Niagara On The Lake Hydro sent an open letter to Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, outlining the steps the government needs to take to get costs down, and halt the unsustainable rise of electricity costs. “When you are in a hole,” President Tim Curtis said, “the best thing is to stop digging.”
The news release and letter can be read here and an excerpt follows.
There are concrete actions that can be taken both immediately and in the medium term to reduce the cost of electricity or slow down the increase. NOTL Hydro has the lowest delivery charge in the Niagara region not because of anything special we have done but because of a fifteen year focus on managing the business to keep costs low for our customers. This focus can be replicated at the Provincial level. The chart above shows that the driver of the increase in costs is generally not at the municipal LDC nor transmission level (both in line with inflation) but at the generation level.
Immediate actions include:
- Announce that you will stop immediately signing any FIT and MicroFit contracts and move as soon as possible to net metering. This will prevent encumbering the system with more expensive contracts. As you are moving to net metering you are not repudiating your climate action plan but accelerating the move to its next phase. As a sign of our commitment, if you announce this by the end of September 2016 we will cancel our FIT contract.
- Eliminate the MDM/R branch of the IESO and their activities. This branch collects the smart meter data and all their activities are redundant as are duplicated by the local distribution companies who need the information for billing. If you announce you are eliminating this cost you can also announce you will be removing the $0.79 monthly charge on every customer’s bill. While not a large amount this would be a symbolic gesture of the new direction.
- Recognize that the earlier FIT and MicroFIT contracts were overpriced and transfer the excess cost to the OEFC. While this will increase the debt of the Province it will also reduce the cost of electricity which is needed to sustain jobs and keep Ontario competitive.
- Meet with industrial business representatives such as in the steel industry to develop plans that mitigate the impact time of use pricing is having on the drivers of our economy. This needs to be done in a manner that does not just transfer the cost to residential customers.
See the full letter for more actions suggested by Niagara On The Lake Hydro.
7 Comments
Pat Cusack
Let’s see what Ms. Wynne does!
notinduttondunwich
Ignore it as always Pat….. she knows better than all of you know!!! We’re are merely simple country folks!!!
notinduttondunwich
It’s not us says Katty it’s the hydro company!!!
It’s not us the says hydro company it’s the OEB!!!
IIt’s not us says the OEB it’s the IESO!!!
It’s not us says the IESO it’s the liberals! !!
It’s not us says the liberals it’s you citizens using all the hydro!!!
Case closed!!!
Palladini
Come the next General Election in Ontario, liberals will go happily knocking on doors, only to be told, Hydro Costs are too damn high. Liberals will be toast next election. the only thing the PC party has to see, it will get rid of the delivery charge on electricity, which is a ludicrous tax
Joseph Zanyk
I do not believe that Ontario will be able to survive tell the next election with the dept. load and the cost of electric energy. The current installation of Wind Turbine in Ontario is approximately 5000 MW. at a capital cost in excess of 10 billion dollars. However the average output per moth is 30 % which represents 1500 MW. However on August the 18th at around 10 AM the total generation in Ontario from wind turbines was 27 MW. The total system demand at that time was around 22000 MW . The back up power system of gas fired turbines was 4100 MW. Without that back up system the total province would have had a major power outage like happened in 2004. The wind turbines cause more CO2 emissions than would have happened if they never were installed.
T3
Well, not holding my breath over seeing the Liberals kicked to the curb come election time.
I’ve seen two elections past, only to see the Liberals reign. A decade later..same shit same pile. Ontario deserves exactly what it voted for. I’m done…
Re skyrocketing hydro bills: waaa…should I call the wambulance??! “Hello Ontario… I told you so.” I care more about negative health impact to rural Ontarions forced to live next to industrial wind turbines,
Suck it up, just like I did. Your kids will be paying for Ontario’s multi billion dollar debt..due to your ignorance. Life’s a beach…then you die.
Lynda
@T3 – If rural Ontario deserved and received what it voted for, there would be no turbines. Go and yell at the big city people who were dumb enough to vote for empty promises. It happens time and time again…they must be stuck on stupid.