Cold Air from Wordpress

Ontario’s IESO ineptitude in managing Ontario’s electricity supply is displayed in an article from the Lucknow Sentinel,  IESO’s designation of Huron-Kinloss as potential host for green energy projects forces township to reaffirm its no wind turbine stance . The local council noted a change in the IESO’s classification of the area’s transmission capability in determining where to force more industrial wind turbines (the same change I posted on April 14th ) "We can say that we are not a willing host, but what does that mean at the end of the day? Nothing because the contracts are let out by the IESO,” Twolan said, following the council meeting. “We’ve always said we’re not a willing host. We passed that a long, long time ago, but the new map that came out, it changes all the time and we had no input into that. And it doesn’t matter that we passed that we’re a non-willing host, they can still put that in there.” Of 5 recent, and totally needless, industrial wind contracts awarded b...

I've seen many references to a $113 hydro bill "for nothing" today. With anger high over electricity costs in the province, this seems to be a rallying point for some. Not for me. Before I get to the specific bill... I saw tweets from the official opposition this morning showing the bill, and tonight Christina Blizzard has a report on events that followed; Sousa claims hydro bills going down . To me, Sousa is an appalling man, but that's not exactly what he's shown as saying. This is:

Ontario continues to waste its water rights on the Niagara river. I revisited some posts I've written on this topic today, and updated data to bring the graphics up to the end of 2015 A very quick refresher to explain this first graphic. The U.S. and Canada share water rights on the Niagara river. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) runs the Niagara river power plants in Ontario, and there are similar plants on the U.S side (R. Moses Niagara). When I first encountered the issue  in 2011, the U.S. side had additional generation because OPG could not get enough water through its turbines to utilize the full allocation. In March 2013 OPG completed the Niagara tunnel , which was to get more water to it's turbines. OPG claimed output would increase by 1.6 million megawatt-hours (MWh). I've collected Ontario generation data back to 2010, and compared monthly summaries to the U.S. Energy Information Administration data for the U.S. sites. The opposite of what should have happene...

I found this a necessary read all the way through the penultimate paragraph. If there is a way to conclude that the government, and courts, intend to allow intelligent opposition legally, I hope somebody notes it. In the absence of that, this is a pretty good motivator for outlaw strategies of opposition.

In December 2005 the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) produced Supply Mix Advice for the province's Minister of Energy. With 2015 reporting now significantly complete, and threats of a new Long Term Energy Plan being developed, it's worth reviewing the 2005 plan to the 2015 actuals. Figure 1.1.1 of that report contains both capacity and generation figures for 2015.

This post originally appeared on my tumblr account last Friday night. I’ve flipped through a slide deck Ontario’s electricity system operator, the IESO, has posted prior to insiders meeting March 23rd to discuss how the market should be manipulated in the future. I’m going to run off some comments on the Preliminary Outlook and Discussion: Ontario Supply/Demand Balance to 2035 slides here. That first point may sound flip, but if anybody detects a hint of the implication a market signal could trigger economic actors to enter, or exit, the market for electricity generation in the province, please let me know. For me the headline is this is a central planning document which would go nicely with a call to return to a unified public Ontario Hydro model. After 14 years Ontario neither has a competitive market nor does it demonstrate any learning of what that is and how it might be accomplished. First, for no particular reason, I’ll note slide 23 - which struck me due to its display of poss...

"... the new cap and trade law will be successful in providing endless reasons for businesses and other interest groups to lobby Queen’s Park..."