Category Archives: Ottawa

20-25 MORE wind turbines for Brinston area south of Ottawa

20 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Cornwall Newswatch May 20, 2015

Invenergy wants 20-25 windmills west of Brinston

Posted on May 20, 2015 by in News, North Dundas, South Dundas // 1 Comment

James Murphy, left, and Ryan Ralph, senior manager of business development for Invenergy, make their presentation to South Dundas council May 19, 2015 for a proposed wind farm west of Brinston. The 20-25 windmill site would be west of the existing EDP Renewables’ South Branch Wind Farm. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)

SOUTH DUNDAS – Another company is looking to cash in on wind energy in the Municipality of South Dundas.

Representatives from Chicago-based Invenergy made a presentation to South Dundas council Tuesday night – a presentation very similar to EDP Renewables’ last month.

Spokesman James Murphy told council they’ve already secured land leases with 30 landowners for a total of 11,000 acres in South Dundas.

The company says it has paid out $500,000 to date for the leases.

“We get asked a lot, well, how big is the project? Is it big, is it small? In general, we think it’s going to be around 50-90 megawatts, using a similar unit on the South Branch (Wind Farm) project….somewhere between 20-25 positions (windmills) on that 11,000 acres,” Murphy told council.

The wind farm would be west of Brinston and south of Irish Headline Road.

Answering a question from Deputy Mayor Jim Locke on where the exact locations of the windmills would be, Murphy said that wouldn’t come until late 2016 if they were successful in their bid this year.

Murphy says they also have a smaller land footprint in North Dundas but, when they asked to make a deputation to the council there, they were refused. North Dundas is also a non-willing host. Instead, a public meeting is being held at a nearby community center.

Murphy also stressed there would be public meetings on the proposed project this summer, which has to be submitted to the government by September.

Much like EDP Renewables, Invenergy would have a community reinvestment fund.

Invenergy and EDP Renewables are both trying to woo support from council is order to score better on a points system for the request for proposal (RFP) process, despite the fact South Dundas committed to being a non-willing host in October 2013.

South Dundas listened but made no commitments Tuesday night.

The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) is expected to outline the capacity for wind power on the hydro grid in two days (May 22) and, at that point, both companies will have a better idea how big their wind farms will be.

 

Public meeting in Finch on Wednesday

03 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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The power developer who bought the 30-MW South Branch project in South Dundas from German developer Prowind, EDP Renewables, is now proposing to expand into Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, and apply for a Feed In Tariff contract. Spokesman Ken Little told South Dundas council the company was planning 30-50 turbines.

Ontario is currently offering contracts for 300 MW of new wind power in 2015, despite a situation of surplus power in Ontario, and the fact that Ontario lost more than $425 million in the first quarter of 2015, exporting surplus power cheap.

A public meeting will be held in Finch this coming Wednesday at the community centre/arena at 7 PM. The goal is to have a panel present various viewpoints on wind power.

Guest speakers will be Tom Levy of CanWEA, Jane Wilson of Ottawa Wind Concerns /Wind Concerns Ontario, and Don McCabe of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

EDP’s Brinston project is about 40 minutes south of Ottawa.

ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

$70-million charge on Brinston farm titles for wind farm

28 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Construction of one of the 3-MW turbines at Brinston--30-50 more proposed by EDP Renewables

Construction of one of the 3-MW turbines at Brinston, now operating–30-50 more proposed by EDP Renewables

Ottawa Wind Concerns has learned that a “Charge of Lease” has been placed on the South Branch wind “farm” in the amount of $70 million. The charge is on the leasehold interest in five properties, where property owners have leased land for wind turbines, access roads, substations, and other parts of the wind power generation project.

Earlier this month, details came to light on the 140-turbine K-2 project near Goderich, Ontario, where a charge of lease has been filed on the title for 100 farm properties, in the amount of $1 billion.

The Charge of Lease is basically a financing agreement between a lender (who may represent investors in the wind power project) and the wind power developer, that can function as a line of credit. The basis for the Charge, as we understand it, is that the present value of the contract for the turbines, i.e., the Feed In Tariff contract for power with the Province of Ontario is greater than the present value of the lease agreements with the landowners; the difference between those two values is the security for the loan.

The South Branch contract with the Ontario government runs for 20 years and is worth millions to the developer, who bought the project from Germany-based Prowind.

The importance of the existence of these agreements is the effect they have for the landowner leasing land for the wind turbines. In the opinion of a lawyer advising us (who prefers the term “Demand Debenture” for this arrangement:

It’s not so much that the farmer lessors might on default lose their land (the land itself is not mortgaged, just the turbine contract on that land) but the damage it does to that farmer if he/she wants to sell or to renew an existing mortgage, or place a new one or in any way borrow money for which the lender would want security on his/her land.

Assume a binding Agreement of Purchase and Sale. The lawyer for the purchaser does a title search and discovers the Demand Debenture. The lawyer would immediately tell his/her client that the client is entitled to get out of the deal unless the registration of the Demand Debenture is removed from title, and would also insist to the farmer’s lawyer that this be done otherwise the deal cannot close. A purchaser is not expected to assume any risk of this nature nor to be in the position of “buying a law suit”.

in the case of renewing an existing mortgage or placing a new one, the lawyer for the Bank or other lending institution would take the same position – no renewal or new mortgage unless the customer sees to it that the Demand Debenture disappears from title. Period. End of story.

This is another example of the very serious questions that need to be asked by anyone considering leasing their land for a wind power generation project. There are many serious and long-lasting effects to signing these agreements that need to be properly understood.

In 2013, the Not A Willing Host group of municipalities met in Ottawa at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario convention. At that meeting, one Ontario mayor said, What people need to understand is that basically, they sold their property for the amount of the lease agreement.

** Please see also, the article from the May 5th edition of Ontario Farmer on the charge of lease issue, here.

Massive wind farm proposed south of Ottawa

24 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Cornwall NewsWatch, April 21, 2015

Next South Dundas wind farm could be four-fold of South Branch: EDP

Posted on April 23, 2015 by in News, South Dundas // 0 Comments

EDP Renewables Project Manager Ken Little, left, and Deputy Project Director Thomas LoTurco make a presentation to South Dundas council April 21, 2015. The company responsible for the South Branch Wind Farm is planning on building another farm east and north of Brinston, Ont. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)

MORRISBURG – The next wind farm in South Dundas could be up to four times the size of the South Branch Wind Farm, township officials heard Tuesday night.

EDP Renewables made a presentation to council to update the municipality on its next steps to build another wind farm in the county and ask for its support for the project through a “community support resolution.”

While no decisions were made Tuesday night, it’s unlikely that South Dundas will put pen to paper to back the wind farm as it signed a resolution in the fall of 2013 to tell the Ontario government is was a non-willing participant in wind energy.

EDP already has a 10 turbine, 30 megawatt operation – the South Branch Wind Farm – near Brinston.

Spokesman Ken Little says they will have a better idea how big the project will be when the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) publishes the grid connection availability, expected on May 22, 2015.

But, based on EDP calculations, they are assuming the capacity will be 50-100 megawatts, which could be serviced by 40 windmills.

Unlike the South Branch Wind Farm, this next farm is part of a competitive bid process and not under the Ontario government’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) program.

It would be east of the South Branch Wind Farm and would stretch in a northeasterly direction toward Winchester Springs.

Little says it’s likely the area would also be eligible for a community investment fund, similar to the one in Brinston, of $1,000 per megawatt per year for 20 years.

He also alluded to jobs, saying the operations are supported right now out of their New York office. “If we were to have another project in the area we would be talking about our own fully-dedicated operational staff full-time for those projects as well.”

“We’re going to start our public open houses in late May,” Little told council Tuesday night. “These will be general in format just to discuss the project and folks to ask questions.” Dates haven’t been set but they will mostly like be held at Matilda Hall or the Dixons Corners Municipal Center.

Little says there’s going to be a bigger demand for wind power in the years ahead. “With the Ontario energy surplus, it’s always a hot topic for discussion, it’s something where were closely getting to a window where that surplus will no longer be a surplus,” he said. The Pickering nuclear plant will be shut down in 2020 and 10 Bruce and Darlington nuclear plants, will be cycled off for rebuilds between 2017-2028, he explained.

For the green energy skeptics and the curious, EDP officials say the existing operation in Brinston is open for tours from the public at any time.

EDITOR’S NOTE: EDP is referring to the issue of surplus power in Ontario because that is the fact that the South Dundas unwilling host motion hinges on. The truth is, wind power–produced out-of-phase with demand, intermittent and unreliable–cannot replace the nuclear plants during their period of refurbishment. That would more likely be achieved by the natural gas plant at Lennox, and hydro.

An information evening will be held May 6th in Finch at the Lions Arena, at 7 PM.

Citizens’ group: Radiation Emissions Act in force for wind farms

16 Thursday Apr 2015

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

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Here is a statement from a citizens’ group, Canadians for Radiation Emissions Enforcement (CFREE), which posits that wind turbines’ acoustic emissions are covered under federal law, the Radiation Emitting Devices Act.

The group has responded to the recently released report on wind turbine noise and health by the Council of Canadian Academies. Their full statement is available on CFREE’s weblog, available here.

An excerpt follows:

It is prescribed in the REDA [Radiation Emitting Devices Act]that if an importer or operator of a device such as a wind turbine is made aware of risk of personal injury or  impairment of health they must “forthwith notify the Minister” [of Health for Canada]. CFREE asks why wind developers did not follow this law seven years ago when people first reported problems to them about the impacts of the noise emitted from turbines operating in their vicinity.

“If developers had complied with the law and reported the complaints to Health Canada, investigations would have been carried out back then before the Green Energy Act. This could have advanced the understanding a long time ago and avoided risk of harm to those living close to these facilities” said Joan Morris, an epidemiologist and Chair of CFREE.

No good reason for wind turbinesHydro One, electricity bills, wind power, wind turbines, cost of renewable, Ontario electricity bills, : says letter writer

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Provincial government, Hydro One both to blame for the mess

West Carleton Review

To the Editor:

Your April 9 edition of the West Carleton Review contained a number of articles and letters to the editor regarding our sad state of affairs with regard to Hydro in Ontario.

Hydro in the last century has become one of our essential services, and as the ice storm of 1998 demonstrated, our lives revolve around electricity to power everything in our homes and even the gas stations that fuel our vehicles.

However, in Ontario the distribution, sale and production of hydro is treated as a political spectator sport with boondoggles, lies, smart meter errors, overpaid employees and corruption being the order of the day.

Even the Auditor-General (AG) has taken this government to task regarding hydro, but the Minister, Bob Chiarelli, tries to shame the AG by stating that it is a complicated file and she doesn’t have the knowledge required to ascertain the problems at hydro, let alone recommendations on how to fix them, a fact that was quickly debunked when we found out that the AG used to work for Manitoba Hydro.

I feel it is the minister that is “out of his league” on this file.

And now the same minister and government want to implement a low-income plan to help pay for the most expensive electricity in North America by further increasing the cost of electricity to the millions who will not qualify for this subsidy since the bar has been set so low as to be mostly ineffective and unavailable to most customers of hydro. This certainly appears to be nothing else but a PR exercise on the part of the government.

There is no good reason why we should have installed so many wind turbines or solar farms, both of which need an alternative back-up source of electrical power, since both wind and sun are unreliable sources of continuous energy available on demand.

The fact that there is no available mechanism to store surplus electrical power produced by wind or solar, Hydro One sells it on the open market at a substantial loss. Unfortunately, the current government has tied their hands for quite a few more years with multi-billion dollar contracts to foreign companies to supply either the turbines or the solar panels.

