Tuesday, August 30, 2005

A Policy Resulting in Less Electricuty for More $$$

050902 Galway Column – A Policy Resulting in Less Electricity for More Dollars

     From my perspective, there is continuing evidence that rising costs for electricity in Ontario is a planned approach by the Provincial Liberals just as it was under the Harris and Eves governments. Some may disagree with me but there are at least two more indications suggesting that the actions of the government of the day are designed to move the price of electricity to astonishing heights.
     Wind power, a worthwhile addition to electricity generation in Ontario, has indications that the overall price paid to suppliers of electricity will increase dramatically. For example, there is a company investigating the potential for producing electricity via wind power along the northeast shore of Lake Simcoe from Port Bolster up to mid Ramara Township.
     Earlier this year, in a meeting with the Ramara council, it was stated that the company expected a guarantee of  8.1 cents/kwh, which is 39% higher than the rate of 5.8 cents/kwh currently paid by residential users when their monthly usage exceeds 750 kwh. That alone indicates the pressure to raise prices to at least this guaranteed level will become more and more difficult to ignore.
     Much more startling is a chart published by the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) at http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/media/md_supply.asp . It graphically portrays why electricity prices will likely escalate spectacularly. The bar graph shows that the median demand for electricity will increase from 2005's level pf approximately of 27,000 mw to just over 30,000 mw by 2014. An increase of approximately 12 - 13%
     The impact of this increased demand will be exaggerated by two major factors. The loss of approximately 8,000 mw due to the government's policy to close coal burning generating facilities without a workable plan in place to guarantee Ontario's electricity supply, a decrease of approximately 29%.
     Secondly, in the period after the closure of coal burning facilities the IESO's chart indicates that non-coal generators will decrease by approximately 1000mw or a decrease of 5% from the non-coal facilities.
     So what we have here is the IESO, an organization totally owned by the Ontario government, forecasting what must be either the planned decrease in electricity generation capability within the Province or the incompetence of our political leaders to take seriously the potential for lack of cheap, reliable electricity supply to ruin our economical future.
     When you add to this forecast lack of electricity self-sufficiency to a pricing mechanism that guarantees the highest price accepted from one supplier to the grid in a given time period sets the price for all producers at that time, we have formula for price gouging even the fossil fuel industry would envy.
     For the Ontario Liberal government to follow a course of closing generating capacity without replacement capacity in place and operational is mismanagement at the highest degree. It is so outrageous one can only wonder just who is sharing in the excess profits being gouged out of the economy now.
     There appears to be one difference between the McGuinty and Harris/Eves governments when it comes to electricity. There is little or no talk about the fallacy that private ownership of this essential infrastructure will mean cheaper electricity in the long run.

2 Comments:

At 5:02 p.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

Blog Faces Lawsuit Over Reader Comments
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At 3:53 p.m., Blogger Jim91 said...

A site that appears to agree with you that smart meters are just a money grab by the McGuinty government is the Ontario Hydro Electricity deregulation and privatization page.

 

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