Ontario electricity customers paid millions for wind in November

Electricity sold off cheap could have powered 50% of Ontario homes; wind clearly not needed
StrongWindWeather
 The line of poetry “it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good” was a reality in November for Ontario ratepayers. The IESO (Independent Electricity System Operator) finally released their November 2016 Monthly Market Report on Friday, January 13, 2017 and there was not much good news in it.
While net exports* were down compared to the same month in 2015, it wasn’t related to the amount of wind power generated and curtailed (estimates of the latter from Scott Luft); that exceeded November 2015 by about 152,000 megawatts (MWh) and clocked in at 1,363,000 MWh.  Generated and curtailed power exceeded Ontario’s net exports in 2015, representing 102.7% versus 72.9% the previous year.  One should suspect November 2016 also saw spilled hydro and steamed off nuclear, but at 102.7% of our net exports, it is obvious that power generation from wind was clearly not needed.
November 2016 was not the month with the highest combination of generated and curtailed wind, but rather the second highest. The highest, according to Scott’s estimates, was December 2016, but we will save that report for another day.

Exported power could have served half of Ontario

Net exports in November 2016 were equivalent to the power that approximately 150,000 “average”** Ontario households would use in a year, or to put it another way, was sufficient to supply 2.4 million of those same households for the whole month of November. That is slightly more than 50% of all Ontario households.
The net exports of 1,326,960 MWh in November 2016 cost Ontario ratepayers $169 million to generate and sold at an average price of $16.69 per/MWh, resulting in income of  $21.4 million.  What that means is, Ontario’s electricity ratepayers subsidized the sale, picking up the difference of $l47.4 million, along with another $30.8 million for the 254,000 MWh of curtailed wind.  Past and present Energy Ministers in the Wynne-led government would probably claim the deeply discounted sale price for those exported MWh was actually a “profit” but most ratepayers recognize that claim to be untrue.

Cancel the contracts

Current Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault has a chance to make his mark by halting all planned acquisition of wind power generation in LRP I and LRP II, as well as cancelling any wind power projects that have not commenced construction, or which have passed their critical “operational” dates.
Time to treat industrial-scale wind power development as that “ill wind”!
© Parker Gallant
January 14, 2017
 
*Net Exports are total exports less total imports.
**The Ontario Energy Board claims the “average” Ontario household consumes 9 MWh annually, or 9,000 kilowatts.
Reposted with permission from Parker Gallant Energy Perspectives
 

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61 Comments

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 15, 2017 5:26 pm 0Likes

    So is the glass 1/2 full or 1/2 empty????
    Folks it’s running over….flooding….. hemorageing like stuck pig running in circles chasing it’s little piggy tail!! We must stop all the projects at all costs…. so sick of hearing all the “spilled” Hydro benefiting everyone else but the poor saps that have to pay for it….

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 15, 2017 5:32 pm 0Likes

    And again for the ummteenth time there Ole Katty Wynne……
    If Billy buys and apple for .75 cents and sells it for .25 cents it is considered a loss…. not a profit….. even if you have ratepayers subsidize it…..

  • Susan Racine
    Posted January 15, 2017 6:16 pm 0Likes

    This is exactly why we are being faced with outrageous hydro bills. These contracts can by cancelled by Legislation, same as they did with the Solar Contracts, without any legal ramifications. This is the First thing that Wynne should be doing.

  • Chris Arscott.
    Posted January 15, 2017 6:31 pm 0Likes

    We lose both ways when we sell to the states we compete with, Why don,t we sell the surplus to Ontario industries for 5 cents a kw.h. If industry needs to run at nite to save jobs industries will change.