In my estimation, the only solution to the mess created by this government is to buy power from reliable and affordable sources of electricity producing jurisdictions, such as Quebec Hydro or Manitoba Hydro.

Hydro One cannot be trusted to produce the required amount of affordable power required and this government, regretably, has created most of the current (no pun intended) mess it finds itself in on the hydro file.

Richard Gaudet

Kinburn

Federal law and protecton from wind turbine noise

30 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Appearing on Goldhawk Fights back on Zoomer Radio at 11;30 AM today will be epidemiology exert Joan Morris and wind farm appellant Shawn Drennan, to speak on whether federal legislation for radiation emissions covers the noise and infrasound emissions from utility-scale wind turbines.

Listen at AM740 in southern Ontario, or online Listen Live at ZoomerRadio.ca

New wind power contracting process released

13 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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The long-awaited resource documents for the new Request for Proposal (RFP) process for Large Renewable Procurement (LRP) were released this week.

Wind Concerns Ontario is again undertaking a review of the documents (the basic LRP/RFP is 100 pages long) but the following are changes from draft documents released last fall:

  • the number of required public meetings is now one, not two (this was a request from the wind power industry)
  • the requirement for consent from abutting landowners has been dropped to 75% from 100%

The point system for community engagement is also now known. The points  for Rated Criteria are 80 points for community engagement and 20 for aboriginal interest.  There are two levels of possible support from the Project Community – a Municipal support resolution or a Municipal Agreement. If there is an agreement but no support resolution, the proponent could get 40 of the 80 points.  Failing that,  they could claim 30 points if they have support from 75% of the landowners for abutting properties to the project and the connection line.

Deadline for submissions is September 1, then proposals will be evaluated and successful proponents notified November-December, 2015.

Ontario communities should know within the next few weeks whether a wind power developer plans to submit a proposal for a utility-scale wind power development.

The Government of Ontario has still never performed a cost-benefit analysis or impact study for large-scale wind power development, or of its renewable energy policy in general, despite the advice of two Auditors General to do so.

Eastern Ontario has a “green light” for renewable power generation projects. Already, EDP Renewables has announced plans to develop more turbines in South Dundas and North Stormont. The company that previously put a proposal forward to do a 20-megawatt wind power project in North Gower-Richmond did not qualify for the 2015 contracting process, but 41 companies did qualify. In a recent edition of the Ontario Farmer, a North Gower area farm owner said he though wind power was a waste of money but that if he were offered money he would put them on his property (though not where he lives).

Ottawa Wind Concerns remains active in monitoring any proposals that might come forward, and we continue to have a law firm on retainer.

ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

Follow us on Twitter @northgowerwind

Hydro One billing mess: not fixed after a year

10 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by in Ottawa, Uncategorized

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In today’s Ottawa Citizen is a story on a $25,000 bill sent by Hydro One to an Eastern Ontario family. This problem is not going away…

As if skyrocketing power rates, due in part to “renewables” like wind, wasn’t enough, billing system woes continue at Ontario’s power monopoly Hydro One, despite promises to fix the situation. Here is an update from Parker Gallant.

A year ago, on March 7, 2014, the Ontario government undertook what the Toronto Star referred to as a “shake up” following “an over-billing fiasco and a scathing Auditor General’s report.” The former referred to Hydro One’s mess after implementation of their new billing system, and the latter referred to “nepotism” along with high wages and benefits at OPG.  The government appointed Sandra Pupatello (runner-up to Kathleen Wynne in the Liberal leadership race) to right the wrongs as the new Chair of Hydro One.   She was quick off the mark stating, “We are going to fix it” (the billing problems).

It’s not fixed but hopefully, Ms. Pupatello is enjoying her $150K stipend for acting as the Chair of Hydro One while retaining her position as Chief Executive of the Windsor Essex Economic Development Corporation which pays her about the same amount.

