Dim Dippers

Ontario’s NDP are now trying to position themselves as defenders of the province’s battered electricity consumers. The NDP’s concerns are getting lots of news headlines like this and this and this, but the solutions the Dippers propose deserve more scrutiny.

Ontario’s NDP latest energy pronouncements remain mired in the confusion they have added to Ontario’s energy file. The NDP have been stalwart supporters of the Liberal’s Green Energy Act, so it is a bit rich for them to now complain about the rate increases that ugly legislation is causing.

Do the NDP propose to expand or not expand wind and solar power? If they want more wind power, who will they be pushing their turbines on? These questions remain unanswered.

To the extent that the NDP claim to address the root cause of Ontario’s rates increases, energy critic Peter Tabuns argues that “Ontario has signed costly deals with private power companies that have created a glut in supply that must be exported at a lower price than the generation cost.

The theory that the evil Mike Harris and his privatization schemes have caused the rate increases does not explain the most recent big contributor to Ontario’s costly power glut — OPG’s Little Long hydro-electric station. That station is part of a $2.6 billion retrofit of four power stations on the Lower Mattagami ordered by McGuinty. The retrofit buys 450 MW of incremental capacity ($5.8 million/MW). The stinger is that this costly new capacity has very low productivity. The expected yield from the new capacity is a lowly increase in output of a mere 885 GWh/yr (22% capacity factor). To the credit of the project, the high cost for a small output gain is somewhat off-set by the benefit of increased generation flexibility. The Lower Mattagami project was proposed by the old Ontario Hydro in the late 1980s but rejected due to bad economics. The economic fundamentals today are as bad or worse than they were back then. Even if the incremental energy from the Mattagami project was affordable on average, most of the new production arrives during the spring freshet, when Ontario and neighbouring markets are typically already oversupplied. This spring, power consumers and utilities in Michigan, New York and Quebec will be harvesting subsidies from Ontario consumers stuck paying the bills for Lower Mattagami. While it is true that the added generation flexibility acquired from OPG’s Lower Mattagami projects will help backstop fickle wind and solar output, this benefit is acquired at a steep cost.

The NDP’s confusion isn’t limited to the causes of Ontario’s power glut. When pressed for explanations as to their proposed solutions for rising power rates, the NDP claim that conservation programs will lower rates. What the NDP never have shown is how their math is supposed to work to deliver lower rates. With Ontario’s overall electricity sector revenue requirement fixed for many years out into the future, even if conservation programs could successfully drive down usage without relying on any subsidies, the lower units of sales would drive unit prices higher. Falling power demand since 2005 has been a key driver pushing power rates up in Ontario.

The NDP claim that Ontario consumers subsidized power exports to the tune of $1 billion last year. There are a variety of ways to calculate the losses sustained by Ontario’s power exports, as Scott Luft has ably discussed many times including here and here, but the NDP’s estimate is reasonable. Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli has claimed that the NDP’s “math is inaccurate“. Minister Chiarelli’s power export math skills were recently on display in this TVO exchange, where it became clear that the Minister can’t distinguish between revenues and profits.

14 Comments

    • What about the turbines going onto Manitoulin or Amherst Island? What about the solar panels going on all the schools with curriculum to match claiming that without the solar panels, children have no future? What about the rate increases that poor folks and electricity intensive employers can’t afford? Stopping one turbine would buy your vote? Isn’t your vote worth more than that?

      • And the fire safety issues with solar panels on school roofs has never been considered?
        This information is available on the internet from reliable sources.

      • When you consider who the stakeholders are in the Manitoulin and Amherst Island projects, there isn’t much the local citizens can do. The cards are stacked against them.

      • Why is it “insular”. All I am saying is we should challenge NDP to do something. If they do this (I doubt it, but suppose they do), then they are sending a message TO THE PUBLIC that Green Energy does not work. Translating words to actions.

        • Well, you’re right. I won’t vote NDP. I’ll vote “anything but Liberal”. That means Hudak in our riding. But in the cities, NDP is still better than Liberal.

  1. Funny how they sat on the fence while the PCs tried to stop this madness many times!

    They like the fiberals have no concept of damage they have supported!

    This greed energy act needs to just end now ! its not soon enough, penalties be darned!

  2. Thanks, Tom, for your blog. Higher prices, dwindling demand, industry leaving the province, more turbines and solar panels at high subsidized cost, oversupply, more dwindling demand, etc., etc. A dangerous downward spiral that can only have catastrophic consequences. The social engineering of our liberal gov’t re energy is almost beyond belief. The tax-payer/consumer always pays. Ontario is becoming a “have-not province”. Reminds me of the Bob Rae days when high taxes and excessive gov’t control was driving our province into the ground.

  3. Ontario isn’t “going down” the “tubes”……….it’s already FINISHED! The damage is complete and is evident all around us! Possibly the urban centres won’t notice it as much as Rural Ontarians do because of the variety of businesses and high tax base with large populations but Rural Ontario is basically finished!
    The NDP and Liberals have purposely RUINED Rural Ontario with their Green Energy insanity and continue to do so. There is no hope for what used to be a Democratic society in this Province.
    Rural Ontarians are used to using “survival tactics” so don’t count them out, but it sure is a brave new world!
    The NDP and the Liberals are not welcome anywhere outside their urban domains and that’s the truth!

  4. Just wait until Ontarians get their January, 2014 Hydro bills.
    Another severe cold spell forecast again for next week.

  5. Thank you for your blog, Tom. The Liberals “stole” their green energy idea from the NDP election platform plank back in 2003. The were outflanking the NDP on the green energy agenda. This short-term election tactic has been with us for 10 years now and frankly, we are finished. Pretty much all costs are fixed, so there is little anyone can do to reduce their exposure to this madness except to go off-grid, which isn’t an option for a lot of people. We need a judicial inquiry into the mess the Liberals have gotten us into, not just a judicial inquiry into the gas plant debacle. People like McGuinty, Smitherman, Duguid, Chiarelli, need to be held to account for the colossal waste of money in the electricity sector.

    • The only way to get a judicial inquiry is to elect a new government and even then most new governments won’t go after the doings of the previous government as they have their own new agend to put in place.

      Going off grid will be the only option left. Natural gas generators for home use are being made in Germany but don’t know how much these cost.

  6. CNBC
    World Economic Forum, Jan. 2014, Switzerland
    “U.S. vs Europe: Energy battle heats up”
    Low cost natural gas abundance has made European electricity prices much higher than in the U.S. due to a significant degree of the push toward high-cost-renewable electricity which is imposing heavy costs on consumers and generating large fiscal burdens for gvernments.
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/101365772#_gus

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