That means the price of off-peak power has rocketed up per cent over a decade, mid-peak power has shot up 76 per cent and on-peak is up 71 per cent. Data last updated by the Canadian Electricity Association on Jan. Capacity scale applies only to main map. By far, the largest source of electricity in Ontario is nuclear, accounting for about 60 per cent of the electricity produced in The province has three nuclear plants: The second-largest source is hydroelectricity, which accounted for 24 per cent of generation in , followed by natural-gas plants 10 per cent and wind power 6 per cent.
Generally speaking, the power supply can be divided between "baseload" and "peaking" power. The baseload generation is typically running all the time to provide a steady supply that the province always needs. This difference is what accounts for the gap between installed capacity and actual production. For example, nuclear power which is part of the baseload accounts for just 36 per cent of the province's installed capacity i. Ontario's electricity system is a tangle of public, private and semi-private companies.
Roughly speaking, you can break it into three major components: Generation includes more than power plants ranging from the massive Bruce Nuclear Generating Station — an eight-reactor station that pumps out almost a third of the province's power supply — to tiny solar operations consisting of a few panels. Some generation is handled by government-owned Ontario Power Generation, which runs the Darlington and Pickering nuclear power plants and a slew of hydroelectric facilities.
Other generation is done by private companies, including most of the province's gas plants and wind farms. Transmission is primarily handled by Hydro One, a government company that is in the process of being privatized. Hydro One's job is to take the power from the various plants and get it to where it's needed. In some places, Hydro One handles distribution itself.
For much of the 20th century, most of the province's electricity generation and transmission were overseen by a single government agency with the snappy name of Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario better known by its s rebranding as Ontario Hydro. In , the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris broke Ontario Hydro into Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One and various other agencies as part of a plan to privatize most of the system.
The Tories eventually abandoned their privatization plan, but the new structure remained. When the Ontario Liberal Party came to power in , the province's electricity grid was aging and creaky, and Ontario had to import power to meet its needs. The province was also haunted by the memory of Ontario Hydro's disastrously overbudget nuclear construction projects in the s and 90s. But, wary of the previous cost overruns at Ontario Hydro, the government decided to outsource the work of building and running the new power plants to the private sector.
The private sector would be responsible for cost overruns and other construction problems in exchange for year contracts from the province.
The first major wave of private power plants was fuelled with natural gas. Later plants were tied to the Green Energy Act, which provided lucrative terms for wind and solar plants in a bid to build a renewable-power industry in the province. The cost of all this is passed on to ratepayers in the form of higher electricity bills. Ultimately, the province built more plants than it actually needed. In , according to the Auditor-General, Ontario had the capacity to produce 30, megawatts of power — but only needed 15, on an average day.
In some cases, the province also made the situation worse with political meddling. Ahead of the election, for instance, then-premier Dalton McGuinty cancelled two unpopular natural-gas plants in Liberal-held ridings in Toronto suburbs and gave the companies new contracts to build plants in other locations — farther from the areas that would need the electricity. And Ontarians are still paying for the nuclear plants Ontario Hydro built in the eighties and nineties.
Some of this cost was unavoidable: The province has to pay for fixed contracts that guarantee Ontarians have access to a steady supply of power. Opponents of privatization argue that it will ultimately drive up prices because a private company, eager to satisfy shareholders, will be more aggressive than a government agency when it comes to pressuring the Ontario Energy Board into granting rate increases. For example, they argue, a privatized Hydro One could be tempted to defer major infrastructure repairs replacing aging transmission lines, for instance in a bid to wring more money out of the company for shareholders, then offer to make the repairs in exchange for a rate increase.
A government-owned agency would have a much harder time doing this because of the political backlash from angry consumers. In the short term, however, the privatization has become a political problem for the Liberals. Under the government's current projections, electricity prices will keep going up for the foreseeable future. The province is in the middle of preparing the next Long-Term Energy Plan, which will contain an updated projection. There are a few reasons besides inflation electricity prices won't likely be coming down any time soon.
For one, there are all those long-term contracts; year deals with private power companies add costs to the system.
Residential Charges and Rates - Waterloo North Hydro
What's more, the province's nuclear plants are being refurbished over the next 15 years, which will add long-term costs as well. Based on kWh of monthly usage. Excludes any applicable taxes. The province's two Canadian neighbours — Quebec and Manitoba — enjoy electricity prices that are about half what Ontario pays.
Both Quebec and Manitoba have abundant hydroelectric power, which allows them to generate more than 98 per cent of their electricity from water compared with 24 per cent in Ontario. Other provinces also generally have cheaper electricity than Ontario for a variety of reasons.
For one, no other province has ever undertaken a nuclear build on the scale Ontario has New Brunswick is the only other province that uses nuclear power; Quebec once had a single, relatively small nuclear plant, which shut down in Internationally, however, Ontario's price situation looks a lot better. Electricity in New York is more expensive, despite a fairly similar supply mix — the state uses nuclear power, though somewhat less of it; natural gas, though somewhat more of it; and continues to burn coal. In the past four years, Ms. The most significant was a decision in to stop building more nuclear reactors.
Wynne went for the quicker fix of slashing bills by 8 per cent with a taxpayer subsidy.
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But the subsidy is controversial. There is relatively little the government can do to lower rates through more lasting, structural means, mostly because the Liberals have tied up so much of the system in year contracts. Other possible solutions face problems of their own. Random telephone survey of Ontarians, conducted Nov. Electricity prices seem to have reached a tipping point in the public's consciousness over the past couple of years. A poll last month by Nanos Research showed that, astonishingly, more voters named electricity as their top issue, unprompted, than any other public-policy concern — beating out perennial favourites health care, jobs and taxes.
1. Contact Your Current Utility
The governing Liberals have trailed the opposition PCs in the polls for two years, and Ms. Wynne's approval rating has sunk to record lows as far down as 13 per cent, according to one Forum poll. Follow Adrian Morrow on Twitter: This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way. This is another way to avoid this fee. I encourage everyone to call Hydro One and complain because having to work almost 5 hours at minimum wage After deductions and taxes to put a bill in your name is theft in my opinion.
Do not let them get away with this. You should only be paying a tiny amount in taxes and your ei and CPP amounts would also be fractional.
Charges & fees for connections
It's an approved rate, and all LDCs have it. There is a cost associated with opening up a new account, and they're trying to recover that cost. BTW, you do agree to the charge when you open up the account. It's part of their terms of service. Good for you on getting it waived, but you're definitely the exception and not the rule.
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I can count on one hand the number of times I waived that fee when I was on the phones. I pay for goods and services, opening me an account isn't a good or a service. You can choose to open an account with them or not. If you do, then you agree to their TOS, one of which is a fee to open the account. There's no competition for distribution in the province.
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It's a perfect example of a natural monopoly. You do have a choice though You do have to pay it. It is an approved part of their rate structure. Since they operate on a cost recovery model. That fee would need to be built into their delivery charge if it wasn't charged to new accounts. What you were probably charged was a security deposit. There are ways to have it reduced or waived completely, you just have to ask. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy.