Ontario adds $100 million a year to electricity supply costs

The IESO has announced the contracting of more variable intermittent electricity.

• 5 wind contracts totalling 299.5 MW, with a weighted average price of $85.94/MW…

• 7 solar contracts totalling 139.885 MW, with a weighted average price of $156.67/MWh…

I am working on a post for my main blog that evaluates the value, and cost, of Ontario’s move off of coal, as well as it’s Green Energy Act facilitated mass contracting of industrial wind turbines and solar panels. From the template I’ve done for that post, I evaluated the implied carbon costs of this latest procurement.

$446 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent is the implied carbon cost calculated in my simple estimate.

I’d wonder if the IESO has a figure they calculated while determining the value of the procured supply, and not simply the cost – but from the contracts awarded it’s highly unlikely value was considered.

Another 110 megawatts (MW) of wind in Chatham-Kent is quite simply stupid. This area is showing, in my tracking, rapid increases in the amount of curtailed supply already over the past 4 months – and there is more slated to enter service. Belle River and North Kent 1 are both 100 MW wind projects, and a 50 MW solar installation is coming to Windsor.

There is no reason for more power in that region of the province.

The 44 MW of Nanticoke is notable too – due to the connections of the proponents (OPG and SunEdison) noted by Tom Adams.

The head of the IESO should resign, and a professional engineer – not a lawyer and lifelong bureaucrat- sought who is capable of understanding what value is, and leading an organization in providing it.