  • Richard Mann
    Posted January 15, 2017 10:08 pm 0Likes

    The problem is Wind and Solar are not reducing C02 and our government will not admit this costly failure. Ontario’s professional Engineers, those tasked with generation, transmission and billing, have reported the problem. our government continues to build more wind and solar.
    Reference: “Ontario’s Electricity Dilemma – Achieving Low Emissions at Reasonable Electricity Rates”. Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE). April 2015.
    (Archived at: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.ospe.on.ca/resource/resmgr/DOC_advocacy/2015_Presentation_Elec_Dilem.pdf)
    Page 15 of 23. “Why Will Emissions Double as We Add Wind and Solar Plants ?”
    – Wind and Solar require flexible backup generation.
    – Nuclear is too inflexible to backup renewables without expensive engineering changes to the reactors.
    – Flexible electric storage is too expensive at the moment.
    – Consequently natural gas provides the backup for wind and solar in North America.
    – When you add wind and solar you are actually forced to reduce nuclear generation to make room for more natural gas generation to provide flexible backup.
    – Ontario currently produces electricity at less than 40 grams of CO2 emissions/kWh.
    – Wind and solar with natural gas backup produces electricity at about 200 grams of CO2 emissions/kWh. Therefore adding wind and solar to Ontario’s grid drives CO2 emissions higher. From 2016 to 2032 as Ontario phases out nuclear capacity to make room for wind and solar, CO2 emissions will double (2013 LTEP data).
    – In Ontario, with limited economic hydro and expensive storage, it is mathematically impossible to achieve low CO2 emissions at reasonable electricity prices without nuclear generation.

  • Sommer
    Posted January 16, 2017 5:40 pm 0Likes

    And what about the people who have not abandoned their homes and are experiencing harm from these turbines?
    How on earth can we justify this when it has been made very clear that the rationale for these turbines is based on IPCC data that is being proven wrong.

  • Sommer
    Posted January 16, 2017 5:43 pm 0Likes

    Take a look at this video and see for yourself!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF2shfFFE5A
    Lord Moncton calls our Prime Minister an ‘idiot’! One can only imagine what he thinks of our Premier.

  • Barbara
    Posted January 16, 2017 10:26 pm 0Likes

    FYI
    Re: Vivian Klause Blog
    “After a five year hiatus, this blog is back …”
    http://www.fairquestions.typepad.com/rethink_campaigns

  • Brian
    Posted January 17, 2017 9:54 am 0Likes

    All the Fiberal hot air from Queen’s Park would powerToronto&other cities-this garbage has to stop

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 17, 2017 10:54 am 0Likes

    You mean the Torontonians greed energy act wind and solar scam Brian or the hundreds of trucks of unrecycled garbage coming from the GTA daily to the Elgin landfill soon to be Ingersoll and Woodstocks pride n joy!!!

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 17, 2017 10:55 am 0Likes

    You mean the Torontonians greed energy act wind and solar scam Brian or the hundreds of trucks of unrecycled garbage coming from the GTA daily to the Elgin landfill soon to be Ingersoll and Woodstocks pride n joy because the Elgins dump is already full!!!!

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 17, 2017 1:38 pm 0Likes

    http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/windsor/coal-plants-closing-ontario-1.3938179
    Greed energy act hard at work…. please let’s not forget that the mighty GEA was to expodendtialy reduce emissions and save the planet…..

  • Phillip
    Posted January 18, 2017 12:18 pm 0Likes

    another very dishonest post from Parker Gallant.
    Ontario is not in the business of selling wind power to others outside the province. the electricity is largely being generated for in-province consumption.
    Some months we do not generate enough electricity to meet demand, so we have to buy power from other provinces and States. some months Ontario generates too much power so we sell it for what we get. if we get even $1 dollar for that power that is a bonus.
    Utilities will always have more generating capacity than needed in order to try and match as best they can the high volatility of electricity demand.
    the dollars spent on that generating capacity whether for nuclear (the most expensive), hydro, gas, or alternatives like wind are sunk costs. if is completely dishonest to pick just one form for generation (wind) and say money from selling electricity at a “loss” is the fault of only wind. again, you are not really losing money, as you are just selling the excess capacity and anything you get for it is an bonus because the alternative is you do not sell the excess and you get nothing for it.
    in some months because of not having enough capacity Ontario buys electricity from other out-of-province generates who also might be selling it at a “loss”, so in the end it all washes out.
    the province as brought in over $2.0 billion in additional revenue from selling electricity outside the province in the last 10 years. that is a bonus for Ontario ratepayers and helps to reduce energy rates.

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 18, 2017 2:59 pm 0Likes

    Yer right Phillip….. solar is to blame as well..
    Nuclear is so expensive cause there are no “emmissions” somewhat like yer wind projects…
    the only difference is that wind is intermittent and unreliable while nuclear is steady and strong….
    Hard to turn nuclear on and off…..
    Again Phillip… when the wind blows like it did in November and we give away enough hydro to supply 1/2 of Ontario with free power for the month and we only get 1.6 cents /kwh …. something is wrong….
    It’s called spilling hydro….
    Lots and lots and lots of spilled hydro there Phillip…..