The same can be said for the spokespeople* at Hydro One who appear in several short videos on their website apologizing for the billing mess.  On the same page is a letter dated October 14, 2014 from Hydro One’s CEO, Carm Marcello addressed to the Ombudsman, Andre Marin.  In the letter he tells the Ombudsman he will shortly announce he is setting up a “Customer Service Advisory Panel” that consists of perhaps only one actual Hydro One customer, former Chief of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation,  Randall Kahgee!  Marcello also informs the auditor he plans to issue a draft “Customer Commitment” document!

Eighteen months after complaints started and eight months after the Ombudsman announced he was investigating Hydro One’s billing mess, the CEO suddenly became enlightened!  The CEO of Hydro One, the provincially owned monopoly electricity distributor to 1.2 million ratepayers, with a 134-page Conditions of Service agreement, suddenly noticed they had tens of thousands of billing problems!

If you venture into their “frequently asked questions” (FAQ) page about the Ombudsman’s investigation they state: “approximately 3 per cent of our customers have received estimated bills for too long and about another 2 per cent have gone for more than 90 days without receiving a bill.”

If one does quick math on the 3% plus the 2% you will quickly surmise 5% of Hydro One’s customers have billing problems.  Five per cent (5 %) of 1.2 million ratepayers represents sixty thousand (60,000) ratepayers.  While there is no admission of screw-ups in the videos or in Marcelo’s letter; reading the answers to the FAQ sure makes one suspicious Hydro One is trying to hide something!

Here are a few examples. I invite the reader to judge Hydro One’s ability to obfuscate.

1.What are the Hydro One billing issues I’ve been hearing about?  The move to the new system was required to improve customer service while replacing outdated and unsupportable technology.

2.What is Hydro One doing to fix this issue?  We are manually reading over 11,000 two-tiered meters to correct bills that have been estimated.

3.Why do I keep receiving an estimated bill when I have a Smart Meter?  The reason you have an estimated bill is that the meter is not communicating properly with our network.

4.Why is my bill so high? Unfortunately some customers have experienced inaccurate estimates. (So why does the answer to Q. 6 state:  “billing issues you may have heard about in the media are not related to meter accuracy.”)

5.Will I get a bill for an actual reading soon? Right now Hydro One is manually reading over 11,000 two-tiered meters for customers who have been billed on estimates. If your meter is part of this program, you should receive an actual bill soon.  (So, 60,000 bills messed up and only 11,000 meters being read!)   

6. Is the accuracy of Hydro One’s meters causing the billing issues?  Secondary tests are completed by Hydro One as they arrive from the manufacturer and then again we have sample testing of meters once they are ‘in service’.

7.Why has my meter been changed twice?  There have been some cases where the meter is not communicating properly with our network.

8.I use baseboard heating in my home. What can I do to conserve energy?  For homes that are heated with electricity, those heating costs make up to 60 per cent of your bill.

None of the answers admit to the screw-up with the new Customer Information System (CIS), nor to the purchase of “uncommunicative” smart meters. There is also no indication that any employee lost their job because of  these mishaps!

A full year has gone by, and the billing mishaps continue despite the promise by Ms. Pupatello to “fix it.”  The energy portfolio continues to be mismanaged without any consequences.   If an error of this magnitude occurred at a privately owned company, shareholders would demand action— but that’s not how things work at the provincially owned monopoly that is Hydro One!

© Parker Gallant, March10

* Average annual salary of the four Hydro One spokespeople on the letter and videos from the 2013 “Sunshine List” is $315,323. Lowest is $151,405 and highest is $724,917.  Hydro bills to these four are like buying a cup of “Timmies” coffee!

Editor’s note: The billing mess continues, as Parker says. In today’s Ottawa Citizen is a story of a couple who were billed $25,000 in error. A Hydro One “customer care specialist” is reviewing their account. The Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario has received 9,800 complaints about Hydro One, the Citizen reports, the most complaints ever received about a single organization.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent Wind Concerns Ontario policy.