Cold Air from Wordpress

Ontario's Industrial Conservation Initiative program, which rewards large "Class A" consumers for lower consumption during periods of high demand from the system operator's supplier, cost others $1.27 billion in past 12 months. I won't review the history of the program today as I did 3 years ago in  "Stakeholders" destroying the viability of Ontario's electricity market , but I will note that since last March a Variance Account under the [un]Fair Hydro Plan - which shifts costs from ratepayers today to rubes sometime in the future - a debt of $1.2 billion accumulated with April's total still to be posted. Today the system operator (IESO)  posted the top 5 peak hours for the adjustment period that ended April 30th, 2018 (it started May 1, 2017) - and Monday the IESO posted the final Global Adjustment figures for April. This post will contain: a quick demonstration of cost shift calculations, review of the ICI value proposition, and another ...

Electricity prices, and costs are aspects of a project I'm trudging through working with electricity data from the United States. I've developed a Power BI report which probably deserves a lot slicker interface, but time is limited. This post offers directions on controlling the reporting, and adds some Ontario context to the graphics. My primary intent was to create imagery of average monthly electricity cost, by state, for residential consumers. Rates get a lot of discussion, even more so in recent weeks, but I'm not convinced an isolated rate analysis is useful. A recent Scientific American article featured a smart BI report by Abhilash Kantamneni (  @akantamn  on Twitter ). Due to an exchange on Twitter I'd had with Abhilash a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to build a view that showed both rates, and average monthly consumer costs - because it turns out these are much different things.

Yesterday Ontario Power Generation released their 2017 Financial Results : Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG or Company) today reported net income attributable to the Shareholder of $860 million for 2017, compared to $436 million in 2016. That must be considered a great number in the context of the income history at OPG as it's the highest they've ever accomplished. The apparently excellent results may leave some wondering what critics commenting on the sector have been braying on about. I, a critic, have reviewed the results and found some things to bray about.

A short post to debunk some belligerently dishonest claims regarding Ontario's most inane electricity/social science project, Henvey Inlet Wind. Background:  Clement/Thibeault $billion negligence: Henvey Inlet Wind The contract, according to the IESO's contract list, was signed in June 2011 under the feed-in-tariff (FIT) program that paid $135/MWh, plus up to another $15/MWh as an "Aboriginal Price Adder." While those contracts were expected to be operational 3-years after the project data, apparently this one is exceptional in ways other than costing $150/MWh (roughly 5 times what new 2019 wind in Alberta will cost). Here are the claims I'll rebuke (emphasis added): Development of wind energy will help Ontario in meeting its goal of phasing out coal-fired power generation . The windfarm is expected to displace 851,000t of carbon dioxide emissions a year, which is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide released by 200,000 cars. It will also offset 4,100t of s...

Ontario's electricity system operator (IESO) made a mistake in June. In July they made it better for themselves in a way that specifically punished one set of consumers - Class B ones not covered by Regulated Price Plans (RPP). The OEB's lacklustre oversight in recent years continues to harm this same set of consumers. This will be a wonkish post but if you're connected with a company with a substantial electricity bill, it will alert you to probable overcharges. This situation should be difficult to explain, because I've had friends questioning the IESO on it for half a year and I haven't seen any evidence that a fulsome explanation is pending. That may be due to the beginning of the tale. The beginning was the final global adjustment calculations the IESO made for June 2017. They erred in calculating total consumption. The inability of the organization to admit that, along with the regulator's (OEB) disinterest in monitoring the IESO's collection of global...

My friend Parker Gallant has written on my updated estimates of annual curtailment in  Wind waste should worry Ontario ratepayers.   Producing the estimates doesn't take me nearly the effort Parker puts into writing on them, so I felt compelled to add a new view of the data just to make our contributions a little more equitable. The French language Radio-Canada has posted  AU PAYS DE L'EAU NOIRE Des résidents en Ontario vivent un cauchemar depuis l’installation d’éoliennes proches de leur domicile.  I assume it's best read in French, but the Google translation to English sufficed for me. As the journalism at Radio-Canada is more focused on the impacts to people of turbine construction of the North Kent wind farm, I decided today's show of data will be on the performance of individual industrial wind turbine facilities. Capacity Factor is the output of a generator divided by the theoretical maximum (full output in all hours). To estimate costs I need to estimate curtailm...

I used to have a writing process where if something annoyed me I'd write on it quickly, and then edit out all the anger. I generally figure readers shouldn't have to deal with my anger - but it's time for some  Networking . "...I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. ... all's I know is you've got to get mad" You've been forewarned.   The need to rant really started a while ago with reading a  "Message from Peter Gregg " - the big DOWG at Ontario's electricity system operator A tournament, a tournament, A tournament of lies.  - R.E.M. Before moving to bigger disappointments I'll start with the politicians. Yesterday the Ontario Progressive Conservatives announced they'll cut Ontario electricity rates by 12%. I was already mad when I read that, and I think it actually nudged me a little away from anger towards resignation. Tom Adams concluded a piece on the Conservative guarantee with: There is no reason to ex...