    • Phillip
      Posted January 18, 2017 4:29 pm 0Likes

      there is nothing wrong with spilled generated electricity. the system is designed that way and is suppose to have spilled generation, as we always have to generate more electricity than we need in order to manage volatile demand.
      there is also nothing wrong with getting paid less than generating costs for selling that excess capacity. we gain on the back side when we buy electricity below cost from say New York or other U.S. states. It all comes out in the wash. We are lucky to be able to sell any of the excess electricity.
      wind and solar make up so little of electric power generation in Ontario that they make no difference in the amount spilt, of to the cost of electricity, etc.

      • Parker Gallant
        Posted January 18, 2017 6:42 pm 0Likes

        Phillip, Try this article on for size from Germany. Their government auditor seems to have a few problems with their energy system too.
        https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A//www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/energiepolitik/ruege-fuer-sigmar-gabriel-14621838.html

        • Phillip
          Posted January 18, 2017 7:22 pm 0Likes

          So Gallant what is your solution, that electric utilities have no excess capacity? how exactly would they go about doing that? or that electric utilities only find markets were the price is high enough to cover all the costs of their excess electricity that they have to generate no matter the price? that would not work for Ontario generation, as it largely relies on very expensive nuclear and have to complete in the market to sell their excess in export markets with Quebec and Manitoba, which have the lowest costs electricity and largely dictate the export prices. Your comments make no sense when you stop cherry-picking and start looking at the big picture, which you conveniently avoid.

          • Parker Gallant
            Posted January 18, 2017 7:47 pm 0Likes

            Phillip, which word don’t you understand: intermittent or unreliable?

  • Phillip
    Posted January 18, 2017 4:45 pm 0Likes

    Parker Gallant – “I hope you have someone managing your financial affairs as the logic behind your facts are “buy high, sell low”. I call that “Lucy math”. ”
    I call your comments nothing but politics. If you do not know how electricity systems work, as it appears you do not, given your comments, then stop commenting, but you will not because you know exactly what I am talking about and being straight-forward and honest in not your point.
    Ontario does not generate electricity to export. It generates electricity to meet the variability of Ontario demand as best it can. If there are times Ontario has excess electricity generated then great that is just bonus electricity. If we even get $1 for that surplus then that is extra cash going back to ratepayers. It is marginal revenue.
    Your math is also completely misleading and false regarding the so-called gas plant scandal. That $1.2 bn number has always been completely made up and entirely only political. If it costed more to put the plant in a location further out and away from the marketplace, as the population wanted, because of greater transmission and distribution then so be it. It very likely should have been put in Napanee in the first place. It is not extra costs, it just the cost to have it in Napanee location. By the way by moving it to Napanee they save $275 million in the construction costs of the plant.
    We also buy electricity below cost, so there is a savings. You put together what is bought and sold out of province, it all economically comes out in the wash.

    • Barbara
      Posted January 18, 2017 5:16 pm 0Likes

      Do you have the records pertaining to how much Ontario pays say to Michigan and New York for imported electricity into Ontario?
      Michigan faces an energy shortfall by the middle of June 2017 or by the beginning of 2018. Won’t get much power from Michigan?
      California has already paid Arizona to take excess renewable energy supply. Great bargain for Arizona customers.
      If renewable energy sources were not first inline to get on the grid, they would not be built.

    • Parker Gallant
      Posted January 18, 2017 6:06 pm 0Likes

      I know how the electricity system works and my articles are not political other than beating up on the people that believed they did by creating the GEA. George Smitherman told us rates would “increase by 1%” annually when he rammed the Act through the legislature. Even you must admit he missed the mark by the proverbial “country mile”.
      The energy generated by industrial wind turbines is unreliable and intermittent and completely out of sync with our demand. Its not just me that claims that either if you bother to look around.
      By the way my politics are only to point to the dummies who have put us in the current mess and I don’t receive a cent for anything I have written.
      I am suspicious about you though otherwise why would you bother to label me as “political” when many within the energy system quietly feed me information pointing to the mess the current government have made of our electricity system. Is you employer possibly a member of CanWEA? Give us a clue please so we can understand where you are coming from!

