’s export sales as wind power developers also produced a record 58,800 MWh — power we didn’t need. That cost Ontario’s ratepayers of about $7.3 million, based on the estimated contract costs.  The cost falls to $7 million if we allocate the sales revenue from the exports just to wind, despite knowing other types of generation were included.
Back on January 1, 2014 wind generators produced only about 11,400 MWH so compared to 2014 wind power generation for January 1, 2015 increased by 47,400 MWh, or more than 400%.  Out of the 87,000 MWh exported, 62,000 MWh were sold to Michigan and New York for $4.41 per/MWh (not a weighted average) which accounts for the $275K of export revenue generated.
In total, January 1, 2015’s generation cost Ontario’s ratepayers $7 million (net) for wind, another $400,000 for curtailed wind, about $1.2 million for steamed off nuclear, almost $1 million for “embedded” wind and solar and about $3 million for the Net Revenue Requirement for those idling gas plants.
Put those all together and the New Year’s Day party left Ontario’s ratepayers with a $12.6 million hangover.
Happy New Year!
©Parker Gallant,
January 2, 2015

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10 Comments

  • Saving The Moon
    Posted January 3, 2015 1:11 pm 0Likes

    None of this makes any sense/cents, so why does the Provincial Gov’t and Kathleen Wynne, insist on going ahead with more power projects when the electricity isn’t needed (in Ontario)? Like, SaveTheBalaFalls.comm

    • Wind Concerns Ontario
      Posted January 3, 2015 8:06 pm 0Likes

      Excellent question: there is more going on behind the scenes than we know or perhaps will ever know.

  • thebiggreenlie
    Posted January 3, 2015 1:25 pm 0Likes

    When a Government makes a “deal with the devil (Green Energy Act) they are in for the long haul”
    Wynne and her predecessor are surrounded by greedy Bay Street investors and scammers so what else would they do but sell out the Ontario citizens for their pocket money?

  • Barbara
    Posted January 3, 2015 9:49 pm 0Likes

    And there is another $100 million waiting to be invested in residential solar projects.
    Just rent your house rooftop to solar developers. They will take care of all the paper work for you including insurance.

  • R Budd
    Posted January 4, 2015 1:09 pm 0Likes

    I think the clearest way of looking at this is the Libs are continuing to sell off the public asset of what was a very good, cost effective, clean electrical system…Ontario Hydro.
    VIa the GEA they have taken engineers out of a once sensible system and replaced them with green lobbyist and political hacks and the generation side is being sold to friends and supporters.
    It’s brilliant in that the bulk of cost gets shifted from the gov’t purse and downloaded to the public ratepayers. The Libs get to be powerful gatekeepers and kickback recievers and it’s all allowed to proceed because they have fooled enough into believing they are “greening the grid”.
    NDP should be screaming, but they can’t cause they must hate nukes, even if it’s been our greatest public asset and they must support anything with a green label.
    Watch the LIbs do the same thing with the OLG. Gaming will be essentially sold to powerful, likely off-shore, likely corrupt interests who will help the Liberals stay in power while extracting the maximum amount of $ from On’s economy.

  • I diidn't vote for Liberals
    Posted January 4, 2015 5:01 pm 0Likes

    I can’t believe the tax payers of Ontario, McGinty and Winn should be in jail instead one retires and collects public money and Winn gets re-elected with a majority gov. The people of Ontario have themselves to blame for this mess throw them out at the next election!

  • Claude Lelouch
    Posted January 4, 2015 9:03 pm 0Likes

    I don’t know if you have seen Detroit, or it’s realestate, but I think that is a silly comparison. I would never trade Ontario for anything that even resembled Detroit.
    I spend more than my Brother , in Quebec, for hydro but he spends 13 cents a liter more for gas.

  • Jacob Van Laar
    Posted January 5, 2015 8:45 pm 0Likes

    The only thing that makes sense is solar tubes for heating domestic hot water, etc. The government does give a small grant for that but doesn’t give a price guarantee. All the other so called green energy projects are a massive ratepayers rip off and there isn’t anything longterm green about them.

  • Sommer
    Posted January 8, 2015 3:28 pm 0Likes

    Parker, your crystal clarity on the BNN interview yesterday is much appreciated. With persistence, you are steadily reaching the right people with your assessment.
    I find you to be a model for how to intelligently direct the rage that this situation is causing in people who understand the larger picture.

  • Tye
    Posted January 9, 2015 11:05 am 0Likes

    I have made a new post onto my blog about why I think Ontario Electric Rates are rising Part two. You can check it out here:
    http://tyeselectricityblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/why-electric-rates-are-rising-in-ontario-part-2/
    Let me know what you think in the comments section below
    Thanks,
    Tye

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