Author Archives: Ottawa Wind Concerns

Ontario’s electricity bills: rising costs for everyone

13 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Ottawa Morning

Here from today’s CBC show Ottawa Morning, is a panel discussion on the impact of Ontario’s rising electricity bills. The panelists include a representative from the Preston Street BIA, a representative of an agency trying to help people in need, and an Ottawa area dairy farmer.

The message is a powerful one: rising electricity bills will result in increased costs for everyone including for food, as well as job losses as business try to cope.

Dairy farmer Peter Ruiter of Black Rapids Farm says the province ought to have figured out how it was going to pay for its renewables progarm. He invited Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli to come to his farm.

Listen to the program here.

 

 

Senator Bob Runciman: Environment Ontario “derelict” in duty if Amherst Is power plant allowed

10 Friday Jan 2014

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NEWS RELEASE
Senator Robert Runciman>
OTTAWA, January 10, 2014 – It will be a dereliction of duty if the Ministry of Environment allows a major industrial wind turbine project to go ahead on Amherst Island, Senator Bob Runciman said today.

Runciman was responding to the news that the Ontario government has deemed complete a Renewable Energy Approval application by Windlectric for up to 37 giant turbines to be installed on Amherst Island, just west of Kingston. The government is now inviting public comment on the proposal until March 8.

The senator, who introduced a motion passed unanimously by the Senate two years ago calling for a moratorium on such projects in Important Bird Areas such as Amherst Island, has written the Ministry of the Environment objecting to this latest project. He noted that a similar project on Wolfe Island, also an Important Bird Area, has proven to be one of the deadliest for birds and bats in North America.

“The government is riding roughshod over local objections, including by the duly elected council of Loyalist Township, and ignoring that this is one of the most critical areas for birds in North America, and home to 34 species at risk,” Runciman said.

“If anyone came along with a proposal posing this kind of threat to birds and other wildlife in such a sensitive area, but it didn’t have the words ‘Green Energy’ stamped on it, there would be no question this government would put a stop to it,” Runciman said. “And if they didn’t, the environmental lobby would harass them until they did. But because it’s green energy, the environmental movement seems content to ignore the despoiling of the environment and the wanton killing of birds.”

The situation is even more tragic, considering that the expansion of renewables, which typically provide power at times when there is no demand, has resulted in a huge over-supply of electricity, meaning it is being sold to places like Michigan, Minnesota and Quebec at a fraction of the cost of generation.

“We are destroying the quality of life in rural communities to produce power we don’t need and then giving that power away to neighbouring jurisdictions at roughly 25 per cent of the cost we’re paying to generate it. Then those jurisdictions use that cheap power to compete with Ontario industries. Is it any wonder Ontario lost more than 39,000 jobs last month alone?” Runciman said.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Barry Raison, Policy Advisor, Office of Senator Bob Runciman
(613) 943-4020 (office) or barry.raison@sen.parl.gc.ca

National Post: Ontario taxpayers don’t benefit from power exports

10 Friday Jan 2014

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Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli likes to crow about how much money Ontario is making when it sells its surplus power. The truth is something far different, even in Mr Chiarelli’s millions-equal-Tim-Hortons-coffees world of mathematics.

Scott Stinson: Ontario powers up electricity exports but taxpayers see little benefit

Republish Reprint

Scott Stinson | January 9, 2014 6:58 PM ET
More from Scott Stinson | @scott_stinson

Jurisdictions that import electricity from Ontario pay close to the wholesale market price but consumers in the province pay much more.

Tyler Anderson/National Post
Jurisdictions that import electricity from Ontario pay close to the wholesale market price but consumers in the province pay much more.

At a time when Ontario has seen its manufacturing industry crater, the province has found that it can still do a booming business with one type of export: electricity.

Unfortunately for ratepayers, the business model is a little unsound. If energy were doughnuts, Ontario would still be expanding its dough supply, while sending ever more trucks full of discounted day-olds to places like Michigan, Minnesota and Quebec.

The province’s Independent Electricity System Operator on Wednesday released its year-in-review of the province’s energy data. Most of the numbers were as expected, with wind energy an increasing part of the supply mix, coal a decreasing part of it and nuclear energy remaining the backbone of the grid.

Energy exports, meanwhile, “rose to 18.3 TWh,” which is an awful lot of electricity: enough to power 300 billion 60-watt bulbs for an hour. The province’s exports have been on a steady upward trend; the 2013 total is a notable jump from 14.6 TWh in 2012 and from 12.9 TWh in 2011, according to figures released by the IESO last year. Exports have increased by almost 50% over that two-year period.