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 18, 2017 6:10 pm 0Likes

    Phillip…. you’re funny….. I heard that before… comes out in the wash….. or another great one… its only the price of a cup of coffee…..
    oh oh…. what happens if we can’t afford to do the wash any more!!??? Not even at off peak hours of the wee morning!!?? Already a reality….

  • Phillip
    Posted January 18, 2017 7:33 pm 0Likes

    Mr. Gallant you are completely political. Your involvement in the organizations you have helped created and people you work and align yourself with is entirely political. You are one of the key players in Ontario in making electricity prices a political wedge issue. Why don’t you write about the price of water, which is gone up considerably more than electricity in the city of Toronto, up 234% in the past decade? or how about you also write about how Stats Canada tells us that the cost of electricity has remained at 2% of average household spending for the last 10 years, suggesting that even if electricity prices have gone up (+5% per year over the last 10 years) that they have gone up no more than other household costs. I actually worked in the investment management world. I have decades of experience trying to sort through all the bullshit. I chosen to take the completely opposite approach to life than you have. I am in the search of truth and try and separate out the politics from the reality and to shine a light on political propagandists like yourself who are morally wrong and are doing so much damage to the future of our kids.

    • Parker Gallant
      Posted January 18, 2017 7:58 pm 0Likes

      So the reason 576,000 people were in arrears on their electricity bills and 60,000 (5% of total customers) were actually cut off by just Hydro One last year was because their bills only represented 2% of their average household spending? Right!
      Your decades spent sorting through all the bullshit has apparently affected your ability to not see the forest for the trees and simply be the one now proffering the BS!

      • Phillip
        Posted January 18, 2017 9:15 pm 0Likes

        nice technique of switching the subject off of whether exporting energy is a negative to customer arrears and disconnects.
        your numbers are bit wrong…
        566,902 residential customers in arrears for the entire province in 2015, which is approximately 11.5% of some 4.89 million electricity consumers in Ontario. The 2014 figure for residential customer accounts in arrears at year end was similar, with 567,165 accounts outstanding.
        According to the OEB 59,000 electricity customers IN ALL OF ONTARIO were cut off last year. That is 1.2% of the 4.89 million electricity consumers in Ontario.
        but, the numbers always have to be put in to context, which is another technique of yours to never put them context.
        how do those numbers compared to other Provinces and States electricity markets or utilities?
        they are comparable and inline with what you would expect to find in electricity markets and at electric utilities in North America. Ontario is not a stand-out or exceptionally high in either customer arrears and disconnects.
        by the way utility bills are notorious for having relatively high customer arrears ratios. I bet you yourself have been in arrears from time to time if you forget to pay a bill one month.
        There is no specific crisis in Ontario and nothing that proves anything you say. Electricity bills in Ontario have remains about 2% of total household spending for the last 10 years. Everything has moved up in cost (food, energy bills, clothing, insurance, etc.) and prices increases for electricity are not out of the ordinary. Wind power has made absolutely no difference to the economics faced by households in Ontario.
        http://www.ontarioenergyboard.ca/oeb/_Documents/Press%20Releases/OEB_RRR_2.1.8_Arrears_PaymentAgreements_WriteOffs.pdf

        • Parker Gallant
          Posted January 18, 2017 11:56 pm 0Likes

          I gave you the numbers on the exports and have seen nothing back from you to dispute it except for rhetoric. Logic suggest paying for something you don’t consume is a cost and that in itself is easy to understand but apparently your logic is different.
          Hydro One allowance for doubtful accounts 2014 was 6.5% and climbed to 7.8% in 2015. That’s not normal for any company-public or private!
          There are 4,565,000 residential customers so the number in arrears was 12.4% According to you that is comparable to the rest of Canada. Proof?
          The average household electricity bill per annum in Toronto is $1,800 which you claim is 2% of household spending meaning household spending is $90,000 yet household income according to StatsCan is $78,800 before income taxes. Hmm. Something doesn’t quite add up.
          I’m afraid I have never been in arrears so sorry to disappoint you. Why would you suggest Ontario is “comparable and in line” but not offer proof? If you claim my numbers are wrong you need to prove it!

    • Barbara
      Posted January 18, 2017 9:54 pm 0Likes

      My water bill is ~ $100 for 3 months water supply and have been about this amount for quite a few years including sewage. Maybe Toronto residents should start asking questions about their water rates? While my HydroOne bill is $100 per month more than is was and I use less power.
      Energy markets such as the Western Energy Imbalance Market have to be created to accommodate renewable energy sources.

  • winds got to go
    Posted January 19, 2017 12:28 am 0Likes

    Hey PP just a note. USA pay 8 cents kW we pay 20 + cents . If the grid does not require the Hydro they turn them off and get paid 12 cents a kilowatt to sit idol. Now our governments talking about shutting them down through the migration of birds and bats again I’m sure will have to pay them to sit idle.Billions of dollars going out of our country. To foreign businessman. The last I heard the most expensive nuclear plant to build in the world produce power at 4.6 cents compared to $.34 average a kilowatt for wind and solar . Average wage of the IESO is 285 thousand per year . Maybe 2% of their wages.You can’t justify anything to do with electricity !! My last bill was 300 dollars . I need to make 375 gross to cover my Bill. Your on crack if you think it represents 2%

  • Sommer
    Posted January 19, 2017 9:20 am 0Likes

    On a larger scale, the alarmist rationale for industrial scale renewables and carbon taxation is said to be driving the greatest wealth transfer in history. The concept of forcing electricity on impoverished nations, of the kind that can’t be delivered on demand to millions of people who have none, is not just cruel, it’s criminal.
    Compassion for all of the residents of Ontario who are dealing with the stress of balancing their budgets in the wake of the situation we find ourselves in, is the response of a person whose ‘moral compass’ is working.
    Thank you Parker for speaking out about this issue.
    Safe and affordable energy is an absolute necessity…an ethical imperative in a successful ‘sustainable’ Ontario.
    We need experts in all of the relevant fields to fix this mess. Ensuring that a team of experts is managing the energy portfolio needs to be an election issue.

    • Phillip
      Posted January 19, 2017 10:52 am 0Likes

      Sommer, the irony of an ex-Bay Street banker who writes for the Post group of papers to all of a sudden become a socialist is hilarious.
      Despite all the evidence you are clearly a climate change denier. To bad for you.
      So-called impoverished nations are making their own choices. Alternative energies are actually growing the fastest in third word countries as they leap-frog technologies. China announced this week that it is cancelling over 100 planned coal plants. India is pushing ahead in a big way with alternatives.
      It is smart economics, smart for workers, smart for households, etc. Alternatives have the cost and technology curves working in their favor. Moving toward a carbon fee and clean economy is just smart all around.
      Electricity prices are putting no more stress on household budgets in Ontario than any other household costs.

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 19, 2017 11:59 am 0Likes

    Phillip…. my friend works in China….. they are opening coal fired power generation plants at a rate of 1 per WEEK!!!!

  • Phillip
    Posted January 19, 2017 12:17 pm 0Likes

    China Cancels 103 Coal Plants, Mindful of Smog and Wasted Capacity
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/world/asia/china-coal-power-plants-pollution.html?_r=0
    China is canceling plans to build more than 100 coal-fired power plants, seeking to rein in runaway, wasteful investment in the sector while moving the country away from one of the dirtiest forms of electricity generation, the government announced in a directive made public this week.
    The announcement, made by China’s National Energy Administration, cancels 103 projects that were planned or under construction, eliminating 120 gigawatts of future coal-fired capacity. That includes dozens of projects in 13 provinces, mostly in China’s coal-rich north and west, on which construction had already begun. Those projects alone would have had a combined output of 54 gigawatts, more than the entire coal-fired capacity of Germany, according to figures compiled by Greenpeace.
    The cancellations make it likelier that China will meet its goal of limiting its total coal-fired power generation capacity to 1,100 gigawatts by 2020. That huge figure, three times the total coal-fired capacity in the United States, is far more than China needs. Its coal plants now run at about half of capacity, and new sources of power, like wind, solar and nuclear, are coming online at a fast clip.
    Nevertheless, China’s capacity would have surged well past the 1,100-gigawatt mark by 2020 had it not begun canceling coal-fired plants in the works. The new announcements are in addition to cancellations detailed last year.
    “The key thing is that yes, China has a long way to go, but in the past few years China has come a very long way,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, a researcher for Greenpeace in Beijing.
    Electricity generated from coal is the biggest source of the greenhouse gases that lead to global warming, and pollution from such plants contributes to the miasma of smog that has blanketed much of China this winter. But despite the vast amount of capacity added in recent years, China’s coal use has been on the decline since 2013.
    Still, China’s state-owned power companies remain politically powerful. Grid operators often favor power generated from coal plants over that made by wind and solar, and despite the cuts, China is still building far more capacity than it needs.
    In contrast, utilities in the United States have only four coal-fired plants set to go online through 2020, with a combined capacity of less than 1 gigawatt, according to the Energy Information Administration. The United States retired more than 13 gigawatts of coal capacity in 2015 as the country shifted toward natural gas, wind and solar.
    Despite the government announcement, it is far from clear that the Chinese jurisdictions most affected by the directive, including Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Xinjiang, will actually take the politically costly move of halting construction, laying off workers and canceling contracts, said Lin Boqiang, director of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University in southeastern China.
    “Some projects might have been ongoing for 10 years, and now there’s an order to stop them,” he said by telephone. “It’s difficult to persuade the local governments to give up on them.”
    But Mr. Lin and Mr. Myllyvirta said one factor that made the directive likelier to succeed was its specificity. It names each project set for cancellation, putting provincial and other local officials on the spot and making it harder to continue the projects.