This would be a welcome development if the province and its ratepayers — which is to say, you — received a return for our electricity that was equal to, or ideally above, the amount that was paid to produce it.

But it does not. Jurisdictions that import electricity from Ontario pay something close to the wholesale market price of electricity, a number that changes hour by hour and is dependent on factors too numerous to list here. For 2013 the average wholesale price was between 2.5¢/kWh and 3¢/kWh. The cost paid to produce that electricity, again using the IESO’s own numbers, is on average about 8.5¢/kWh, or about four times the wholesale price.

Consumers pay, again depending on a host of factors, something much closer to the larger number, because built into the cost of our electricity is everything from capital investment to executive salaries to the payout for when gas plants are cancelled in the middle of election campaigns.

This trend, where Ontario ships excess electricity to its neighbours at steep discounts, is not new. In 2011, the province’s Auditor-General noted in a report that “the price Ontarians pay for electricity and the price it charges its export customers … have in recent years been moving in opposite directions.”

Read the full story here.

Kingston area couple again denied property assessment reduction

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

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No property assessment reduction for Wolfe Island couple 68

By Paul Schliesmann, Kingston Whig-Standard

Thursday, January 2, 2014 6:22:36 EST PM

Wind turbines on Wolfe Island can be seen across the road from the home of Ed and Gail Kenney.<br /> Ian MacAlpine The Whig-Standard

Wind turbines on Wolfe Island can be seen across the road from the home of Ed and Gail Kenney. Ian MacAlpine The Whig-Standard

KINGSTON – A Wolfe Island couple learned late in 2013 that a re-evaluation of their cottage property, based in part on their proximity to wind turbines, would not result in an assessment reduction.

It was a last ray of hope for Ed and Gail Kenney, who had also unsuccessfully challenged the property value of their home before a Municipal Property Assessment Corporation tribunal, claiming it had been devalued since the construction of the 86-turbine project on the island.

The couple have not been alone in their efforts.

In the west end of the province, Goderich landowner Dave Hemingway got a similar letter from MPAC concerning a reassessment of 80 acres of his family farmland.

Hemingway, who is also chairman of the anti-turbine group SWEAR (Safe Wind Energy for All Residents), was skeptical of the review all along.

A University of Waterloo study released last October, he said, found that health and sleep problems were more prevalent in people the closer they live to turbines.

MPAC, on the other hand, uses “regression modelling” in its assessments.

It looks at the sale prices of similar homes within a certain distance of the property being assessed — then widens that search to assemble a large enough sampling.

“When you go further away from the turbines, the issues aren’t as great,” said Hemingway.

“They don’t take into account properties that don’t sell. Properties close to turbines don’t sell.”

MPAC informed the Hemingways and Kenneys that the assessments of their second properties would be based on a new study of industrial wind turbines it conducted.

However, the guidelines have never been made public, though MPAC officials say a report summarizing the results of the study will be released this year.

Read the full story here.

Smart meters not “smart” enough for Ottawa Hydro

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

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Frequent contributor to the Financial Post, energy commentator Parker Gallant noticed the story in the Ottawa Citizen on Hydro Ottawa and its struggle with “smart” meters, and sent this along.

Smart Meters not smart enough to suit Hydro Ottawa

The people who run Hydro Ottawa exhibit the same traits as our teens when Apple or Samsung announce the launch of a new i Pad or smart phone–they want the latest gadget. So, Hydro Ottawa trotted off to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) with a request that they be allowed to accumulate the costs associated with replacing 96,000 smart meters because the newer models had a few new apps.

Once they completed the conversion they would then seek a rate increase.

The OEB declined to approve the conversion concept however, so any of those costs will have to be absorbed by Hydro Ottawa or by their only shareholder, the City of Ottawa. That may result in reduced dividends ($18.6 million in 2012) being paid to the city, and in a mill rate increase depending on how well Hydro Ottawa manage their costs.

The OEB did grant a rate increase of 1.4% which will add an average of $8.28 annually to the delivery line of Hydro Ottawa’s bills or, as Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli might say, the cost of five Tim Horton’s coffees.

It is disconcerting to learn however that, while the OEB declined the smart grid upgrade, the OEB did allow Hydro Ottawa the right to collect 50% of legislated tax changes (capital tax related) from ratepayers as noted from the OEB’s decision on that issue:

EB-2013-0143 In its Supplemental Report of the Board on 3rd Generation Incentive Regulation for Ontario’s Electricity Distributors, issued September 17, 2008, the Board determined that a 50/50 sharing of the impact of legislated tax changes between shareholders and ratepayers is appropriate.