    • Barbara
      Posted January 19, 2017 3:50 pm 0Likes

      Now you have used Greenpeace as a reference?
      Ontarians know quite a bit about Greenpeace activities in Canada in relation to energy issues.

      • Barbara
        Posted January 19, 2017 7:18 pm 0Likes

        Can any organization operate in China without the consent of the government?

      • Steve Aplin
        Posted January 19, 2017 10:37 pm 0Likes

        The National Inquirer is a more credible source than Greenpeace.
        Anybody who cites Greenpeace like it’s credible deserves no further consideration.

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 19, 2017 2:31 pm 0Likes

    Hmmmmmm Phillip….. all those coal generating stations my buddy works on OPENING WEEKLY not CLOSING WEEKLY must all be a figment if his imagination…. I’ll have to talk to him about what he is really doing over there!!!! If you think for one second that you’re not having the wool pulled over your eyes….. just like yer buddies at CANWEA and our liberal government taking the unprecedented position that 550M setbacks on residential properties Is OK for IWT projects!!! Your article informative as it is….. does not tell you the number of plants being opened…. also those coal plant cancellations are to refurbish or rebuild existing plants…. just like the old liberal Mississauga gas plant switcheroo!!!! It wasn’t cancelled completely…. just relocated!!!!

  • Phillip
    Posted January 19, 2017 3:14 pm 0Likes

    Mr. Gallant per your previous comment:
    “I gave you the numbers on the exports and have seen nothing back from you to dispute it except for rhetoric. Logic suggest paying for something you don’t consume is a cost and that in itself is easy to understand but apparently your logic is different.”
    I am well aware of your export number and how you said it was a net number. My point to your readers was that Ontario also imports electricity and those imports are often at price below the cost of generation, so it is not all about exports and there is a partial offset from imports.
    However, that does not change my larger point that any dollar from exports are marginal or bonus dollars back to the OPG. Yearly excess electricity generation or production is built into the business models of all electric utilities and OPG is no different than any others. Given the uncertainty of excess capacity due to uncertainties of demand and the uncertainty of market price of electricity the companies knows they will have to eat the costs of that excess capacity and cannot rely on selling in the market to offset the costs to generate. Again, OPG is not in the business of exporting electricity. That is just a bonus. The spillage or excess capacity generating costs is a sunk costs or is a normal part of the cost of doing business. It is part of the margins in operating and electric utility. Therefore, any dollars they can get from selling it via exports, even $1, is a marginal dollar or money that was not necessarily expected. It is an unexpected addition or bonus to the financial health of the company. The +$2.0 billion of additional revenue OPG collected from exporting over the years is a bonus or revenue that contributed to lower costs for ratepayers. Now if you want to argue that OPG has too much excess capacity then go ahead, but that is not what you argue. There is no evidence that OPG has too much excess capacity.
    “Hydro One allowance for doubtful accounts 2014 was 6.5% and climbed to 7.8% in 2015. That’s not normal for any company-public or private!”
    If you want to talk about the direct accounting measures of the performance like doubtful accounts or receivables or bad debt expense of Hydro One then we can do that.
    However, bigger picture Ontario Hydro has some of the highest credit ratings amongst electric utilities in North America. It has very good financial performance and healthy credit and customer collection ratios. There is absolutely no problem at Hydro One with customers not paying their bills or with bad debt, suggesting there is no evidence whatsoever that there is any electricity consumer crisis in Ontario impacting Hydro One that you suggest.
    At end of the third quarter 2016, allowance for doubtful accounts was $35 million or 4.3% of total account receivables at Hydro One. At the end of 2015 allowance for doubtful accounts was $61 mm or 7.3% of total account receivables at Hydro One. That number has been pretty stable. Con Edison had a 8.8% ratio in 2015. For Quebec Hydro it was 16.8%. So you are wrong. Hydro One’s allowances for doubtful accounts is not out of the ordinary and in fact should be considered quite low. Again, there is no evidence of any electricity consumer crisis in Ontario. No evidence of a crisis in Ontario of consumers not able to pay their bills. They are paying their bills and paying them at rates better than in many other jurisdictions in North America. You have no grasp of the actual facts and reality and that is by design because your sole purpose is to distort the facts.

  • Phillip
    Posted January 19, 2017 3:15 pm 0Likes

    Mr. Gallant per your previous comment:
    “There are 4,565,000 residential customers so the number in arrears was 12.4% According to you that is comparable to the rest of Canada. Proof?”
    “Why would you suggest Ontario is “comparable and in line” but not offer proof? If you claim my numbers are wrong you need to prove it!”
    Actually you are the one who originally brought up these numbers to prove your point, so the burden is actually on you, to prove that disconnects and arrears are out of the ordinary in Ontario and a problem.
    But let me indulge you with just one example.
    In 2015 B.C. hydro issued 38,781 disconnection orders. That represented 2.1% of its total residential accounts. That is actually higher than the ratio for Ontario of 1.3% ratio based on OEB’s 59,000 disconnects number for 2015 and your residential customer number of 4,565,000.
    https://thetyee.ca/News/2016/06/09/BCHydoDisconnects.pdf
    I could go on and do the numbers for many other electric utilities in Canada and the U.S. and you would see that there is no out of the ordinary or problem with disconnects in Ontario. Higher electricity prices have once again not caused any consumer disconnect crisis or problems with paying the electricity bills in in Ontario. Again, you have no idea what you are talking about or are intentionally being misleading.

    • Barbara
      Posted January 19, 2017 5:37 pm 0Likes

      The Tyee in B.C. is known for its positions, but maybe not well known in other parts of Canada.

  • Phillip
    Posted January 19, 2017 3:19 pm 0Likes

    Mr. Gallant as per your previous comment:
    “The average household electricity bill per annum in Toronto is $1,800 which you claim is 2% of household spending meaning household spending is $90,000 yet household income according to StatsCan is $78,800 before income taxes. Hmm. Something doesn’t quite add up.”
    http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLang=eng&id=2030021&pattern=&csid=
    (On the Stats Can websites you can adjust date to get to Ontario and electricity expenditures.)
    Lets go through the numbers.
    According to Stats Canada in 2014 (the last year the numbers were available) average Ontario electricity spending was $1,336 or $111 per month per household. That is about right or close given that the average pre-tax electricity bill in Ontario is about $120. By the way my numbers were originally for Ontario and not just Toronto. Average total household expenditures in 2014 was $84,406. Therefore average electricity expenditures as a percentage of total household expenditures was 1.58%. That percentage has not really changed for more than 10 years. In 2010, it was 1.49%. Your buddies at the Fraser Institute even come up with similar numbers. You can even inflate the expenditures for electricity prices to an average Ontario electricity bill of about $150 and the ratio has not really change all that much and certainly not all that much to make a difference versus all other household spending or to paint a picture that electricity prices have gone up more than other household expenditures.
    What the numbers do show is that, yes, electricity prices have gone up, but no more than other household expenditures. Where is your outcry for the increase in food costs or insurance costs or water costs or transportation costs or etc. etc.? Electricity prices are putting no more financial stress on households than any other costs in Ontario. Actually, electricity costs are putting less additional financial stress and burden on Ontario households than other expenditures like from increases in the price of water or insurance costs. By the way the increase in insurance and food costs are directly related to climate change. More basement flooding in Toronto directly impacting insurance costs and drought and flooding impacting agriculture prices for example. Where is out outrage on for food and insurance cost increase and outrage for climate change that is causing those increase right now today?
    The reality is your sole focus on electricity prices suggests you are only about politics and have no interest in reality.
    To address your further confusion. According to Stats Canada, in 2014 average Ontario household income was $74,790 versus the $84,406 household expenditures. So, yes, household expenditures are more than household incomes. And the difference is more exaggerated when you add debt repayment into expenditures. It is well known that debt per household is very high in Canada.