The Application identified a total tax change of $142,451, resulting in a shared amount of $71,225 to be collected from rate payers. Hydro Ottawa requested the Board authorize the recording of this amount in Account 1595 for disposition in a future application given that the associated rate riders are negligible. The Board agrees with Hydro Ottawa’s request and directs Hydro Ottawa to record the tax sharing debit of $71,225 in variance Account 1595 by March 31, 2014 for disposition at a future date.

While the cost of the tax sharing will be negligible, it is worth remembering back to when the province lowered the corporate tax rate. That considerably reduced the tax allocations, referred to as “Payment in Lieu of Taxes” (PIL), that the local distribution companies (LDC) were directing to repayment of the “Stranded Debt”. What happened then was the extension of the time required to pay out the “residual stranded debt” via the Debt Retirement Charge (DRC) we find on our electricity bills. The drop in PIL payments did not reflect itself in reduced distribution charges or reduced electricity charges at that time. 

Now, with local distribution companies (LDCs) suddenly facing new or increased taxes, the poor ratepayers are expected to simply cough up more money. The people running the LDCs and the OEB must believe the Ontario ratepayers have bottomless wallets.

Parker Gallant,

January 7, 2013

Special to Ottawa Wind Concerns

Donations welcome: PO Box 3, North Gower ON  K0A 2T0

email us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

Happy New Year

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Health, Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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moon over fourth line farmhouseBest wishes to all for a Happy New Year in 2014.

This past year has been an incredible demonstration of the sense of community people feel in the North Gower-Richmond-Kars area of the City of Ottawa, and the commitment to action to protect that community, and the health, safety and stability of the people who live in it.

A lot of work has been done to protect our community from industrialization by a huge, expensive and unnecessary wind power generation project that would be inappropriately located too close to over 1,000 homes and our school–yet more challenges await.

Thanks to everyone –more than 1250 people–who participated in our amazing petition drive, including the more than 30 volunteers who went door to door for weeks; what an achievement!!!

If you are not already on our email list to receive bulletins, please email ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

Donations for expenses such as post box, meeting room space, mailings, etc. are most gratefully received.

Ottawa Wind Concerns

 

Denmark: not a happy place for wind power

30 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by in Health, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Here is a documentary from Denmark on the problems with wind power. The country has 5,000+ turbines already, and complaints of sleep deprivation and ill health are mounting.

Note that in this video a doctor says the association is clear but there is not much to be done about it as the people who have the money to do the research (i.e., the wind power biz) don’t have the inclination, and a wind turbine neighbour asks, WHY is the onus on ME to prove that I’m sick? Shouldn’t the wind power companies have to prove that their machines are safe?

Interesting to watch this, a week after the Dufferin Envirnmental Review Tribunal decision in which the conclusion once again is that there is no causal link between noise from turbines and health effects.

The video is here.

 

MPP MacLeod asks, where is Energy Minister Chiarelli?

27 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by in Health, Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Open Letter
 

Honourable Bob Chiarelli

Minister of Energy

 

Dear Minister,

 

I am writing you for the third time in seven days regarding two matters of substantial concern to Hydro users in Ontario. Your absence in the last week has been noticeable and makes me question your commitment and desire to carry out your duties and mandate.

 

First, as you are aware in our Eastern Ontario region, Hydro One has initiated improper billing procedures and has threatened to cut of power during the winter for families who are unable to meet Hydro One’s unreasonable demands.  Last Friday, December 20th I requested a directive from you to Hydro One to be issued no later than Monday, December 23rd to correct Hydro One’s incompetent and dishonest billing system, however rural Eastern Ontarians are still waiting for you to display leadership.  No corrective measures have been taken.

 

Secondly and more pressing are the tens of thousands of people without power in Toronto, the GTA and throughout rural Southwestern Ontario.   As hydro crews make steady progress I remain concerned that you have still not contacted Opposition MPPs whose communities are impacted by power outages. As you know, it is very important for the Government to communicate with MPPS, even from other political parties, because their constituents turn to them for information and reassurance on the Government’s resolve to return power to their homes. Many Ontarians have gone without power for almost a week, unfortunately, I have been informed by my Progressive Conservative colleagues in affected areas that neither you, nor the Premier’s office or Hydro One have initiated communication with them. This is a basic failure of communication and one that I asked you to rectify in my Tuesday, December 24th follow up letter to you.  

 

Minister, as I am sure you can appreciate, maintaining power and restoring power is absolutely crucial to Ontarians during the winter.   It is -10 today.   I request your immediate action and an end to your week long silence in these two most pressing energy related matters.

Lisa MacLeod, MPP
Nepean-Carleton
Ontario PC Energy Critic