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 19, 2017 3:29 pm 0Likes

    Wow Parker…. Phillip don’t get it….
    talked to a local business owner….
    2002 hydro bills to run the business were $600.00 average per month pretty retrofit.
    2016 average monthly is …..
    $1958.00 POST RETROFIT
    Does not include HST
    Anybody I speak to about hydro rates across Canada and the US (and I do know people) state that our provincial hydro rates are obscene!!!! Wind and solar have failed miserably in Europe and you act as though what we are doing here is ground breaking and innovative… why must history repeat itself here in Ontario…

  • Phillip
    Posted January 19, 2017 3:43 pm 0Likes

    Notinduttondunwich,
    throwing out unproven cherry-picked numbers does not mean much.
    you also make tonnes of generalities just like Gallant, but never actually prove anything with facts sourced from real credible sources.
    people always complain about their utility bills, just like they complain about taxes and anything else they have to spend on…
    you add no value to the conversation….

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 19, 2017 3:50 pm 0Likes

    Lmao!!!… OK Phillip…. keep lapping up that warm Kool aid….. I’m done….

  • Bert Zegers
    Posted January 19, 2017 6:19 pm 0Likes

    Phillip, how many of you are there commenting? 3 posts in 5 minutes!
    Is your department out of work because LRP II was suspended ?

    • ScepticalGord
      Posted January 20, 2017 12:58 am 0Likes

      Nobody in their right mind would spend so much time and energy posting on this apparently useless, uninformed website unless they were handsomely paid.
      Nicely observed, Mr. Zegers.

  • Notinduttondunwich
    Posted January 20, 2017 2:49 pm 0Likes

    Happy inauguration day everyone!!!! Congrats to Mr. Donald Trump!!! Finally time to focus on something new and refreshing!!!
    A new beginning….. a new hope…. a new direction…

  • winds got to go
    Posted January 21, 2017 5:49 pm 0Likes

    Phillipio you can come up with all the bullshit . Ontario government already posted that it was not the coal plants that are biggest problem . It was the energy sector . Blundering of all the government agencies to implement good ideas is the major problem . There Is a huge separation between Toronto city and rule areas. $60-$80,000 is manageable in our area to raise a family from house hold income . Because of the governments inability to administer the programs they are making millionaires , billionaires overnight on each one of these projects . This is why your relative income is terribly in accurate. Toronto you have to make 250k to buy a house and raise a family . Young people in Toronto will never be able to afford a house . My house is 2400 ft.² and is one of the most efficient in my village $300 a month I pay because I have no choice but to keep my family warm. My wage is 75k -25% taxes leaves me 56,250 disposable income. 2% of 56,000 is 1125 $should be my electric bill according to you .can you add . The part that pisses me off the most is that these green energy programs put absolutely nothing back into our communities .
    Or the local environment .My community is made up of humble honest hard working people , The humble part is changing du to people like yourself !!

  • Barbara
    Posted January 21, 2017 10:05 pm 0Likes

    FYI
    According to the Edmonton Journal (Nov.20, 2017) article on the right sidebar, the Lake Erie Connector project has received NEB approval and a U.S. Presidential Permit.
    Presidential permit had to be obtained before a new President took office or would have been delayed until a new Presidential team is in place.

  • Barbara
    Posted January 23, 2017 5:32 pm 0Likes

    Los Angeles Times, January 22, 2017
    Re: California Cap-and Trade situation.
    Ontario & Quebec are mentioned in this article.
    Read at:
    http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-climate-lawsuit-20170122-story.html

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    Posted January 14, 2018 2:35 pm 0Likes

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